BELLA ABZUG SPEAKS:
Help Break the Karen Silkwood Cover-Up
The following information is excerpted from a letter by Bella Abzug on behalf of the Karen Silkwood Fund.
Dear Friend,
Three years ago my Congressional Subcommittee on Individual Rights did an initial probe into the facts surrounding the death of a 28-year-old worker in a Kerr-McGee plutonium production plant, Karen Silkwood. It was my hope that a Congressional investigation would uncover how Karen Silkwood and her home contaminated with deadly plutonium-and what happened the night of her mysterious death.
1 have learned that not only mine, but several government inquiries were thwarted by intentional refusals on the part of the FBI and Kerr-McGee to cooperate with investigating authorities. And, the most recent inquiries are being obstructed with the all-too-familiar claim of "national security". I am increasingly concerned and want to share with you some of the available information about Karen's death and what she was trying to bring to our attention.
Much of what we know today is the result of the back-breaking and crusading efforts of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Foundation, the Quixote Center, Supporters of Silkwood (S.O.S.), and the N.O.W. Labor Committee-organizations which have coordinated investigations, litigation, education, and fundraising on Karen's behalf since 1975. These organizations and others are now cooperatively supporting this case through the Karen Silkwood Fund a tax-exempt program of the Youth Project. During the last months of her life, Karen Silkwood was very active within her union, the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers. She was involved not only with safety issues on her job-she was also concerned with the larger question: the safety of the public from nuclear accidents. For a month before her death Karen was collecting documented evidence about alarming plant hazards for upcoming contract negotiations and for national press.
Karen's specific job was that of a laboratory technician checking various fuel mixtures. Fearful of its toxicity, Karen was careful when handling plutonium on the job. But, a week before her death, an instrument search revealed that Karen was heavily contaminated. This was not from an accidental spill on her job, which could have conceivably occurred. Rather, Karen was contaminated from where she least expected it-her home. And the Government Accounting Office (GAO) Report revealed that the highest levels of contamination were on the food in her refrigerator!
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I don't know how aware you are of the awesome power of plutonium. According to nuclear scientist John Gottman, just one-millionth of a gram-a literal speck-has produced cancer in laboratory animals. And a softball-sized parcel, he says, "properly dispersed", could induce cancer in every household on the entire planet Earth!
So you can imagine the terror-the panic-the fear that Karen felt when she suspected that someone
Page 8/What She Wants/May, 1979
wanted her silenced. She was rushed to the Los Alamos Medical Facility where she was tested, decontaminated, treated, and finally released..only to be killed in a mysterious car crash a few hours later as she drove to a meeting with a top official from her union and a reporter from The New York Times.
legal trampling upon constitutional rights but also a guarantee that if the nuclear industry is going to continue its production of dangerous substances, they must observe safety regulations to protect the lives of workers and the public. As a first step to these crucial goals, Karen's parents and three children have filed a civil suit that charges Kerr-McGee officials and several FBI operatives with a conspiracy to violate
She was scheduled to bring her documented evidence to the reporter, and a signed affidavit says "The Karen Silkwood Fund's quest for the truth of Karen's death may provide...not only justice...but also a guarantee that the nuclear industry...must observe safety regulations to protect the lives of workers and the public.”
she was carrying a large manila folder crammed with papers as she got into her car. A police officer at the scene of the crash said there were many documents scattered inside the smashed car. After being towed to the wrecker's, the car was inspected by officials from Kerr-McGee and later by officials from Karen's union. By then the documents had disappeared...permanently.
Silkwood investigators have just obtained new depositions signed under oath by Kerr-McGee officials stating that on the night of Karen's death, parties from the Oklahoma State Police and KerrMcGee jointly agreed to remove the documentary evidence from Karen's car and to omit it from the list of her remaining personal effects. In the dead of
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night, officials from these groups entered Karen's wrecked car-and by morning the documents had disappeared. In addition, independent accident investigators have concluded that Karen's car was indeed struck from behind and forced off the road head-on into a concrete culvert, killing Karen instantly.
Thanks to committed public interest lawyers and courageous investigators, important facts are now beginning to emerge. Some of these may have been the concerns Karen was attempting to bring to light:
• Karen and other workers, according to plant supervisors, were assigned to work areas where radiation levels exceeded legal limits.
• Karen and other workers were ordered in 1974 to step-up production...and at the same time, according to a GAO Report, safety checks of fuel rods were being intentionally falsified. These very same rods are now being stored for future use in fast breeder reactors,
• A plant supervisor testified that he was ordered to divert bomb-grade nuclear materials from the government stockpiles to the Kerr McGee stockpiles. The government has reported approximately 40 pounds of plutonium missing.
And now Silkwood Fund investigators have evidence that Karen Silkwood was illegally wiretapped and spied upon by her employer. Government authorities have heard information from an FBI investigator about the typed transcripts of Karen's phone conversations.
Fortunately, the Karen Silkwood Fund's quest for the truth of Karen's death may provide a way to obtain not only justice for Karen and an end to this il-
Karen's civil rights through wiretapping, surveillance, harassment, violence, and cover-up. In addition, Kerr-McGee officials are being charged with liability for Karen's contamination.
This suit is extremely important to our public safety and our most fundamental civil liberties. The nuclear industry and certain government agencies have repeatedly acted to stall the truth over the past three years. I am afraid that no individual cffort-even as great as the Silkwood Fund's to date-can succeed against such formidable odds. However, with your support and with your taxdeductible contribution, the Silkwood investigation and litigation can break the already straining coverup around Karen's death. Yours for Truth and Justice, Bella S. Abzug
Send your tax deductible contribution to:
KAREN SILKWOOD FUND
a project of the YOUTH PROJECT Box 10037, Washington, D.C. 20018
March on Washington May 6
and Put the Nuclear Industry On Trial!
Yo
Pour/LNS
"3-Mile" march begins at noon from the Ellipse to the Capitol where there will be a trial and rally from 1 to 4. After this, a delegation will deliver the people's verdict to the White House. On May 7 is Mass Lobby Day at the Congress.
Busses have been chartered from Cleveland. Round trip bus fare is $25.00. Busses load at 11:30 pm Saturday night and will leave Washington 5:00 pm Sunday. For more information, contact Betty Buckner at 732-8542 (before 10am or after 8pm). Try to make reservations by April 30. The trip is sponsored by an ad hoc coalition including Clergy and Laity Concerned, North Shore Alert, Western Reserve Alliance.