Richard Wilson, born in London, England in 1926, has been at Harvard University since 1955 where he is now Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, emeritus.  Richard Wilson has been an affiliate of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies  and of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government.  His CV shows that he is the author or coauthor of 910  published articles and papers.    See also charts of Richard Wilson's ancestors and descendants and Andree Wilson's ancestors.  Richard and Andree Desiree Wilson live in Newton Centre where Andree tends her fine garden.  In particular look at the web site of Elaine Wilson,  a fine landscape painter.    Richard Wilson is a common nme.  There 8,679 Richard Wilsons living in the USA alone.    It is also a famous name and a selection of  "Richard Wilson's" activities shows that he was, and is, an extraordinarily busy man.  Last year Richard Wilson, the sculptor, was elected to the Royal Academy in UK.   Other distinctions are listed in Wilkipedia.  Richard Wilson, the physicist, may be found most days in Jefferson Laboratory of Physics room 257A at Harvard University.  A page of photographs of Richard Wilson over the years can be found here.  A recent interview by NY Times columnist Andrew Revkin may be found here,

  The most recent study is of  cancer at old age he is also studying the problem of chronic arsenic exposure and how to help the millions who are overexposed.  When opportunity arises, which it does all too often, he engages in various Human Rights activities; he is still involved in experiments on parity violation in electron proton scattering at CEBAF and on an asymmetry in neutron decay.  He also has a major interest in analyzing and trying to understand, risks; how to reduce them, how important individual risks may be. Ten times as many people were killed on the roads last year as were killed on September 11th 2001.   The international drug trade may be far more destructive society than Al Qaeda.  Keeping perspective was a major theme of the book "Risk Benefit Analysis" by Richard Wilson and Edmund A. Crouch, available from Harvard University Press.  As a frequent visitor to Arab countries he was fortunate to make many friends, including the Iraqi statesman Muhummed Fadhel Jamali who signed the UN charter in  1945.   On a visit to Harvard Fadhel left  a copy of his memoirs - so far unpublished.  The pages are posted on this site in html.   We expect to make a pdf version in due course.   He is the President of the ARSENIC FOUNDATION which is dedicated to helping to avoid the arsenic poisoning from drinking contaminated water supplies in SE Asia.

   Richard Wilson was awarded the degree of D. Phil. at  Oxford University in 1949 for a thesis on the photo disintegration of the  deuteron.  He travelled to the USA in June 1950 for a position in Rochester NY.  With Clark and Roberts he used the principle of detailed balance to measure the spin of the pi zero meson at Rochester in March 1951. (see a story about this in his notes about Marshak) He then studied  nucleon-nucleon scattering at AERE Harwell, and the Harvard Cyclotron laboratory   for many years.  The Harvard Cyclotron had its first beam on June 3rd 1949  and celebrated its 50th anniversary    in 1999 with a conference.  Richard Wilson, together with Karl  Strauch and Andreas Koehler led an  upgrade of the cyclotron in 1955 and led a program in uses of polarized protons  to study the nucleon nucleon interaction.   The story can be found in a history of the Harvard cyclotrons; In addition to this web based history,  a small hard copy book  on sale at Harvard University Press.

    Then Richard Wilson moved to a study of nucleon  structure by electron-proton scattering at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator  from 1963 to 1970,  and muon proton scattering at Fermilab in the E98  and E665 collaborations.  Richard Wilson was an early proponent of electron-electron  and electron positron colliding beams with a tentative proposal in 1956, and  a definitive proposal in 1962. Richard Wilson was a participant in the CEA "bypass"  program which demonstrated an unusually large cross-section  for producing  hadrons (see published papers 150,152,155,158).  He has worked at a number of research reactors, cyclotrons, synchrotrons,  linear accelerators and colliding beam facilities.    He  worked  in the CLEO collaboration   using the electron-positron colliding  beam facility at Cornell University,   until November 2001 when the Harvard group formally  left the collaboration.   He is still participating in scattering  of polarized electrons from protons  at CEBAF which provides information on the strange quark form factor in the nucleon.     He also is participating in an experiment on "little a" in decay of polarized neutrons.  

