[Peace-discuss] Fwd: USATODAY: Bush frees cash to secure Soviet arms U.S. wants to stop foes from getting weapons

[Margaret E. Kosal]

Good news!

>From: "Stephan Robinson" <stephan.robinson at greencross.ch>
>To: "CBW-listserver" <cbw-sipri at sipri.se>
>
>
>Page 1A, USATODAY
>
>Bush frees cash to secure Soviet arms U.S. wants to stop foes from getting
>weapons
>
>By Peter Eisler
>USA TODAY
>
>WASHINGTON -- President Bush has signed special orders to release nearly a
>half-billion dollars in frozen funds to help Russia secure or eliminate
>nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, USA TODAY has learned.
>
>The orders end a yearlong hold on spending for projects under the U.S.
>Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which was paralyzed by restrictive
>rules set by Republican critics in Congress. Administration officials say
>the program is an important defense against terrorists and rogue states
>obtaining old Soviet weapons of mass destruction.
>
>The president's orders free more than $150 million to build a facility to
>destroy chemical munitions at Shchuch'ye, Russia, where nearly 2 million
>artillery shells and missile warheads filled with deadly nerve gases sit in
>rickety, poorly secured barns. USA TODAY reported last fall that the funding
>freeze had put the project near collapse and raised concerns that some of
>the stockpiled weapons might fall into the hands of U.S. enemies.
>
>''There are a lot of (assistance) contracts piled up that will go forward
>now,'' says Paul Walker of Global Green USA, a group hired by the Pentagon
>to facilitate threat-reduction projects in Russia. The president's orders
>are ''a long-awaited and very central part of the president's
>non-proliferation and counterterrorism program.''
>
>In the past decade, the threat reduction program has spent $4 billion to
>help former Soviet states eliminate or secure weapons of mass destruction
>inherited from the Soviet arsenal. Its successes range from dismantling one
>of the world's largest biological weapons production facilities in
>Kazakhstan to deactivating more than 6,000 nuclear warheads spread across
>the former Soviet states.
>
>Funding for projects in Russia froze after a few Republican lawmakers
>attached criteria requiring the administration to ''certify'' Russian
>compliance with arms control pledges. They say Russia is not committed to
>destroying weapons of mass destruction.
>
>At the Bush administration's request, Congress passed legislation last month
>that empowers the president to waive the certification criteria. Bush signed
>the waiver orders Friday and is expected to officially notify Congress by
>early next week, administration officials say.
>
>Projects in Russia, which holds the bulk of the old Soviet arsenal, account
>for most money spent under the program. The waivers will free about $450
>million for those projects, some of it left from previous years'
>appropriations.
>
>Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who helped create the threat reduction program,
>says it is especially critical to destroy the ''small and easily
>transportable'' chemical arms at Shchuch'ye. ''They would be deadly in the
>hands of terrorists, religious sects or paramilitary units.''
>
>
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