02x02 - Food Kills

[bunniefuu]

I've literally had arguments
with people from my generation

who say, you know, the number
one threat facing humanity

is the climate crisis.

Listen, it's terrifying and
it's a massive problem.

But the problem that
exists today, in this hour

as the minutes pass,
is nuclear weapons.

[Sirens]

We don't see it in
the headlines, but the

threat of nuclear Armageddon
has never been greater.

And we just assume that
everything's okay.

Everything is not okay.

[narrator] While our leaders
tell us we need atomic weapons

to deter a nuclear attack,
the truth is,

they have already
used them against us.

It was mass destruction
of our world.

[Thunderous
booming]

And today, new nuclear weapons
are still being built,

enriching an elite few.

It's not strategy,
it's not logic.

It's money and politics.

Making the world more
dangerous by the minute.

It would take about an hour to
destroy everything humanity

has built up over
the millennia.

[Bang]!

[Cheering]

For over 70 years, our leaders
have told us one thing

under the bright lights...

The protection of the lives
and property of Americans

is the responsibility of
all public officials.

I care, we're trying.

We have it so well
under control.

Help is here and we will not
stop working for you.

But for decades, America's
shadow government and its

powerful friends have spent
trillions of dollars on an

agenda that serves their
interests, not ours.

You guys paid for all this.

So, when the sh*t really
hits the fan,

we're on our own.

This is not science fiction.

This is reality in America
right now.

The truth is, the rich and
powerful will do

whatever it takes to save
themselves...

While The Rest of Us Die.

[Helicopter chuff &
people shouting]









[Roaring boom]

During the Cold w*r,

America's biggest
nuclear weapons test site

was less than 100 miles
downwind of Sin City.

It's a large desert area,

about 60 miles
north of Las Vegas.

In fact, in Las Vegas,
they were a tourist draw.

Welcome to the Desert Inn Hotel
in fabulous Las Vegas!

The one and only,
Jimmy Durante, in person!

I've got an
announcement to make.

In case of an atom b*mb attack,
everyone is to leave the room

and hide under the
slot machines.

They haven't been hit since
the joint has been open.

[Laughing]

You could go to the big
hotels in Vegas and get an

atomic c*ck and go and sit
on the roof of your hotel and

drink your c*ck
and watch...

science and technology, you
know, blossoming on the horizon.

The towering cloud of the
atomic age is a symbol of

strength, of defense,
of security for

freedom loving
people everywhere.

[Sirens]

[Thunderous boom]

The nuclear age began
in July 1945,

when the United States
successfully detonated the

world's first atomic b*mb.

It was an event that had a
profound effect on its creators.

The following month, the United
States dropped nuclear bombs

on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Whistling]

The Hiroshima b*mb k*lled
over 100,000 people.

[Boom]

Those bombings were also
technically nuclear tests.

The 20-kiloton b*mb dropped on
Nagasaki three days after

Hiroshima was a
different design.

It k*lled 74,000 more Japanese
and provided the Americans

more data on their new
weapon's capabilities.

They were only the second
and third nuclear weapons

that had ever been
built or detonated.

The bombings of Japan were
not simply acts of w*r.

They were also experiments,
conducted by the United States

to see what these
weapons would do.

In the aftermath of the
Second World w*r,

the United States became
locked in a global arms race

with the Soviet Union.

Spending trillions of
taxpayer dollars

on a vast nuclear arsenal.

In the 1950s,
we went nuclear nuts.

The arms race develops a
sick logic of its own,

where you feel that there's
some kind of advantage that you

can gain by having more nuclear
weapons than the other guy.

As a result, whereas we
started off the 50s with about


time John F. Kennedy

becomes president in 1960,
there were 20,000.

And we just kept racing
bigger, better, more everywhere.

This demand for new and
improved nukes

enriches a small
corporate elite.

An ultra-modern plant outside
Detroit plays host to

military representatives of
a dozen NATO nations.

Here in two million square feet
of floor space,

parallel assembly lines turn
out the Jupiter and

the Red Stone missiles.

America is truly keeping pace
in the m*ssile age.

[Boom]

But before a new nuclear weapon
was integrated into the

military arsenal,
it had to be tested.

The United States conducted
over a thousand nuclear tests,

more than all the other
countries of the world combined.

When they went to test
their weapons,

they're not gonna test them
next to the people

who they care about.