   Richard Wilson has used radiation and ionizing particles    all of his professional life.  Most of the time he has carried  out  research into the structure of nuclei and of elementary particles.   But he is very interested in beneficial uses of nuclear technology.  In addition to the work with the Harvard Cyclotron noted above, he Is also  interested in  wise and appropriate uses of nuclear energy for electricity  production.  One of his interests and specialties is understanding the risks  of misuse   of radiation and technologies involving   radiation.    This is exemplified by a recent Resource  Letter   on health effects of radiation that he has written  for the American Physical   Society.  For these and other reasons he was  asked (by the Chairman  of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus) to help found the International Sakharov  College of Radioecology,  in Minsk, Belarus  and be the Chairman  of its International Advisory Committee (which position he held until 2001). This has now become the   ( International  Sakharov Environmental University) (mirror site) on the tenth anniversary of the opening  (in May  2002) of this  university, Dr. Frantisek Janouch, from the Czech Republic and Sweden, gave an admonition to students (in Russian   and in English ) to think carefully whether they deserved to use the Sakharov name.    At the ninth anniversary (Sakharov's 80th birthday),   Richard Wilson told  the students his memories about Sakharov.   Richard Wilson has followed closely the Russian and Ukrainian  radiation accidents at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, and the accidents at the  Techa River    and the Mayak production complex in  the Ural mountains. This interest also  led him to become editor of the English Translation of the Russian Journal  Radiation  and Risk  which is published by the Russian Medical Research Laboratory in Obninsk and is mainly about effects of  Chernobyl. In  1987 he visited Chernobyl  with a Chicago  TV crew and the resulting  film ( Back to Chernobyl)  was on public television in late 1988.  He was among the first in the  USA to emphasize the importance of the Russian  radiation accidents in the  1950 - 60 period.  In that period,  for example,  2 million Curies of radioactive material were dumped into the upper reaches of the Techa river.  The effects  have been  studied  for  40 yearsby a dedicated  group of  physicians and scientists in the Urals Center for Radiation Medicine (URCRM) in Chelyabinsk. See also public comment on EPA proposals to regulate DOE facilities, and tighten standards for uranium  in drinking water.  Richard Wilson is also spokesman for a group "Scientists  for Secure Waste Storage" who are supporting the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians who would like to store nuclear waste (temporarily) on their reservation.   Although after 7 years the  the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is ready to grant a license,  the politicians  in Utah,  both the Governor and the Senators, have vowed to oppose it.   They persuaded the US Bureau of Land Management to deny use of land to transfer casks from rail to road.  SSWS sent in a brief supporting the Goshutes, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to deny the right to make a long term agreement.

   Since it is undesirable and unethical to carry out experiments upon people, mankind has carried out experiments on animals, usually  rodents, to  understand which substances are carcinogens.  The way in which the risk of cancer in people is derived from the risk of cancer in animals becomes of great importance and is discussed .  Starting in 1979, Richard Wilson and co-workers have written a series of papers on  chemical carcinogens ,  on interspecies  comparisons in particular and research is continuing on cancer at old age.   It appears that above age 80 age specific cancer incidence falls for all tumor sites, vanishing between ages 100 and 105.    This fall off is too sharp to be explained by a variation in sensitivity.    This drop off also appears in mice when they are allowed to live beyond 750 days to a "natural" death up to 1000 days.  No cancers are seen at the highest age group. 

   Richard Wilson is concerned with many environmental  issues.  In particular he is interested in risks of much greater magnitude   than those of nuclear radiation.  He publiahed with others a book "Health Effects of Fossil Fuel Buirning" in 1982 which was updated in an edited volume in  1996: "Particles in Our Air: Concentrations  and Health Effects" distributed by Harvard University Press .  In this he and his coauthors argued that fine particles in air pollution pose a considerable hazard, (some tens of thousand deaths yearly in the USA) and there is probably a linear relationship between dose of these particles and the effect on health.  Although this was widely disputed in 1982, the further work has led more and more experts to agree with this basic conclusion.

