Guess what they snuck through while the sheep watched Bush at the RNC?
The White House is being criticized by the Arms Control Association for trying to derail a proposed international ban on production of material used to make nuclear weapons. You would think that, with as many times as terrorism, war, and the reminders of 9-11 were bantered about during the RNC, that it would be a good thing to limit the possibility of nukes. But the White House is doing what it can to derail this ban. I guess without their ability to use fear as a weapon, Republicans don’t have much more to go on.
Yahoo! article archived here.White House Accused of Blocking Nuke Ban
Thu Sep 2, 6:17 PM ET
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON – The head of the Arms Control Association and a former senior U.S. official accused the Bush administration on Thursday of trying to derail a proposed international ban on production of material used to make nuclear weapons.
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the private research group, said the administration’s position that airtight safeguards against cheating could not be found was “something of a poison pill.”
“We do not agree that this treaty is not effectively verifiable,” Kimball said at a news conference.
Robert J. Einhorn, a former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, said the administration was determined to kill any prospect of a treaty emerging from a 65-nation conference in Geneva.
Einhorn, who is senior security adviser to the Center for Strategic International Studies, a private research group, said that in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, “The first thing you want to do is to limit the stocks of fissile material worldwide.”
David Albright, president of the private Institute for Science and International Security, said a treaty without verification provisions, which include onsite inspections, would not make sense.
The proposed treaty would outlaw production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons purposes. A nuclear weapon cannot be made without one or the other.
U.S. officials are in Geneva outlining the administration’s view that compliance with the treaty could not be verified.
The treaty is seen by disarmament advocates as a way to curb nuclear weapons programs in India, Pakistan and Israel, which are outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
But in a review, the United States concluded an inspection program under the treaty could compromise countries’ national security interests and be very costly.
Jackie Sanders, the U.S. representative, told the disarmament conference in July that the review also raised serious concerns that realistic, effective verification could be achieved.
Also, the administration takes the position that it would be very difficult to determine when fissile material found by inspectors was obtained and for what purpose it was to be used.