Ideally, they're gonna test
them out where, you know,

people they don't
care about are.

The first location
chosen for testing

was the Marshall Islands

an American protectorate in
the Central Pacific.

And here is Bikini,

nearly 4,000 miles from
the United States.

A tiny coral atoll destined for
atomic b*mb experiments.

These first pictures of the
little island show the 165 men,

women, and children, as they
prepare for the move

to another small island.

This is where the term bikini,
the swimsuit, comes from.

So, we have these
sort of legacies,

even in our vocabulary,
of this weird period of sort of

American nuclear culture
and enthusiasm.

In front of the palm thatched
community house,

an American naval officer,
through an interpreter,

discusses plans for
moving the people.

The people of Bikini are
a happy people,

and they chat gayly with the
Americans as they wait to leave.

Modern dentistry brings
only laughter.

The Marshall Islanders,
they were told that they were

gonna have to evacuate their
islands for a short time,

and then be brought back.

Instead, these bombs
eliminated their islands.

They vaporized their island.

They polluted the,
the fishing grounds.

[Boom]

But testing weapons so far from
the continental United States

was extremely expensive, so
the US government began

searching for alternative
sites closer to home.

The decision was made to start
testing nuclear weapons

in Nevada, and
that began in 1951.

Over the next 40 years, roughly
eight hundred underground tests

of nuclear weapons will be
conducted inside the US.

But it's the above ground tests
at the Nevada Test Site,

approximately 100 between


that will have the most
devastating and lasting impact.

Elaborate fake communities are
built to replicate the impact

of a nuclear b*mb hitting an
American town.

The impact on actual Americans
is not as elaborately planned.

And from the end of
World w*r Two until today,

the overwhelming majority
of people k*lled by

American atomic bombs...

will be Americans.



What the Atomic Energy
Commission knew at this point,

is that these tests
would release

massive amounts of radiation,
and that that radiation

would drift with the wind.

And so, the decision was
made to aim these tests.

And the way they did that was by
monitoring weather conditions

and meteorological conditions
and testing nuclear weapons

only when the wind was
blowing east.

So, away from Las Vegas and
densely populated California.

So, a deliberate engineering
took place.

The fact remains, this fallout
wasn't falling on empty land.

The Nevada test site is about


the south of us, probably even
less than that to the areas

where weapons testing
took place.

Ian Zabarte is a leading member
of Western bands of the

Shoshone Nation of Indians, and
an activist who's on a mission

to bring justice to his people
for the horrors that have

befallen them when America
declared their sacred land

ground zero.

So, this is the federally
recognized Duckwater

Shoshone Indian Reservation.

And there's about 360 tribal
members here.

I'm related to just about
everybody.

We're gonna talk to some
people that were here

during the period of
weapons testing.

These Shoshone elders
have never before

told their
stories on camera.

I slept in the house on a...

on a couch that was
in the living room.

And the living room
faced to the south.

And I can remember one morning
being woke before dawn...

[Bang]

Everything was just
bright and brilliant.

Whatever it was, it was almost
impossible to see,

it was so bright.

[Rattling]

And it was one of the
experiments.

We were alarmed when
we saw this great,

big dust coming from our
southern side.

And it was just a great big,
big rolling dust storm, like,

coming into Duckwater.

And my mom and dad
told us that fallout,

that's that atomic b*mb
they let off.

As I get older, I notice that
several of the family members

here in Duckwater have cancer.

And so, exposure to fallout...

you know, in any form,
the consequences

are basically,
parts of your body die.

And significant exposure means
more parts of it die,

eventually to the point where...

...the cells can't
reproduce themselves.

Or they reproduce in a way
that's mutated and that

leads to a cancer.

And in places with high
contamination there's a

legacy of cancer history that
never would have existed

in the absence of nuclear
weapons testing.

So, when I returned home...

permanently in 1983,
my family was dying.

I find my uncle is dying.

His throat is falling out
from cancer.

And my grandfather,
his skin fell off.

And then he died a month later
from the stress,

and they said it was...

a heart attack.

I look around here and I see
cascading effects as a result

of radiation exposure and
fallout among my family.

When the United States began
testing these weapons,

we didn't know what
was going on.

The radioactive fallout
beyond several miles from

the test site has not been
known to be serious.

We must remember that
radiation, it is part of nature.