    The research into  chemical carcinogens naturally leads to a desire   to understand the carcinogens that pose the largest risks to life.   He has therefore been active in emphasizing the chronic health effects of  prolonged doses of arsenic. He was one of the first to realize the importance of the studies by CJ Chen in Tawian which were published in the USA in 1986 and ignored by the US EPA for many years.   In Inner Mongolia  in 1994 and more recently  in Bangladesh  he has emphasized the magnitude of the catastrophe.  He  started the the Arsenic  web site Project  at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, School  of Public Health, and Parsons laboratory at MIT.  This project  aims to cover arsenic problems world  wide   but in view of the magnitude  of the catastrophe has Bangladesh  as a  main focus.  Indeed Richard Wilson has often stated that the Bangladesh Catastrophe makes Chernobyl look like a Sunday School picnic.  In that he has never been contradicted or questioned.    As a particular project, he is helping the scientists and physicians at Dhaka Community Hospital in Dhaka to build sanitary "dugwells" in several villages to replace the older insanitary wells and the arsenic laden tube wells.   He emphasises the importance of reliable and frequent measurement so that the results may be convincing even to a politician or banker.    He has started the  ARSENIC FOUNDATION Inc.  as a charitable organization to which every viewer of this page is invited to contribute.  This foundation not only continues the work but is now the official owner of the arsenic website.   Any gift thereto is exempt from US and UK taxes.    Here is a  link to pictures from a  visit in 2004.

   A short summary of Richard wilson's human rights activities since the 1960s is available here.   Richard Wilson is serves on the Board of Directors of the  Andrey Sakharov Foundation of New York    which endeavors to continue the work of Andrey  Dmitreyvich Sakharov in  Human Rights and Human progress.   It is now 40 years since Sakharov's famous article on "Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom".    A major conference to discuss this and implications for the future was held on 24th and 25th 2008 hosted by Harvard University and the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.   The first Sakharov conference was held in Moscow in May 1991, Andrei's 70th birthday.  A fact finding group,  led by Baroness Cox,  President of Christian Solidarity worldwide, that visited the  Armenian-Azerbaijan border in May 1991 and reported  thereon to the first  Sakharov  conference on physics two days later.    Professor Wilson attended,   (and talked at)  a conference on self-determination of peoples  in Moscow on June  27th to July 1st 1999.   He helped Dr Stanislaw Suskevich, then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, and de facto head of state,  set up the Sakharov College of Radioecology in 1991.  He was the first Chairman of the International Advisory Committee.    This is now the  International  Sakharov Environmental University (mirror site).

    Professor and Mrs. (Andree) Wilson are both concerned that   there are a number of festering trouble  spots around the world, Kashmir,   Sri Lanka,  Ireland, Pakistan tribal areas, Israel and Palestine, where hatred and  anger  which have built up over 60 years  have replaced thought  on both sides.  Each party to a conflict has a duty to ensure the human rights  of each and every individual on the other  side, yet these human rights frequently  get ignored.  Unless these 60 year old quarrels are faced by the whole world, the whole world  will be plunged into conflict.   There is an unfortunate similarity between these trouble spots.  India, Russia and Israel, each the stronger party in their respective conflicts,  Kashmir, Chechnya and the Holy Land, took President Bush's "war on terrorism" to imply US approval to subdue the other party using extreme terror attacks of their own.

     In 1492 Columbus "sailed the ocean blue" and it has been customary to celebrate his discovery of Americx.   5 centuries later we look at it in a different light.  We also remember that in 1492 the "wicked" Christians drove the Muslims and  Jews out of Spain to go to distant countries:  Holland, Eastern Europe, North Africa.  On May 14th 1948 the state of Israel was founded.  Will it take 5 centuries to remember the effect on the Palestinian population in their NAKBA?     A brief discussion of the history by a non-zionist Jew  can be found here.

