Donald Rumsfeld and General Lance Lord named in Lawsuit

11 March, 2004

From: Bill Sulzman


On March 11 Citizens for Peace in Space and eleven named individuals filed a complaint in Federal District Court in Denver seeking a Restraining Order "enjoining" Donald Rumsfeld and General Lance Lord, Commander of the Air Force Space Command:
 

"from continuing work on the planning, development or use of existing or new nuclear armed ICBMs at Peterson AFB under the direction of the Air Force Space Command, a subdivision of the United States Department of defense located in Colorado Springs, Colorado."

See State of Wisconsin v. Weinberger, 578 F. Supp. 1327 (1984), Deraler v. Thornbourgh, 967 F. 2d 798 (C.A. 2, N.Y., 1992).

 
The filing was accompanied by 8 exhibits documenting the arguments made.  The case has been assigned to Judge Zita Weinshank and Magistrate Schlatter who have handled several criminal cases involving nuclear weapons.  It is hoped that the case can at least get a hearing on the merits in the federal system.  Several new and unique developments were cited in the argument including president Bush's argument for war in Iraq as repeated in his Meet the Press interview with Tim Russert:  "I believe it is essential that when we see a threat, we deal with those threats before they become imminent.  It's too late if they become imminent.  It's too late in this new kind of war..."
    
Another area that is explored is the push for a follow on to Minuteman III Missiles, the so called Minuteman IV. The argument for this new nuclear weapons system is that it would be good for the period 2020 - 2040, making a mockery of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

We will keep you appraised of future developments.


Bill Sulzman
P.O. Box 915
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
Ph 719 389 0644

 



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