The health of people in these
communities was seen as an

acceptable sacrifice by the
Atomic Energy Commission,

in order to have a larger
and more sophisticated

nuclear weapons arsenal.

To fall behind any other
nation in atomic progress

is a national risk.

And so, when people from the
downwind area went to the AEC,

and said, "Why didn't you
warn us?" The Atomic Energy

Commission said things like,
"We have to make sacrifices

in order to
protect democracy."

Yes, the very nature of testing
weapons for natural defence...

[Bang, boom]

...requires we accept the
possibility of some exposure

to additional radiation.

But the western Shoshone
sacrificed both their blood and

treasure for America's
nuclear industrial complex.

The first thing to keep in mind
about the Nevada testing site

is that it's actually
legally the property of the

Western Shoshone Nation.

It was deeded to them in the


and they have never
actually ceded that land.

During the height of
America's bloody civil w*r,

the Shoshone signed one of
the last Indian treaties

with the US government.

America was weak
during the civil w*r.

It needed alliance
with the Shoshone.

We allowed for the
overland stage.

We allowed for the telegraph.
We allowed for the railroad.

Not what we have today with
nuclear weapons testing.

No nation would enter into a
treaty that would end

in its ultimate destruction.

According to the Treaty
of Ruby Valley,

the Western Shoshone lands
stretched for nearly


covering much of Nevada and

into California,
Idaho, and Utah.

But with the advent of the
nuclear age in 1945,

the United States began forcing
the tribe off their land

creating a vast patchwork of

high security military
installations.

And then I run into
a weapon of w*r.

A fence was put up
around this site.

And, the Western Shoshone
were denied access to

traditional hunting
and gathering sites...

Sites that were spiritually
significant to them.

And not only was it
going to be off limits,

it was going to be destroyed.

[Thunderous booming]

This is the violence of
colonialism,

which is really
fundamental to the...

the birth of the nuclear age.

[Rumbling]

The Western bands of the
Shoshone nation of Indians

are the most bombed
nation in the world.

It was mass destruction
of our world, really.

[Bang]

It was just being
destroyed forever.

And you can actually
see the scars of this.

If you go on and look at
satellite pictures,

it looks like the moon.
It's all craters.

I'm trying to get back to
where my ancestors are from.

And I can't, because...

these people have decided to
k*ll my land and people.

What happened to the Shoshone
people has left Ian Zabarte

angry at a government that
still occupies what he sees

as his people's sacred land.

This is Shoshone property!
Get the ... off!

Leave!

But the Shoshone Nation
were not the only victims

of America's
nuclear testing.

[Thunderous roar]

Trespassing with a badge.

Can't even ...ing
prove ownership.

Trespassing.

All ...ing trespassers.

This is Shoshone property!
Get the ... off!

Leave!
...ing trespassers!

You violate the US Constitution!

You violate the ...ing
Nevada Constitution!

You're ...ing trespassers!
Get the ... out of here!

Ian Zabarte shouting at
security officers along a

remote Nevada highway,
is evidence of his frustration

of being unable to get back
the land taken from

his tribe to facilitate
nuclear testing.

I don't relish
shaming people.

My life would be
easier without the,

the stress of having to
watch the abuses.

And having to check Americans
and tell them the difference

between right and wrong.

But he's trying to teach
lessons about right and wrong

to a government that, today,
puts average Americans at risk

from a nuclear disaster
and was once willing to

sacrifice the lives
of US soldiers.

All in the name of
nuclear supremacy.

The first atomic warfare
maneuvers begin.

Selected at random,

these men will see the
A-b*mb close up.

In the 1950s, America's atomic
weapons experiments at the

Nevada Test Site also included
testing on human subjects.

The US Army wanted to
understand what it would

take to fight on a
nuclear b*ttlefield.

Sergeant O'Brien?
How about radiation?

Do you think there's much
danger from radiation?

Well, radiation is the
least of the worries that

the men are thinking about.

I think most people thought
the radiation was

the greatest danger,
didn't they?

Where did they learn different?

We were prior to our
instructions here.

We received a very thorough
briefing before we even

came this close to
contact with it.

You feel that those
instructions have given you

confidence in your abilities?

- Very much so.
- To protect yourself?

Yes, sir.

And so, they began doing
these series of tests.

They would dig trenches.

The men were told to get
down in the trenches and

cover their eyes
with their hands.

[Bang]

Soldiers who were on site
for these tests described

seeing all of the bones
in their hands...

with their eyes closed.