    In particular Israelis have a  right to live in peace and security but not to  impinge on the human  rights  of Palestinians.  Palestinians have a right to govern their  own  affairs,   but  not  to take the lives of Israelis.   Both Richard and Andree Wilson were encouraged by the 2002 initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah, which was supported by an unusual unanimous  vote in the Arab League.     Although not an Arab counry, Iran would have gone along.  Under this initiative, these countries, including the Palestinian Authority, would have  recognized the State of Israel and opened diplomatic relations,  in exchange for Israel recognizing the boundaries outlined in UN security council resolution 242 with small agreed modifications, and some recognition of the harm done to those Palestinians who were  forced from their homes in 1948.   If this initiative had taken place in April 1967 Israelis might have been dancing for joy in the streets!   This was reopened by King Abdullah  in  March 2007.    We ware very disappointed that it was ignored by the governments of Israel and the USA. If the USA and Israel would take this seriously,  the state of Israel, within its 1949 borders, would be recognized by all parties, including Iran.  

     In April 2009 President Obama promised a new approach.   In summer 2009 he asked for Israel to undertake a total freeze on new settlements.  This was clearly a Line in the Sand.  Not only did Mr Netanyahu refuse,  but in October the President and Secretary of State Clinton called a partial freeze (so often promised and never implemented) an unprecendented proposal and calls for the Arab states to make a gesture forgetting that they did this in in 2002 and 2007.  The US has an ultimate, very simple, possible method of persuasion.   To withold all subsidy to Israel, civilian or military from the US governement till the settlement freeze is implemented and perhaps to demand that the first use of any future civilian aid be to repair and reconstruct the damage done in Gaza by the Israeli defense forces.   The failure to use this method demonstrates that Mr Netanyahu controls US foreign policy more than does President Obama.    No wonder that Mr Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority is fed up.   He has been undercut by the USA,  the supposed "honest broker".    The reaction by Israel, encouraged by the USA, to the behavior of Hezbollah on the Lebanese border in 2006 was horrifying.   Hezbollah, had been considered too extreme for most Arabs, now became heros.   Interestingly and hopefully,  Hezbollah seems to have turned this success (mostly) to more peaceful political activities inside Lebanon.  If more political power is given to  the poor Shia who have been underrepresented based upon the 1935 census in Lebanon, hopefully violence will cease. The behavior of the IDF in Gaza is worse.   Anyone who doubts this should see the report "the Hell that is Gaza" by the journalist Mohanmmed Omer.   It is with a deep sense of shame that I note that the refusal to even study the matter as Judge Goldstone suggests is a denial of civilized behavior.  The actual vote is here.  Other international bodies are also loath to act.   In spring 2009 a boat loaded with relief supplies for Gaza was captured on the high seas in interantional waters.   This was an act of piracy (according to UN definitions) which was clearly worse than the acts off the Somali coast that were condemned by the UN in December 2008.  Yet the UN was silent.

    At the "Conference on a Nuclear Free World" in Moscow in February 1987, a European leader made a  challenge:  "Don't test bombs; test Gorbachev."  President Reagan did just that, walked with Secretary Gorbachev  in the woodland of a lakeside estate on Lake Geneva,  and the cold war came to an end.   We urge that the leaders of Israel do the same.
 
     Two Professors, one from Harvard and the other from Chicago,  describe how Israel has dominated US foreign policy and foreign aid in the last 30 years.  This article, stating what to us is obvious,  has been heavily criticized.   Former President Jimmy Carter likened the behavior of the present Israeli government to the apartheid of South Africa.   Ambassador John Gunther Dean, a US citizen, a refugee from Nazi discrimination,  commented on his 80th birthday.   Some Americans take bold and individual action.   Rachel Corrie stood  in front of a bulldozer that was, illegally accoring to most non-US interpretations of international law, demolishing houses and carelessly demolished Rachel Corrie.    The  letters to her family describe her committment to peace.   Such bravery is uncommon.   A call for an independent investigation into this murder got nowhere.

