Biden Says Cheney, Others Thwart Nonproliferation Opportunities

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Certain senior Bush administration officials have kept President George W. Bush from increasing U.S. nonproliferation funding and supporting other arms control initiatives, a senior Senate Democrat said recently, prompting some candid comments from Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“I worry that in too many cases ideology for the first three years of this administration has trumped, or at least gotten in the way of, nonproliferation policy,” said Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Powell last week.

Biden, the senior committee Democrat, said that in an earlier meeting with Bush, the president seemed enthusiastic about increasing support for programs to secure and eliminate WMD and missile arsenals in former Soviet states. Currently, the United States spends about $1 billion annually on such programs.

Biden said, however, that Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials opposed the idea, arguing that the increased U.S. assistance would simply free Russian money for other objectives.

Bush’s “enthusiasm was real. But the enthusiasm of others in the room was not only not real, it was in opposition,” Biden said.

Calling such assistance “the single most important nonproliferation tool available to us,” Biden said, “This is mindless. It’s ideological idiocy.”

Powell said he supports the programs and appeared to dismiss concerns about the impact of U.S. funding.

“Of course, money is fungible, but in this case, we have ways of making sure that this fungible money is serving our interest, not serving the interests of the Russians alone,” he said.

In its fiscal 2005 budget request, the administration has requested $409 million for the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction programs, a $42 million decrease from current funding levels (see GSN, Feb. 11).

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the leading Senate advocate of those programs, gave a similar, though more diplomatic, explanation for the administration’s approach to the program.

Bush has appeared “very supportive of these programs,” Lugar said, but “down in the weeds sometimes, the president’s enthusiasm is not followed through.”

“That’s not to suggest that you’re the weeds. The weeds are down below you,” Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) said to Powell.

Biden added, “I think there’s one weed above you, [a] big weed. His name is Cheney.  And I’m not nearly the diplomat that my colleague is.”

The White House and the vice president’s office provided no comment in time for this story.

Biden also said that Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton was partially responsible for the administration’s current reconsideration of a previously supported ban on nuclear weapons fuel production.

“For over two years the administration has castigated — rightly — other countries for preventing negotiations from starting. Now [that] there’s a chance of success, however, the administration announced that our policy is under review,” he said.

“Well, tell Mr. Bolton that it’s a good idea for him to go on vacation,” Biden said, prompting an, “I beg your pardon?” from Powell.

“It’s Bolton. Bolton is the guy who thinks this is a bad idea, along with Mr. Feith and a few others,” he said, referring also to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

“Don’t worry about Mr. Bolton. He works for me and we’ll work it out with respect to our position,” Powell said.

Biden charged that ideology has guided other administration decisions, citing Bush’s opposition to ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the administration raising “the specter of the possible use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states,” and the administration’s interest in developing new nuclear weapons capabilities.

Those policies could undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Biden said.

“Over the last three years I believe we have sent mixed signals at best, and negative signals at worst,” Biden said, “The United States has undermined our message that other nations must forgo the bomb.”

Powell said that while the administration has no plans to resubmit the test ban treaty for Senate approval required for ratification, a U.S. test moratorium would remain in effect.

“There’ll be no testing on our side,” he said.

Powell also expressed opposition to using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.

“Whatever contemplation may be given to this, it’s my own personal judgment that this would not be a sensible policy,” he said.

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