While the mushroom cloud
is still being formed,

the soldiers pop out of the
ground and run towards it...

because they were told it's
important to understand

how to fight on a
radioactive b*ttlefield.

Many of them described
walking past cages that had

test animals wearing various
military uniforms.

Model homes that
were constructed.

So, these soldiers are
marching through these

sort of apocalyptic
landscapes...

that are extremely radioactive,
you know,

directly onto the site where
the actual weapon was detonated.

And we now know
without a doubt,

you don't fight on a
radioactive b*ttlefield,

you die there.

[Howling wind]

Some of these soldiers were
ordered to advance

within half a mile
of ground zero.

When I see the footage of
young men walking into

what is effectively a
suicide mission...

it breaks my heart,
it outrages me.

But it also underscores that
there are some leaders in the

American government who will
violate the sacred compact

they have with our American
men and women in uniform.

You're not supposed to send
them on suicide missions

unless there's a
higher calling.

And what higher calling was
there in sending 19-year-old

and 20-year-old soldiers
trudging into a nuke blast?

It's unconscionable.

And a lot of these folks
developed cancers and

other problems
over the time.

And when some of them went to
the Veterans Administration,

in order to get health care,
they were told that leukemia

wasn't covered under
their VA benefits.

It's not just that that
exposure and testing happens,

but every single time, American
veterans have to fight for

recognition that it happened.

They have to fight for health
care support after it happened.

And they have to claw and
battle for compensation.

So, a number of these men
who were still very young,

who had young families, and
were receiving death sentences,

essentially,
from their doctors,

a number of them contacted their
elected officials and said,

"I need help getting
medical care."

And these gentlemen who
became known as the

atomic vets, really
galvanized public concern.

As many as 400,000 American
servicemen may have been

exposed to radiation from
nuclear weapons testing.

And they helped people who,
you know, ordinary people.

Housewives, Indigenous families.

People who had been pointing to
health problems they believed

were connected to
radiation exposure.

In 1990, the government finally
passed the Radiation Exposure

Compensation Act,
granting financial payouts

of between 50 and $100,000.

Anyone who's gone through a
bout with cancer can tell you,

if you're uninsured, $50,000
doesn't cover a whole lot of

chemotherapy, unfortunately,
nor does it actually make up

for the loss of a family member.

Over 38,000 total claims
have been approved.

And around $2.5 billion has
been paid out in compensation.

But over 13,000 applicants have
had their claims denied,

including many members of
the Shoshone Nation.

There were a lot of people
like my husband who...

was an engineer.
And, they would

take all the information
from the experiments.

So, they'd go into the test
area soon after the experiment.

He had died of cancer.

He drank a little bit after
that, that experiment,

and they said that that was
probably a cancer that

was caused by the alcohol.

So, we didn't get any
compensation at all.

And it's not only the
Shoshone

who are struggling to
get compensation.

The Marshall Islanders are
still denied medical treatment

for their conditions or
payments for their conditions.

It is a constant fight.

Rough guess, hundreds of
thousands of people...

in the United States and
our possessions,

have died in the production,
testing,

and maintenance of our
nuclear weapons arsenal.

They're dying still.

And even today, we are all at
risk from new and potentially

deadly nuclear threats that
are kept hidden from us.

Most of the public,
most politicians...

believe that nuclear weapons
are safe and secure.

And that the day-to-day
operations are reliable.

That is not true.

[Cheering & sirens]

I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
do solemnly swear

I will faithfully
execute the office

of President of the
United States.

- So help you God.
- So help me God.

January 20th, 1961.

President Kennedy takes
the oath of office.

Three days later, a nuclear
armed B-52 b*mber begins

a routine flight over
North Carolina.

[Indistinct radio
communications]

They had some engine
trouble and, actually,

part of the b*mber exploded.

[Bang]

In this particular case, it was
carrying two extremely large

thermonuclear weapons,
two hydrogen bombs.

Came right out of the fuselage.

[Whistling]

The hydrogen b*mb is
basically like bringing

a piece of the
sun down on earth.

[Bang]

Now, there are safety devices
on all nuclear weapons

precisely intended to stop them
from going off,

unless they're supposed to.

And in the case of one of
these nuclear weapons,

the parachute deployed,
it floated safely to Earth,

and it was recovered.

The other one
wasn't so lucky.