        In 2008  the world has gotten used to the Israeli occupation of  Palestinian territories and lives, that even the word occupation is often forgotten, as Avnery describes.  Some governments state that "we will never negotiate with terrorists".     The alternative to negotiation is killing.  As Winston Churchill once said "Jaw, jaw, jaw, is better than war, war,war."    A century ago a US  leader  "speak softly and carry a big stick."     We note that the coming to power of persons belonging to revolutionary - even terrorist - movements is common.  In  North America in the 18th century "terrorists" helped to found the USA.  Peace in Northern Ireland, hopefully becoming permanent, seems only to have been achieved when the terrorists were brought into the political process and the government.    A number of Jewish intellectuals including Albert Einstein, in a letter to the New York Times in 1948, warned against Mr Begin, leader of the terrorist group,  Irgun Zvai Leumi.  Mr Begin had been condemned to death, in absentia, by a British court.   Yet the Israelis, freely elected him as their Prime minister in the 1970s and he won the Nobel Peace Prize.  
   
    I do not believe anyone does, or ever will, fully understood who did  what, and to whom, and why,  in respect to Gaza and Hamas. But the change between 1930 when Arab parents had their children born  in the Gaza hospital because it was superior to any hospital in the Gulf, and  the situation of today tells what we need to know.  Although we are told that Palestinians have the highest education of any group in the Arab world, this does not lead to the respect they deserve. The whole world has failed. No one person can stand aside and say: "I was not responsible".  The whole world must act to remedy the situation. It will be long. It will be hard. It will involve soul searching. The "right to exist" of the whole human race is at stake.    Of course many possible solutions exist. The people who live in Palestine have one. Let the Palestinians  have free, full and  unfettered access to all other peoples in the world by air, by sea  and by land with no restraint. No one seems to mention this honorable solution any more.  Others seem to wish for the Palestinians to vanish from the face of the earth so that no one,  except a few academic historians, would ever have  to think of them again. Isolationism has never been far from the minds of narrow minded politicians.  Accidental isolation is  bad.  Deliberate isolation is worse! It seems to be happening.

    World War I was hailed by the "Allies"  England, France and later USA, as a "war to end all wars".   Alas, that was too optimistic and the League of Nations that was founded at the peace treaty collapsed in the 1930s because of a failure of the leading countries to follow through.  In May 1945 there was a new start in the "United Nations."   The UN deliberately set itself restrictions to avoid being swamped.     The UN countries would try to prevent attacks by one country on another, but not intervene in local squables.   But in the 1980s the USA and other countries encouraged the break up of a UN country Yugoslavia.   In 2003 the USA intervened a founding member of the UN,  Iraq, contrary to the desires of the UN and without (overt) support of any neighboring country.   Having dismembered Yugoslavia NATO helped Kosovo to break away from Serbia.   lThe effects of this are profound, both on the US economy, and perhaps most important on the view of the world's population about the policies of the United States.     It gave a precedent and encouraged Russia to recognize brakaway regions of Georgia.   Just as USA has had the Monroe doctrine for over 150 years and likes to control its neighbors, so Russia wants to control its neigbors and resents the influence of countries in a distant continent.    The desire to control OIL supplies is an unspoken but very much on the surface.    It has been so since Winston Churchill, as first Lord of the (UK) admiralty bought a controlling interest in the Anglo-Iranian oil company in 1912.  
 
