Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Jon Kyl

Showing posts with label Jon Kyl. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

US Senate to open START debate

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Senate_to_open_START_debate_999.html Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2010 President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the US Senate said Tuesday they would kick off formal debate on a landmark nuclear arms control pact with Russia and predicted its ratification this year. Obama has made the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) a lynchpin of his drive to "reset" relations with Moscow, and called for passage this year in what would be a signal diplomatic victory two months after an elections rout.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters he could bring up START late in the day or on Wednesday despite stiff objections from Republicans who say there is not enough time for a full debate.
Asked whether the accord would net the 67 votes needed for ratification and whether he would bring the agreement to a vote this year, as Obama has requested, Reid replied: "Yes. The answer is yes on both."
Obama's Democratic allies currently control 58 Senate seats, and need nine of the 42 Republicans to reach the 67 votes needed for approval -- but that number rises to 14 when a new Congress arrives in January.
The agreement -- which has the support of virtually every present and former US foreign policy or national security heavyweight -- restricts each nation to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002, and 800 launchers and bombers.
The agreement, which has broad American public support, would also return US inspectors who have been unable to monitor Russia's arsenal since the agreement's predecessor lapsed in December 2009.
"I believe we can pass the START treaty if we get a chance to (vote), the key is to get it going," Democratic Senator John Kerry, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and the accord's lead champion, told reporters.
"It's on the agenda, we want to get it done but the key is sort of when we wrap up what," Kerry said, citing ongoing battles over tax cuts, government spending bills, and other matters with the 2010 legislative clock ticking.
Just three Republicans have publicly said they will back the treaty, but others have broadly signalled that they will support the accord as long as Democrats allow suitable time for debate.
The Republican point-man on the treaty, Senator Jon Kyl, has publicly said that he has not yet made up his mind, but his office has bombarded journalists with news articles critical of the accord and opinion pieces urging its defeat.
While Republicans were highly unlikely to muster the 51 votes needed to amend the treaty -- effectively killing it by forcing new talks with Moscow -- a source said they planned a series of politically difficult amendment votes.
Two Republican sources said they would try to strike language in the accord's non-binding preamble that declares there is a relationship between offensive nuclear weapons and missile defenses.
Republicans have charged that the accord may handcuff US missile defense plans fiercely opposed by Russia, though the Pentagon and arms experts of both parties have flatly denied any such impact.
And the White House has responded to worries from Kyl and others about funding the upkeep of the US nuclear arsenal by budgeting some 84.1 billion dollars over ten years for modernization and maintence.
The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has indicated it will ratify the treaty only after its ratification by the US Senate.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Opposition to New START Pits Republicans Against Traditional Allies by Russ Wellen, Truthout:

http://www.truth-out.org/opposition-new-start-pits-republicans-against-traditional-allies65573 "It's not just the Obama administration against which Republican senators under the guidance of Jon Kyl pit themselves when they oppose New START. In fact, perhaps bewitched by Tea Party-style incoherence, they've also placed themselves in the unlikely position of bucking the national defense establishment, to which traditionally they've been joined at the hip. New START, of course, enjoys the support of Secretary of Defense Gates and the Pentagon."
Read the Article

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Mullen Makes Military’s Case for START Ratification By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service

http://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=61682

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 12, 2010 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today delivered the military argument for Senate ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and talked about the future of deterrence.
Speaking at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said “the stars may have aligned” to pass the new START pact the United States negotiated with Russia.
“Deterrence today is tougher and more complex. More than one nation can now reach out and touch us with nuclear missiles,” Mullen said to a star-studded audience that included former secretaries of state George Shultz, Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger, and former Defense Secretary William J. Perry. “Americans are potential targets of terrorism wherever they travel, and regional instability in several places around the globe could easily erupt into large-scale conflict.
“Yet, we have done precious little spadework to advance the theory of deterrence,” he continued, noting the lack of serious discussion on deterrence since the end of the Cold War. “It is as if we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Soviet Union collapsed and said to ourselves, ‘Well, I guess we don't need to worry about that anymore.’ We were wrong. The demands of deterrence evolve.”
The new treaty will help with the discussion, Mullen said, and the time is right. The stars are aligning for passage, he added.
“A flood of Soviet troops into Afghanistan dissolved support for SALT II in the United States, whereas the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Union may well have hastened the signing and ratification of START,” Mullen said. “Today, we lack a similar treaty with Russia. In fact, we haven’t had one for almost a year now. But the arms buildup in the aftermath of SALT II’s disintegration highlights the necessity for some sort of understanding, some sort of verifiable reduction and monitoring regime.”
It is in the interest of both the United States and Russia to ratify this treaty, the chairman told the audience. From the military aspect, the new START treaty “allows us to retain a strong and flexible American nuclear deterrent,” Mullen said.
“It strengthens openness and transparency in our relationship with Russia,” he added.
The treaty also demonstrates America’s commitment to nuclear arms reductions, Mullen said. “I am convinced that New START - permitting us as it does 1,550 aggregate warheads and the freedom to create our own force posture within that limit – leaves us with more than enough nuclear deterrent capability for the world we live in,” he explained.
Mullen said he’s convinced the treaty preserves the nuclear triad and retains U.S. flexibility to continue deploying conventional global strike capabilities.
“I am also convinced that the verification regime is as stringent as it is transparent, and borne of more than 15 years of lessons learned under the original START treaty,” he said.
The new treaty provides for 18 inspections annually, and for sharing data concerning the numbers, locations and technical characteristics of systems subject to the treaty, the admiral noted.
“In other words, we’ll know a lot more about Russian systems and intentions than we do right now,” he said. “And as I have said many times, in many different contexts, in this fast-paced, flatter world of ours, information, and the trust it engenders, is every bit as much a deterrent as any weapon we deploy.”
Because he worries about “what I don’t know and what I can’t see,” Mullen said, the treaty’s inspection provisions are critical.
“So, I believe, and the rest of the military leadership in this country believes, that this treaty is essential to our future security,” said the chairman told the audience. “I believe it enhances and ensures that security. And I hope the Senate will ratify it quickly.”

Obama pledges $4 billion more for nuke complex in bid to pass START, sources say

In a last-minute bid to save a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the Obama administration has offered to spend $4 billion more over five years on the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, congressional sources said Friday.
President Obama has made passage of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, one of his top priorities for the lame-duck session starting next week. Officials worry that the pact could face long delays, or even fail, if it is put off until next year, when the Democrats' Senate majority will shrink.
Republicans have conditioned their support for the treaty on a big budget increase to fix up the country's aging weapons-production facilities.
Administration officials went to Capitol Hill on Friday and said the White House was prepared to add $4.1 billion for nuclear facilities, according to one congressional aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. That is on top of a $10 billion increase the administration had already promised over the next decade .More at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111206326.html