The parachute didn't deploy.

And the signal to the b*mb
to fire was actually given.

So, the b*mb should
have exploded.

There was one safety feature,

apparently a low voltage
switch, that held.

We were saved by a
tiny microcircuit.

A switch, really.

If it had gone off, we would
have lost about

half a North Carolina.

When a nuclear weapon
is stolen, dropped,

somehow damaged,
it's called a broken arrow.

Basically, meaning that the
weapon is no longer

in the custody of who it's
supposed to be in,

or that it won't function
as intended.

[Alarm chiming]

And over the course of the
nuclear era in the US,

there have been dozens of
broken arrow incidents.

In addition to Broken
Arrows, there have been a

terrifying number of
white-knuckle close calls.

One of the most significant was
in June 3rd, 1980,

when the NORAD board...

lit up with a ballistic
m*ssile attack

from the Soviet Union.

[Phone ringing]

So, National Security
Advisor Brzezinski

was woken up in the
middle of the night.

And he was told by the
military assistant,

"We've detected 220 incoming
ICBMs from the Soviet Union."

And he decided to go back to
the military aid, and said,

"Are you sure?" And the
military aid checked and

came back and said, "No,
we've made a mistake."

"It's not 220."

"It's 2,200."

Brzezinski thought this was it.

He looked over at his wife,
sleeping,

and decided not to wake her
because in thirty minutes,

we'd all be dead.

[Phone ringing]

And Brzezinski says
he was very close

to recommending retaliation.

[Phone ringing]

Fortunately, there was
a third phone call.

[Phone ringing]

"It's a mistake.
We're standing down."

NORAD did not detect any
incoming nuclear weapons.

What happened is a
computer chip failed,

and somehow triggered a warning
that actually didn't exist.

Everything was perfectly fine.

The computer chip
apparently cost 46 cents.

A computer chip almost caused
World w*r Three.

Now, one might be tempted to
say this was a one off,

but in fact it wasn't.

A similar computer chip
failed 3 days later,

creating another warning of
incoming nuclear weapons

that actually didn't exist.

There have been dozens of very
significant false alarms.

Training tapes being inserted
into computers simulating a

nuclear attack, and nobody knew
it was just a training exercise.

Flocks of geese mistaken
for a m*ssile flight.

A rising moon over Norway
mistaken for b*mber launch.

But false alarms involving
nuclear weapons

are not just a Cold w*r
phenomena.

A false emergency alert about
a ballistic m*ssile threat

had people
running for cover.

In 2018, all the
residents of Hawaii got

emergency alert systems
on their phone.

"Ballistic m*ssile attack,
seek cover.

This is not a drill."

And there was reason to
believe it was true.

Rocket Man should have been
handled a long time ago.

People thought this was it,
cause tensions had been high

between Donald Trump
and Kim Jong Un,

the dictator of North Korea,
with talk of fire and fury.

[Bang]

People are freaking out and,
you know,

as well they should be.

Imagine just picking up your
cell phone and seeing that the

government is telling you that
you're about to be met with

nuclear Armageddon.

And so, people called family
members in the mainland

to say goodbye.

I just want you to know
that I love you guys.

You know, they took shelter
anywhere they could think of.

People even took the covers
off of manholes,

so that they could put their
children in the storm drains.

And that maybe they would be
protected there from

an incoming
ballistic m*ssile.

And for 38 terrifying minutes,

people thought this was
the end of their lives.

Maybe the,
the end of the world,

before it was disclosed that
this was a mistake.

So, what went wrong?

An employee at the Hawaii
Emergency Management Agency

accidentally sent out a real
alert during a drill.

But if Hawaii had been connected
to the national network,

and it was a national alert,

the entire country would have
put been put into this panic

with no way of knowing
whether it was real or not.

The point of all of
these false alarms,

is once you get to
the president,

how does the president know
that it's a false alarm?

The president would have


to make a decision about
whether or not to respond.

How do we know that during
that time, any mistake, any,

any problem, any glitch in the
computer system would be

resolved, and that someone
would be able to get to the

president and say,
"Uh, wait a minute, um,

it's not 2,200 incoming
nuclear weapons.

It's actually a faulty
computer chip. My bad.

Sorry, we woke you"?

It's a b*mb!
Duck and cover!

But while Cold w*r fears
led to irrational behavior,

they've been replaced by a
complacency that may prove

to be even more dangerous.