     Yugoslavia was created by the Treaty of Versailles originally as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and by 1945 as a Federation.   It must not be forgotten that Russia supported the Serbs in July 1914 when Austria (including Croatia and Slovenia at the time) attacked bringing on WWI.  In WWII the refusal of the young King Peter to allow Hitler free passage of troops through Yugoslavia led to occupation and a valiant resistance.   This delayed the Nazi attack on USSR by 6 weeks,  which was, perhaps crucial in allowing the USSR to survive that terrible summer.   A segment of Croations formed the Ustashe which allied itself with Hitler and slaghtered between 200,000 and 500,000 Serbs.  After the death of President Tito,  who had kept the Federation together for nearly 40 years, Serbs were trying to assert themselves after many years of what many of them  considered to be Croatian (Tito) rule.   Some countries, members of the UN,  started to be active in what has been construed by others as an encouragement for the federation to break apart.  Of course the atrocities committed by ethnic Serbs, in Bosnia in particular, set much of the developed world against Serbia and the federation did break apart completely.   But starting in the 1990s, a more serious trend began.  Much of the world turned against Serbia itself as the Serbs struggled with dissension in a part of Serbia proper - Kosovo.   This resulted in a bombing of Belgrade - the 3rd time Belgrade was bombed in half a century.  (1941 by the Nazis, 1944 by the Americans and again in 1990s by NATO).  Now in February 2008, a unilateral Declaration of Independence has been declared in Kosovo,   without support of the UN security council.    Worse still it was immediately recognized by many European countries and the USA who are, at least technically, flouting the UN.  This has set back the idea of peaceful world approach to disagreements.   It is instructive to list the nations which have not recognized Kosovo.  They include Russia, Spain, India which have seccesionist movements of their own.   It is too early to see how this will play out.    The opinion of one Harvard physics department staff member is eloquently expressed on his website.     The Balkans, in the turmoil as the Ottoman empire disintegrated,  have been the site of far too many excellent novels and plays - such as Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" (about the 1885 war) for anyone to feel comfortable about the future.    King Alexander, in spite of intensive struggle in the 1920s, was unable to get the people in his expanded country to agree and he was assasinated  in 1934 by a Macedonian activist, allegedly acting with Croat separatists.  The Serbs in 1941+ and more recently after 1985 have paid very heavily for King Alexander's failure.

    You may download a number of letters, mostly about human riaghts,  by Andree and/or Richard Wilson to politicians, including President Bush and newspapers

        In mid-September 2009  President Obama propoed a change in the US posture in Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems.  Very few, if any, news commentators or news media have discussed the technical issues.    This by itself,  is one more example of an appalling failure to understand and use technical considerations in public policy.   

"Scientific-technical realities cannot be overruled by political decisions without resulting in grave risks to the nation."   WKH Panofsky, 2007

        Arguments about missile defense have been going on for 40 years.  On the American side,  Professor WKH (Pief) Panofsky, who was married to my wife's sister, testified in the US Senate about this in 1969.   On the Russian side, Andrei Sakharov wrote aginst it first in 1967 and again in 1987.    Pief Panofsky in his ongoing advice to the US government continued to argue against ABMs.   Indeed his last words,  entitkled  "Missiles no Defense" were published in the San Francisco Chronicle 2 days after his death from a heart attack in 2007.   Two study groups have been organized by the American Physical Society to report on the issues.  The first was chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Bloembergen and the second by MIT Professor Daniel Kleppner.   (N. Bloembergen and C. K. N. Patel, et al. Science and Technology of Directed Energy Weapons, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 59, No. 3, Part II, pp. S1-S202 (1987), D. K. Barton et al, The APS study on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense Reviews of Modern Physics. Rev. Mod. Phys. 76. S1 (2004)).    Each group took pains to have wide representation.    Apart from the problem, never yet completely solved, of identifying and shooting down a missile, it is cheap and easy for a missile, once at altitude, to release decoys which can further confuse identifying radar.   No practical solution has been proposed to avoid this stumbling block.   The second APS study explored the possibility of shooting down the missile in the "Boost Phase" before it had released decoys.   With extraordinary fast and reliable computers this might be possible but only if the radar and interceptors are close to the launch site.    Installation in Poland and the Czech republic would not help against Iran.  A system based in Azerbaijan, as President Putin suggested,  or on a ship in the Arabian/Persian Gulf as President Obama is now proposing,  has a small chance of working.   But to imply that any part of an ABM system has been shown to work is absurd.
The US is prosperous enough that it can afford this waste of money.   But the extraordinary danger is misleading the American public into believing that a technical solution is possible for a major world wide problem which will last as long as human civilization..   That can only weaken the diplomatic efforts which are essential for the future existence of mankind.

