On
US
Loose Nukes,
CTBTO Says
Watch For
Proliferation,
Galapagos
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 28 --
When Lassina
Zerbo of the
Preparatory
Commission
for the
Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty
Organization
gave a
press
conference at
the UN on
April 28, he
said he had
just been in
Ecuador
reaching an
agreement for
a CTBTO
monitoring
station on the
Galapagos
Islands.
Inner
City Press
asked Zerbo to
say more about
the CTBTO
press
release's
statement
that this
monitoring
"can also
contribute to
research
of the
atmosphere,
storm systems
and climate
change." Zerbo
cited
volcanoes and
"hydro-acoustic"
monitoring.
Afterward,
the
CTBTO sent
Inner City
Press and the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
more information
about climate
change,
including this
same
hydro-acoustic
monitor of
calving of
icebergs.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Zerbo about a
report by CBS'
"60 Minutes"
the night
before,
showing
decaying US
missiles and
specifying how
nuclear
weapons were
loaded on a
plane by
mistake and
left on a
tarmac,
unguarded, for
36 hours.
Zerbo
to his credit
didn't dodge
the question,
instead saying
that beyond
stopping
proliferation
there should
be efforts to
protect
nuclear
material from
the
possibility of
proliferation.
Presumably
that means
nukes
shouldn't be
left on the
tarmac.
Strangely,
while
the first
question was
automatically
given by Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq to
Pamela Falk of
CBS, she did
not ask
about the
nuclear report
critical of
the US by CBS'
60 Minutes.
Instead she
asked, as she
had at noon,
about North
Korea, on the
eve
of a press
event which
she had tried
to limit
only to
members of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
and only those
that she
personally
approved.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
successfully
pushed back at
that,
particularly
because some UNCA
Executive
Board members
have been
involved
in censorship,
and will
continue to.
And it will
continue to
put questions
to the
CTBTO. Watch
this site.
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