[Boom]

The Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists say that we're

closer to the use of nuclear
weapons now than

we were during the Cold w*r.

[Screaming]

November 2008.

The world watches in stunned
horror as t*rrorists carry out

a series of coordinated attacks
in Mumbai, India.

The November attacks
k*lled 164 people,

stirring fear that India
and Pakistan,

both with nuclear arms,
could slide toward w*r.

The attacks were the work of
an Islamist militant group

based in Pakistan.

The t*rror1st attack was
designed to k*ll large numbers

of people and provoke India
into taking military action

against Pakistan, in order to
trigger a larger w*r.

[Bang]

The Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists say that

we're closer to the use of
nuclear weapons now

than we were during
the Cold w*r.

The Cold w*r, in some ways,
provided a kind of stability.

It was the US and
the Soviet Union.

Today, there are more parties,
more places for

miscalculations, more places
about concern.

There are over 13,000 nuclear
weapons in the world today.

While over 90% belong to the
United States and Russia,

well over a thousand are
in other countries.

These include North Korea,
China, India and Pakistan.

And it's India and Pakistan
where experts believe

the next nuclear w*r
might break out.

These are captured
Pakistani raiders.

This is a sample of their
handywork at Batamaloo,

near Srinagar.

India and Pakistan have
fought 4 wars or conflicts

since independence.

There's constant tension
between the two sides.

What's changed since 1998,
is that both sides

are now building
nuclear arsenals.

And both of their arsenaIs
were born out of a bizarre

American Cold w*r program
called Atoms for Peace.

If a danger exists
in the world,

it is a danger shared by all.

The Atoms for Peace program
was kind of a demented,

utopian view of what nukes
could be without recognizing

the unfortunate late-stage
reality that we face today.

Information about the
beneficial uses of atomic

energy knows no
national boundaries.

The peaceful atom is
here and now,

to serve what President
Eisenhower has termed

the needs rather than
the fears of mankind.

Under the program, the United
States sent nuclear technology

to countries like the Congo and
Iraq to for use developing

cheap, renewable energy,
as long as they promised

not to use it for the
development of atomic weapons.

The Atoms for Peace program was
maybe the ultimate weapons

proliferation program
in history.

Instead of sending AK 47s
or sending fighter jets,

we sent the capacity to create
nuclear weapons.

[Boom]

And thanks in part to
US technology,

India successfully detonated
its first nuclear b*mb in 1974.

With Pakistan following in 1998.

Pakistan has said that if it
fears that it's going to lose a

conventional w*r with India,
it's gonna nuke India.

And India said if they nuke
us, we're gonna nuke em back.

[Sirens]

India and Pakistan
both have about



Just a hundred nuclear
weapons used on the largely

wooden urban course
of South Asia...

would put enough smoke and
particulates into the

atmosphere that would cover
the Earth in a shroud.

[Rumbling & crackling]

That would last two
or three years,

and you're gonna k*ll 40% of
the food crops in the world,

unleashing a famine
that would k*ll about

a billion to two
billion people.

That is a civilization
ending event.

And it's not only warring
nations who may be able to

trigger a nuclear conflict.

Cyber-attacks have already
happened on pipelines.

They've happened
on the Pentagon.

They've happened on
Fortune 500 companies.

Hackers have been able to
get almost everywhere into

global computer systems.

Nuclear weapons are not
unique to this.

I can tell you right now,
there are definitely Chinese or

Russian spies who've gotten
access to the power grids in

the United States and know
how to take them out

in the event that they go
to w*r with the US.

When it comes to
nuclear weapons,

they're also not immune...

Everything could be hacked.

But cyber threats are more
than the hacking of systems.

They also involve
misinformation campaigns

that could cascade into a
deadly confrontation.

April 23rd, 2013.

[Message chiming]

A tweet from the Associated
Press's twitter account

sends the stock
market into free fall.

The tweet was quickly deleted,
but it shows what's possible.

I mean, the technology
vulnerabilities are

pretty well documented
at this point.

So, it's not beyond the realm
of possibility that hackers

could get into a military
Twitter account.

Or even a news organization and
report false information that

would necessitate a response
from an adversary that could

create a real-life
w*r games scenario.

It'd be one thing if we had
nuclear w*r because

we and the Russians or
the Chinese just like

couldn't stop
ourselves from it.

That would be a
terrible tragedy.