        Fortunately the USA and USSR  created the Anti Ballistic Bissile treaty in 1972.    Alas, in a tragic example of leadership in folly the USA withdrew in 2002.   Although most scientsts would prefer a complete abandonment of an ABM system and renewed adherence to the treaty,  President Obama's  proposal in 2009 goes some way toward undoing the damage caused by this abandonment by his predecessor but pressure to return to the treaty must be maintained, and pressure on media and politicians to look at technical issues is even more important.    When matters such as the possibility of nuclear war are concerned,  no short term domestic political issue should ever take precedence over the long term issue of survival of mankind.    A longer article was presented at the Seminar on Planetary Emergencies in Erice, Sicily in 2007 and updated for the web.  My general opinion of the issues of nuclear war can be found in an interview with a New York Times reporter on YOU TUBE.

   After the terrible event of September 11th 2001, there was symptahy all over the world.  The picture shows a Palestinian boy in Jerusalem reminding us that "terror is our common enemy".  This message is very important.  Terror, whether it be the killing of innocent civilans by a suicide bomber, or the extra judicial targetted assaninations by a country that professes the rule of law, cannot be condoned or excused.     But while emphasizing this on all possible occasions, it is important to search for reasons why a person or state engages in such evil acts and to adjust individual and societal life to reduce these reasons.  In lectures at international conferences in London (Global Foundation in December 2001),  in Florida (Global Foundation in December 2001), at the PSAM6 conference  in Puerto Rico (June 2002), and at the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies in  Erice, Sicily (August 2002), Dr Wilson addresses various complications   that arise when considering terrorism. In a slightly different form he presented a paper at a conference on bioterrorism in Alberquerque in March 2003.   He discussed three facets of combating terrorism.  the first and most important is preventing a person becoming a terrorist.  What is the root cause of a terrorist action?  How do you   find the planner?   and what is   a terrorist?  hen is a man a terrorist  and when is he  a freedom  fighter?     Is a  terrorist a coward   if he blows himself up?    We note that calling someone "coward"   is a reactive approach rather than a positive approach of making society  somewhat safer.   The whole issue of   terrorism is closely connected  with one of human rights, because often  the denial of human rights leads  an individual to despair,  and then can lead the individual to tolerate terrorism or even to become a terrorist.   A second task is to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists.  This is, of course, not possible for "ordinary weapons, icluding assault weapons, but it is important for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons (in that order).  Thirdly is the task that the Bush administration of the USA  has emphasized of keeping a terrorist away from civilized society, and its corollary of keeping weapons of ever more destructive power out of the hands of terrorists.   Fourthly is mitigating the conseqeuences of a terrirst attack.    It is the third task that inevitably brings governments into a conflict with desires for human freedom, and liberty of expression and action.  Such conflicts must be continuously discussed and resolved.   We are deeply concerned that the present desire of the of the US administration to allow its decisions to be unfettered by the courts is very dangerous.   The processes in the USA in the 4 1/2 years since 9/11 have far too much similarity to the processes in Central Europe in the years following the Reichtag fire in 1933 for comfort.   A fourth task is to make society less vulnerable.    Most, if not all, terrorist events are similar to other events that have occurred in our society.   In this it is  pointed out that analytical tools are already in existence to address these -  the "event tree analyses" conducted primarily for nuclear power points and for few other facilities.  Society must pay more attention to the "low probability - high consequence accident". Terrorists will look for such possible accidents and increase the probability.     We freely admit that these distinctions are often fine ones.  But making them may be essential for the peace, and even future existence, of the world.    Moreover it is in this 4th task that ordinary people in society can alter their every day behavior to make a terrorist action less dangeous and less likely.     However,  too many Americans, not brought up in dangerous situations like world war II Europe, mistakenly expect the "government" to do everything.     The fear of terrorism has brought many people, including the President of the USA to accept an old evil:  the attempt to get information by torture.     We believe that is unaccaptable and we support the "Physicians for Human Rights" in their campaign against torture.

