Letter: N.M.'s nuclear weapons discredit Richardson

Editor,

Gov. Bill Richardson's trip to North Korea lacks in credibility.

Supposedly, Gov. Richardson is there to advance an agenda of global nuclear nonproliferation by asking North Korea for verification of their nuclear weapons program and the dismantling of their weapons of mass destruction.

But right here in the governor's home state are two large nuclear weapons labs receiving funding for a nuclear weapons program at a higher level than during much of the Cold War. These labs are in the process of designing and building a new family of nuclear weapons with which to terrorize the world.

A good first step would be for Richardson to dismantle the weapons of mass destruction in his own state in return for steps by the North Koreans. Most noticeably, the governor has said nothing about dismantling the junkyard of obsolete Cold War-era weapons in Albuquerque, estimated to be about 2,510 in number - the largest number of such weapons in any one place in the world. We who are concerned about this have asked him to verify and inspect the nuclear bombs, but his administration will not even admit they exist.

Richardson would have credibility if he would verify the existence of the nuclear weapons here and take steps to have them dismantled.

Perhaps then we would not view his trip as just another step on his quest for higher office and American global domination with its expanding nuclear weapons arsenal.

Bob Anderson

UNM alumni