Nuclear Proliferation

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration failed to brief key congressional committees in 1997 about the FBI's investigation of Chinese nuclear espionage, even as the United States was trying to certify that China was helping to curb the spread of nuclear technology, a White House official acknowledged yesterday.The admission is likely to intensify the debate over China as lawmakers and White House aides struggle to declassify a report on Chinese weapons proliferation before a March 31 deadline.

ONCE AGAIN, ISRAEL is pressing the United States to release Jonathan Pollard, a former Pentagon analyst who has been imprisoned 12 years for spying for Israel.But who will plead for Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli technician who has served an equally long time for the crime of going public with his country's secret nuclear-weapons program?Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost blocked the recent Israeli-Palestinian interim peace agreement over President Clinton's refusal to grant immediate release to Pollard.

WASHINGTON -- The positive aura of President Clinton's visit to China hasn't muzzled his Capitol Hill critics, but China experts say it may quiet them long enough for diplomats to make progress on issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to the Asian economic crisis.In the face of a drumbeat of criticism from Republicans, human rights advocates and some Democrats, Clinton made a point of challenging his Chinese hosts on their repressive policies while also promoting trade and economic issues.

PARIS -- Controversy has suddenly vanished in the U.S. Senate over NATO enlargement, where a few weeks ago NATO seemed likely to provide the long-overdue great debate on U.S. foreign policy.The debate has been swept away by convenient hypocrisy over NATO expansion's costs, and by the Clinton administration's successful re-launch of the enlargement issue as a choice between "appeasement" of Russia and solidarity with the brave Poles and Czechs.The Pentagon's steadily shrinking estimates of the cost of expansion have been accompanied by ever-firmer assurances that the Europeans will pay for nearly all of it anyway.

I LIKE YOUR editorials for their objectivity and frankness. However, your Aug. 23 editorial, ''India keeps its nuclear option,'' provides a somewhat distorted view of the global issue of nuclear disarmament and incorrectly paints India as the villain.It is inaccurate to brand the new coalition government of India as being leftist. That government is continuing on the path of free market reforms which have served India well in recent years. We all wish this government longevity.The impasse over the comprehensive test ban treaty came because the disparate nations could not address the real issue, the ultimate abolition of all nuclear weapons.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- On paper, Richard G. Lugar should be a formidable contender for the Republican presidential nomination. In his three terms in the Senate and earlier as mayor of Indianapolis he has earned a reputation as a heavyweight on a variety of issues.But whether the Indiana senator has the knack for presenting himself aggressively and succinctly enough for an electorate that relies on television sound bites is still an unanswered question as he approaches a final decision on whether to run.The one thing that is clear is that Lugar is taking a distinctly different approach.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- On paper, Dick Lugar should be a formidable contender for the Republican presidential nomination. In his three terms in the Senate and earlier as mayor of Indianapolis he has earned a reputation as a heavyweight on a variety of issues.But whether the Indiana senator has the knack for presenting himself aggressively and succinctly enough for an electorate that relies on television sound bites is still an unanswered question as he approaches a final decision on whether to run.The one thing that is clear is that Lugar is taking a distinctly different approach.

Some say the world will end in fire.Some say in ice. . . .- Robert Frost, Fire and IceSimple logic dictates that the more nations have nuclear arms, the greater the chance these terrible weapons will be used. Yet a number of respected analysts today believe that nuclear proliferation actually makes the world safer. The effects of their arguments may be more than academic.At issue is U.S. policy, which soon will be put to a strong test. This month at United Nations Headquarters in New York, 162 nations will decide whether or not to renew their adherence to the 1969 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The world is a safer place because of Project Sapphire. Thanks to good teamwork by the U.S. Defense, Energy and State Departments, one of the gravest nuclear security gaps was plugged. Thanks to the wisdom and initiative of Kazakhstan's old Communist leader, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, one huge temptation is denied to the forces of terrorism, corruption and covetous rogue countries.It was a secret mission brought off with flare and efficiency worthy of the hottest days of the Cold War. A team of American nuclear specialists was spirited into a padlocked but insecure warehouse in Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.

The Clinton administration's success in forcing cancellation of Russian rocket sales to India relieves the most serious security dispute between Washington and Moscow since the breakup of the Soviet Union and brightens prospects for their greater cooperation in curbing the spread of nuclear weaponry. When combined with signs of progress in U.S. nuclear disputes with Iraq and North Korea, the case for tough use of American pressure grows ever stronger.To determine just how far the Russians had to backtrack, consider this statement by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin during a visit to India last January: "When two great countries, in this case India and Russia, sign an agreement, it is not businesslike or proper to breach that agreement.