    You may download a number of letters by Andree and Richard Wilson sent to the President of the USA and to various other people including newspapers .   

    On August 8th 2005 the world changed.  Mankind learned how to destroy itself.- as pointed out in this paper presented at a seminar on planetary emergencies in May 2003.   While there were several occasions in the cold war between USSR and USA where the nuclar holocaust seemd onl;y days away,  and many in the armed forces of both the USA and the USSR wer unduly bellicose,  wiser heads prevailed in all the major confrontations.   In facing this issue which will be with us till the end of the human race, short term considerations have no place.  While secrecy has its importance for short term issues, only open governments can help us.  Truth and understanding are essential.   World understanding and agreement on these issues is vital and the split between the USA/UK and the UN over Iraq is tragic, and may have set serious control of nuclear weapons back 50 years.    That it was based in part on an assessment, by governments and newspapers (see next section)  alike, of Iraqi posession of weapons of mass destruction which more knowledgeable people knew did not exist.  The result is tragic.  The US refusal to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty, in spite of unequivaocal recommendation by a study by its highest scientific advisory panel shows a disregard for truth and sends awful signals to the world.    After a foreward looking and generous approach to other countries desire to particpate in the many fruits of peaceful nuclear technology,  codified in the Non Proliferation Treaty, The US continual violations of the spirit, if not the letter, of Articles IV and VI is troubling.  

    Although we regret that India decided to make nuclear weapons, their policy of a "minimal nuclear deterrent" is far better than the policy of the USA which has 9,000 bombs at the present moment and can inflict unacceptable damage on any adversary with less than 100.  Even 50 is enough to scare us.   I attach here introductory comments at a session on non proliferation in summer 2006.  The present (2003) approach to US foreign policy is addressed, much better than I can,  in a speech,  shamelessly copied here ,  in Vermont about September 2002 by a retired US diplomat:  Ambassador Ron Speirs. 

    Iraq had some fine politicians before July 14th 1958 when it was destabilized by the cold war.  The memoirs of Fadhel Jamali,  one of the original signers of the UN Charter are on this site.

    Since 1979 Richard Wilson has often traveled to many Arab countries, and to Iraq in December 1982.   Like most others, he was appalled by Saddam Hussein's inhumanties to his own people and to others.    But he was deeply troubled that the USA decided to  attack Iraq when all neighbors were overtly opposing such an action, and the UN security council was opposed to it.   But the USA and the UK did take over Iraq, and he is working to help the people of Iraq to find a lasting peace that they have only known for brief periods since the revolution of July 14th 1958.  In particular to help Baghdad University and other universities, regain intellectual contact with the rest of the world.   He has been the host for several academic visits to Harvard University and Boston area universities.    Unfortunately from summer 2006 for 2 years it was dangerous for them even in Baghdad University.   In summer 2998 the Iraqi government seems to be taking hold and establishing its authority.   While it seems likely that they will need external help for awhile, the Prime Minsiter, Mr Maliki,  is showing his spine by demanding that in any military agreement with the USA full Iraqi sovreignty over all activities must be maintained.   This should be welcomed by the USA.   

    In 1978 Richard Wilson was worried about a possible "Islamic Bomb" as a counter to the Israeli posession of nuclear weapons.  But in 1981 he discovered that the activities at the time (including the OSIRAK reactor) were peaceful, and could be monitored.   He constantly reminds people that the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the OSIRAK reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive international safeguards.  The 1981 bombing of this reactor did not delay Iraq's nuclear bomb program.  On the contrary it started it.

    The present US policy with respect to Iran is, in our view, crazy and counterproductive.  Our goal should be to encourage openness in Iranian society.  It is vital to have person to person contacts at all levels, including of course nuclear scientists.  Yet it is just these contacts that are now officially inhibited.    I fear that we will make the same mistake with respect in Iran that Israel made in Iraq and by our bellicose actions we may start a military program raher than stop one.