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<div dir="ltr">More money to weapons manufactures.</div></div><div id="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yahoo_quoted_0597725534" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yahoo_quoted"><div style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yahoo-style-wrap"><div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#26282a;border-left:1px solid #ccc;padding-left:8px;margin:0px 0px 0px 8px;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178inline_reply_quote_container"><div><div id="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br></div><div id="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493yqtfd66552" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493yqt3302421130"><span id="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493docs-internal-guid-cd6b779d-7fff-4bad-1917-3b1c1c7b8f99" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><br clear="none" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Monday, February 17, 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">A New U.S. ICBM Test Launch Draws Opposition</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">For further information, contact: <a shape="rect" href="mailto:info@defusenuclearwar.org" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">info@defusenuclearwar.org</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">The U.S. Ai</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="border:medium;display:inline-block;width:287px;min-height:107px;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><img style="margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px;width:287px;max-width:745px;" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeZfquqsSgpH4S4juqcPwSRD_PcHOcfslcWuVQwMKavTZSvo9OD3nOw30VtaJO8V0Z8K9v5MmkMe4yadOQl8ZeDxJxQgfQ16k8TUzfwfuaXFEop2N-9mxlxqlSoHvNB6nc3aqJ3Mg?key=AMzhEtnMOLutvHA_IrovA5n6" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" data-inlineimagemanipulating="true"></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">r Force has announced it will test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) between 11 p.m. PT on February 18 and 5 a.m. PT February 19. During such tests, which occur several times a year, the missiles are launched from the Vandenberg base near Lompoc, Calif., and aimed at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Activists with the </span><a shape="rect" style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://defusenuclearwar.org/eliminate-icbms/" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(17, 85, 204);font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">Defuse Nuclear War</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"> coalition will gather near Vandenberg Space Force Base to witness and protest the test.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">The protesters have issued the following statement:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">These launches are wasteful and dangerous. Rather than promoting peace, they further normalize ICBMs as a permanent feature of global politics, rather than a tremendous political and security liability. We ask that the upcoming ICBM test, and all future scheduled tests, be canceled.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">ICBMs have been sold to the public as the ultimate insurance policy, when in fact they are an immediate threat to public safety. In the words of the late Daniel Ellsberg, author of </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">The Doomsday Machine</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">, these weapons increase “the danger that any armed conflict between major nuclear states can escalate to all-out war.” Once launched, an ICBM cannot be recalled, virtually guaranteeing a strike on the country that launches them and placing impossible pressure on decision makers to verify that reports of incoming ICBM attacks are accurate. As long as ICBMs exist, we live with the constant risk that misinterpreted intelligence, human error, or a single rash decision could end civilization as we know it within an hour.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">Maintaining these weapons is a huge waste of resources. The U.S. has committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars to replace its ICBM force under the mandate of modernization. The ICBM </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">program is now at least </span><a shape="rect" style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/T983c0a61-73d9-4a54-9bfd-7e6d9bbebf97/3bfc116e-93d5-4227-bde3-a4eb526716a9" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(4, 159, 148);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">81% over budget and years behind schedule</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">, with parts of the program now </span><a shape="rect" style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2025/02/air-force-halted-work-parts-new-icbm-program/402897/https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2025/02/air-force-halted-work-parts-new-icbm-program/402897/" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(17, 85, 204);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">paused</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"> entirely. Yet the U.S. Secretary of Defense has </span><a shape="rect" style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/T21eb6393-5d2f-467a-83c0-27e4456c52b2/3bfc116e-93d5-4227-bde3-a4eb526716a9" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(4, 159, 148);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">certified</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">, through a “comprehensive, unbiased review” not shared with the public, that the program will proceed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">Test launches damage human communities and ecosystems. The Marshall Islands, already forced to bear the overwhelming environmental costs of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, are still used as a target test area.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(34, 34, 34);vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"> And, w</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">hen tensions among nuclear-armed states are high, each test launch carries an added risk of misinterpretation. The U.S. military has acknowledged as much by pausing these launches at high points of tension during the war in Ukraine. Yet the risk of nuclear escalation remains too high to introduce the possibility of misinterpretation of a test into the mix.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:6pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">President Trump has stated his interest in pursuing arms control with China and Russia. Halting tests explicitly designed to demonstrate the United States’ ability to attack these countries with nuclear weapons, and ending a troubled weapons program that experts agree destabilizes these relationships, would be real, practical steps to facilitate that goal.</span></p><br clear="none" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">Organizers MacGregor Eddy and Leah Yantanon are available for interviews and comments. They can be contacted at </span><a shape="rect" style="text-decoration:none;" href="mailto:info@defusenuclearwar.org" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:rgb(17, 85, 204);font-style:italic;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">info@defusenuclearwar.org</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;" class="ydpa69558e3yiv0579845436ydp91839178yiv5673278493">.</span></div></div></div>
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