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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Bi-Partisan Panel Issues Report Urging President Bush to Delay NMD Deployment |
Current rating: 0 |
by Council for a Livable World
(No verified email address) |
01 May 2001
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 1, 2001
CONTACT: Council for a Livable World
Lynn Erskine, 202-543-4100 x135
Chris Madison, 301-509-7474 |
WASHINGTON - May 1 - A bipartisan panel of national security specialists today issued a report urging President Bush to delay deployment of a national missile defense system and endorsed the administration's plan to make significant reductions in the U.S. stockpile of strategic nuclear weapons. The report, Policymakers Views on Addressing the Nuclear Threat, was based on interviews conducted in recent months with more than 40 key policymakers and defense experts.
The panel, known as the Annapolis Group, after the site of its original meeting back in 1989, interviewed both Republican and Democratic policymakers to determine consensus on the key nuclear weapons issues facing President Bush. Its recommendations, based on those interviews, are contained in a memorandum presented to President Bush and other administration officials today. Transcripts of the interviews were also provided to the administration.
"We sampled views across the spectrum, from the most conservative Republican to classic liberal Democrat. What we are offering to the President and his national security team is solid, mainstream thinking on nuclear weapons issues," said John Rhinelander, arms control expert and member of the Annapolis Group.
Among those interviewed were former Senator Sam Nunn; former Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili; Senators James Inhofe, Joseph Biden, Carl Levin, Max Cleland; Reps. Lindsey Graham, Porter Goss, John Spratt; and former Bush and Clinton administration officials Arnold Kanter, James Steinberg, Douglas Paal, Peter Rodman, and William Perry.
The group's central recommendations are as follows:
-- The President needs to pay closer attention to Russia if the U.S. is to make progress on a number of important issues affecting national security, including reductions in strategic nuclear weapons and materials, missile defense, and proliferation.
-- The administration should seek significant reductions in U.S. strategic nuclear weapons in consultation with Russia.
-- Research and development should go forward on missile defense, but the President should delay a decision on deployment.
-- Additional funding and attention is needed to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including threat reduction and stockpile programs with Russia, unfinished missile negotiations with North Korea, and the recommendations of the Baker-Cutler report.
-- The administration should continue its comprehensive review of nuclear weapons policy, and consider building on the Rumsfeld review by seeking additional outside views to build bipartisan support for national security policy.
"A careful reading of history in the nuclear age will reveal that despite the inclination of new administrations to change policy abruptly from that of its predecessor, success in this vital area of national security almost always requires a return to a policy based on consensus," the report stated.
The Annapolis Group includes: Alton Frye, Joseph Cirincione, John Isaacs, Amb. Thomas Graham, Jr., Edith B. Wilkie and John Rhinelander. The Group is chaired by Beth DeGrasse, who coordinated the 1989 memorandum that was presented to then incoming President George Bush.
On missile defense, the group noted that missile defense was "one of the most divisive issues in the entire national security debate." The report stated, "While support for missile defense in the future is evident, there is little enthusiasm for immediate deployment of any system and or near-term withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
For a copy of the report, call 202-543-4100 x135 or visit |
See also:
http://www.clw.org/theannapolisgroup
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