DENVER - Republican Sen. John McCain said yesterday that, as president, he would reach out to China and Russia in an effort to battle nuclear proliferation. He also parted company with the Bush administration over a controversial weapon designed to detect and destroy weapons of mass destruction buried deep within the earth. "No problem we face poses a greater threat to us and the world than nuclear proliferation," the presumed GOP nominee said in a speech at the University of Denver. "In a time when followers of hateful and remorseless ideology are willing to destroy themselves to destroy us, the threat of suicide bombers with the means to wreak incomprehensible devastation should call the entire world to action."

The U.N. panel on climate change warns of mass extinctions, droughts, floods and fires. Less remarked upon but also disturbing: The effort to slow global warming could speed up the spread of nuclear weapons. We need a new approach to avoid global warming and nuclear proliferation merging into an environmental and security nightmare. Why? Global electricity demand is growing quickly. Meeting that demand with coal-fired plants will continue to spill massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

LONDON -- I can see the headlines now: "U.S. Increases Nuclear Arsenal by 2,200"; "U.S. Proliferates While Scolding Iran for Doing the Same"; "U.S. to be Next North Korea." Do not be shocked if you notice these titles in foreign press outlets, keen to grab any tidbit that might paint the Bush administration or America in a negative light. Do not be too surprised if they appear in the opinion pages of major U.S. newspapers either. Last month, the administration announced its intention to pursue a multi-year plan to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which includes the development of 2,200 new nuclear weapons.

So North Korea says it has tested a nuclear weapon. So what? The world has known for years that this rogue nation could build the bomb and in all likelihood, already had. "In a sense, nothing changed," says Steve Fetter, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. "It just demonstrated a capability that we have assumed, or should have assumed, they already had. In fact if anything, the test was probably a disappointment. "But just as obviously, it changes everything because it must have represented a decision by North Korean leadership, and they must have known they were crossing some line.

"At this time of great crisis in the world, we should be looking for nuclear disarmament, nuclear abolition - saving the world, not ramping up for Armageddon by nuclear proliferation." - Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio. "There's always an alien battle cruiser, or a Korlian death ray, or an intergalactic plague that's trying to wipe out life on this miserable little planet." - Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black. Armageddon is hot again, and why not? We crave explanations for wars in the Middle East and madness at home, such as the shooting of six people at a Jewish center in Seattle last week by a man claiming to be a Muslim and wanting revenge against Israel.

THE TICKING time bomb of North Korea - and the vexing problem of how to defuse it - was highlighted in the presidential debate, with President Bush and Sen. John Kerry offering disparate visions of what to do. It's about time for such very public discussion. U.S. intelligence now says the North has as many as eight nuclear weapons. The exact number isn't known, but the threat is such that a recent mushroom cloud rising over a construction site in the North triggered fears of a nuclear test.

WASHINGTON - Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector and a critic of U.S. claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is scheduled to meet with President Bush this week to discuss ways to tighten controls on nuclear weapons technology. The meeting, which was requested by the White House, comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency, headed by ElBaradei, and governments worldwide search for the means to prevent a repeat of the sales of advanced nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

THERE IS NO international statute that permits the United States or any other nation to take military action to halt nuclear weapons proliferation. Yet the Bush administration -- as prior administrations -- reserves the right to do so. No doubt other nations have similar plans. This fact, coupled with the absence of a compliance mechanism in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), raises the question: Should there be an international convention that legitimizes force in the event that other means fail to prevent proliferation?

FYLINGDALES MOOR, England - It sure is a swell view from Mike Milner's Saltersgate Inn pub, with its rolling land, grazing sheep. And a radar station designed to detect a first launch to nuclear Armageddon. "You live with things in your own back yard," Milner says. "In the end, you don't even think about it." Milner resides in the shadow of the Royal Air Force's Fylingdales radar base, which helped keep a chilled peace during the Cold War and may one day be upgraded to play a vital role in America's aspirations to create a National Missile Defense program.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration failed to brief key congressional committees in 1997 about the FBI's investigation of Chinese nuclear espionage, even as the United States was trying to certify that China was helping to curb the spread of nuclear technology, a White House official acknowledged yesterday.The admission is likely to intensify the debate over China as lawmakers and White House aides struggle to declassify a report on Chinese weapons proliferation before a March 31 deadline.