But to do it because
somebody is, you know,

playing with Twitter accounts?

It's impossible to reckon with
how tragic that would be.

While our leaders tell us
these nu clearweapons are

essential for national
security, the truth is

they want them for
another reason.

You can make a lot of money,
making nuclear weapons.

That's why we still
have these weapons.

It's not strategy,
it's not logic.

It's all because of money.

Today, the Cold w*r has
disappeared but

thousands of those
weapons have not.

In a strange turn of history,
the threat of global nuclear w*r

has gone down, but the risk of a
nuclear attack has gone up.

April 5th, 2009.

A recently elected Barack
Obama makes his first major

foreign policy speech in the
Czech Republic.

I state clearly and with
conviction America's commitment

to seek the peace and
security of a world

without nuclear weapons.

[Applause]

And then in the process of
trying to get to that goal,

he starts to talk to the
Russians about

arms control agreements.

Today is an
important milestone

for nuclear security and
nonproliferation.

And for US, Russian relations.

And the Republicans in Congress
say: "We have a price for

agreeing to, to arms control
with Russia".

That price was for President
Obama to agree to modernize the

nuclear submarines, bombers and
intercontinental ballistic

missiles that make up
the US nuclear triad.

All these missiles, bombers
and subs that we had built in

the Reagan buildup of the


end of their
operational life.

And so, the Republicans and the
nuclear industrial complex

wanted to get new
systems online.

And so, the agreement
Obama made,

is now a $1.7 trillion
modernization program,

to literally, modernize all
parts of the nuclear triad.

To be sure, we do need to
modernize some of these weapons.

But there's a big difference
between a sort of fixer upper

that's gonna keep these nukes
around for another few decades

and a total overhaul of the
system. And unfortunately,

we're paying for the latter

under the rhetoric
of the former.

And that's gonna give us a
whole new generation of subs,

bombers, and missiles
that are gonna last

until the end
of this century.

We're locking ourselves into
this Cold w*r arsenal

for another century.

Now we're coming off of a
pandemic where the economy is

having problems, where there
are lots of health issues...

and we're talking about $1.7
trillion for nuclear weapons?

If you had $1.7 trillion
today to spend,

and you could spend it on
something to improve the lives

of Americans, where would
nuclear weapons spending

be on that list?

My guess is it's not
anywhere near that list.

Instead, this new arsenal means
multi-billion-dollar contracts

for some of the biggest
weapons manufacturers

in the United States.

The entire nuclear procurement
process is deeply corrupt.

From the contractors who
generate the requirements

inside the Pentagon, to the
politicians in Congress who

accept contributions from these
same contractors.

Doveryai, no proveryai.

Trust, but verify.

[Speaking Russian]

You repeat that at
every meeting.

[Laughing]

The end of the Cold w*r brought
an end to the arms race

with the Soviet Union.

But while the ideological
necessity for our

nuclear arsenal
quickly disappeared,

the weapons, themselves,
did not...

as defense contractors fought
to maintain the huge profits

they made building them.

There are two ways
that this works.

One is just direct campaign
contributions.

So, if you look at the
Democrat, Jim Cooper,

is the chairman of the
strategic subcommittee of the

House Armed Services Committee,
a very good man.

But some of his
largest contributors

are nuclear contractors. So,
he's directly taking money

from nuclear contractors
to keep him in office.

The second conflict
of interest is jobs.

The defense contractors make
sure that there is someone in

every congressional district,
some subcomponent,

some manufacturing,

something in every
congressional district...

that actually is part of
that weapon system.

All of us, I think have a
responsibility,

to insist that the politicians
who are overseeing our nuclear

weapons not be tempted by
financial or career

considerations when they're
making the decisions,

cause these issues about
the life of our planet,

about the risks Americans and
the world are exposed to by

these nuclear weapons, they're
decided by politics and money.

As long as these weapons
exist, we're always

just minutes away from
nuclear Armageddon.

It would take about an hour
to destroy everything

humanity has built up
over the millennia.

And so, really, the only way to
kind of backpedal out of this

incredible state of national
and global precarity,

is to disarm these weapons.

[Bang]

The more we're able to see
that nuclear weapons are

the problem, that they're
our ultimate threat,

not our ultimate security,

the more the public
will start to think that

we have to have
policies to reduce the risks

associated with these
weapons and, eventually,

eliminate them altogether.