DETROIT: As President Bush addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Detroit today, a statement from mayors of major cities in the U. S. and abroad was released, calling on him to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons "with all deliberate speed," and "to declare your firm commitment to the task of eliminating nuclear weapons from the face of the earth."

In addition, minutes before the President's arrival to address them today, the plenary meeting of the U. S. Mayor's Conference reaffirmed from the floor its policy in favor of eliminating nuclear weapons.

The mayors' interest in nuclear policy is significant in light of the Bush administration considering a proposal for deep cuts in U.S. arsenals down to 1000 warheads, the upcoming nuclear posture review, and the White House's interest in framing a new post-Cold War nuclear policy.

The mayors are concerned about the fact that the two most plausible nuclear threats against the U. S. today, a terrorist attack or an accidental launch of Russian nuclear missiles, would be targeted to U. S. cities.

The possibility of a terrorist strike via boat or truck bomb or other form would not be mitigated by the Bush administration's proposed national missile defense. An accidental launch in which Russia's deteriorating early warning systems mistake a weather rocket or meteor for a ballistic missile, triggering a mistaken retaliatory strike, cannot be deterred by maintaining U. S. nuclear arsenals. In fact, they can only be prevented by nuclear disarmament and elimination of fissile material that might fall into terrorist hands.

According to such nuclear security experts as Ambassador Richard Butler, the former chief arms inspector in Iraq, the global, verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons is the only safeguard we have against the nuclear threat to U. S. cities. Russian command and control systems have deteriorated further and the danger of accidental launches has grown accordingly since the last documented close brush with a mistaken nuclear strike by Russia against the U.S. in 1995. Meanwhile, nuclear states' continued production of fissile material increases the likelihood of terrorist groups obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"Many cities represented by mayors at the U. S. Conference today are specifically targeted by nuclear weapons," said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. "No matter what the likelihood of the weapons actually falling on our cities, the catastrophic consequences of even one nuclear mishap are unacceptable and unnecessary."

"We believe it is our responsibility to speak out," says the mayors' statement released today, "for if nuclear weapons are ever again used, it is virtually certain that one or more of our cities will be the target and the people we represent will be the victims."

"What the mayors are essentially saying," said Tyler Stevenson of the Global Security Institute, "is that we have a fundamental choice before us. We can choose to maintain and modernize our arsenals, endlessly managing the dangers of nuclear deterrence, which perpetuates the targeting of our own cities. Or we can choose to get rid of the weapons, taking U.S. cities and their residents out of nuclear harm's way."

The new statement was spearheaded by the Global Security Institute (GSI) and its founder, the late Senator Alan Cranston, who died on December 31, 2000. The full text and list of signatories is available on the GSI website, www.gsinstitute.org.

Among the signers of statement are past and present mayors from 37 major
U. S. cities, including:

Albuquerque, Mayor Jim Baca
Ann Arbor, Mayor Ingrid Sheldon
Atlanta, Mayor Bill Campbell
Baltimore, Mayor Martin O';Malley
Former Mayor Kurt Schmoke
Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino
Chapel Hill, Rosemary Waldorf
Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley
Cincinnati, Mayor Charlie Luken
Cleveland, Mayor Michael White
Dallas, Mayor Ronald Kirk
Denver, Mayor Wellington Webb, chair of the 2001 U.S. Mayors' Conference International Affairs Committee
Des Moines, Mayor Preston Daniels
Detroit, Mayor Dennis Archer, host of the 2001 U.S. Conference of Mayors
Hartford, Mayor Mike Peters
Honolulu, Mayor Jeremy Harris
Little Rock, Mayor Jim Dailey
Louisville, Mayor David Armstrong
Madison, Mayor Susan J. M. Bauman
Newark, Mayor Sharpe James
New Orleans, Mayor Marc Morial, incoming president of the U.S.
Conference of Mayors
Oakland, Mayor Jerry Brown
Former Mayor Elihu Harris
Philadelphia, Former Mayor Edward Rendell
Pittsburgh, Mayor Tom Murphy
Portland (ME), Former Mayor Thomas Kane
Portland (OR), Mayor Vera Katz
Providence, Mayor Vincent Cianci
Sacramento, Mayor Jimmie Yee
Former Mayor Joe Serna, Jr.
Salem (OR), Mayor Mike Swaim
San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown
San Jose, Mayor Ron Gonzales
Former Mayor Susan Hammer
San Juan, P.R., Alcadesa Sila Maria Calderon
Santa Cruz, Mayor Keith Sugar
Seattle, Mayor Paul Schell
Saint Louis, Mayor Calrence Harmon
Salt Lake City, Mayor Rocky Anderson
Former Mayor Deedee Corradini
Tucson, Mayor George Miller
Washington, DC, Mayor Anthony Williams

Several of these mayors are available to the media for comment on today's statement on eliminating nuclear weapons. In addition, others who can speak to the statement, including Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Detroit Archdiocese, several officials of the Global Security Institute and nationally recognized nuclear policy experts are also available for interviews. For more information and interviews, please call Stephen Kent in Detroit today at the U.S. Conference of Mayors at 914-589-5988. Thereafter, please call 845-424-8382.