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Archived News Articles: NMD and Foreign Policy
6/8/2001 from AP, The Washington Post and The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/08/world/08NATO.html
Rumsfeld Outlines to NATO Fast Track for Missile Shield
By JAMES DAO
BRUSSELS, June 7 - Secretary of Defense Donald H.
Rumsfeld said today that the United States is likely to
deploy certain antiballistic missile systems before
testing on them is completed, signaling the speed with
which the Bush administration hopes to develop and use
the still-unproven technology. ...
In one closed-door session, the American delegation
presented the NATO ministers with detailed intelligence
information that they said clearly demonstrated the
efforts of certain nations to acquire advanced,
long-range missile technology. ...
"The course they are choosing will precipitate an
international political crisis regarding the ABM treaty
sooner than is necessary, given the very immature status
of the technology," said Daryl Kimball, executive
director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a
nonprofit group. "Why perpetuate a crisis when the
technology will not provide you the protection you
desire?"
Privately, some European officials agreed. "It doesn't
make sense to decide on something that hasn't been
proven, when you don't know whether it works or whether
you can pay for it," a German defense official said. ...
Indeed, Mr. Rumsfeld said today that unlike the Clinton
administration, the Pentagon under President Bush will
not be deterred from conducting tests that might violate
the treaty. ...
Although some people said the briefing was persuasive,
others sounded unconvinced. "The information was not new
to us," said a German defense official. "We knew there
were bad guys out there." ...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/584458.asp?pne=msn
Missile defense speedup weighed
Implementing system by 2004 considered
By Steven Mufson and Mary Pat Flaherty
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON, June 8 - The Bush administration is
considering a crash effort to put into place a
rudimentary missile defense system before the end of
President Bush's current term in 2004, according to
administration officials and a presentation by a major
defense contractor. ...
A flight test planned for this month has been postponed
until August, administration officials said. The most
recent test took place nearly a year ago. ...
Boeing's presentation assumes that "treaty constraints"
are "removed" - a reference to the ABM Treaty, which
prohibits testing and construction of missile defenses
at multiple sites.
The Boeing presentation was made by Jim Evatt, a
Boeing executive vice president and manager of its
missile defense work. Major subcontractors on missile
defense include TRW Inc., which makes the battle
management control system; Raytheon Co., which makes the
kill vehicle; and Lockheed Martin Corp., which makes the
launch vehicle.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010608/wl/nato_7.html
Rumsfeld Takes Message to Russians
By JEFFREY ULBRICH, Associated Press Writer
Friday June 8 11:44 AM ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, having hammered the NATO allies with
Washington's missile defense message, took the same
argument to the Russians on Friday, hoping to convince
them the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty has outlived its
usefulness.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated that if
Washington wants to abandon the 1972 ABM treaty, the
Russians can't stop them. But he wanted to know what
would be put in its place. ...
6/15/2001 from the Kansas City Star:
http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/printer.pat,local/3accc051.615,.html
Bush to seek reduced contacts with Russia
By BARRY SCHWEID - AP Diplomatic Writer
Date: 06/15/01 08:37
WASHINGTON -- President Bush will propose to Russian
President Vladimir Putin scaling down the level of
contacts between their two countries. One result would
be to lower the profile of arms control negotiations.
Bush will resist a Russian overture to set up two
working groups to deal with missile defenses and further
reductions in U.S. and Russian offensive arsenals, two
senior officials said Thursday.
Preferring talks on missile defenses and cutbacks in
arsenals be dealt with by small delegations of experts,
Bush's overall goal is to reverse the Clinton
administration's use of a high-level commission to
oversee bargaining on weapons and other major issues,
said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
...
The administration is calling the process Bush will
propose "decentralizing."
Bush's approach is that issues involving the two
countries should be managed by departments in Washington
and Moscow instead of by formal working groups or
commissions that can involve massive delegations, the
officials said. ...
6/15/2001 from AP:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010615/15/news-bush-europe
Bush Urges Russia to Forge New Ties
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
Updated: Fri, Jun 15 3:20 PM EDT
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - In the heart of the old Soviet
bloc, President Bush chastised Russia on Friday for
suspected nuclear commerce and encouraged the former
Cold War rival to help "erase the false lines that have
divided Europe."
A day before his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Bush
urged the Russian president to forge new ties with the
West and become "a partner and an ally." Aides said Bush
will seek to open talks between U.S. and Russian
military leaders aimed at easing Moscow's opposition to
an American anti-missile shield. ...
6/16/2001 from ABC News: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010615/ts/bush_europe_speech010615_1.html
Bush Outlines Vision for Europe
By Carter M. Yang ABCNEWS.com
Bush envisions a unified Europe. Plus: (Quote):
As he laid out his vision for a "whole and free" Europe,
President Bush today sought to reassure Russia that an
expanded and strengthened European alliance would not be
its enemy.
"Our goal is to erase the false lines that have divided
Europe for too long ...
"All of Europe's new democracies, from the Baltic to the
Black Sea and all that lie between, should have the same
chance for security and freedom - as Europe's old
democracies have," Bush said. ...
"Let us tell all those who have struggled to build
democracy and free markets - no one can take away your
freedom or your country," the president said ...
Bush urged his counterparts across the Atlantic to
support expansion of the 19-member NATO alliance and the
strengthening of ties with Russia, telling European
leaders, "My nation welcomes the consolidation of
European unity and the security it brings." ...
"We look for the day when Russia is fully reformed,
fully democratic and closely bound to the rest of
Europe," he said. "NATO, even as it grows, is no enemy
of Russia - America is no enemy of Russia."
Bush and Putin are set to meet Saturday in the Slovenian
capital of Ljubljana - the U.S. president's final stop
on this weeklong European tour.
"I very much hope - we will be able to work out and
initiate a unified approach to defining the future
architecture of international security," Putin told
reporters in Moscow today. ...
"Today a new generation makes a new commitment: A Europe
and an America bound in a great alliance of liberty -
history's greatest force for peace and progress and
human dignity," the president (Bush) said. "Our progress
is great, our goals are large and our differences, in
comparison, are small." ... "We share more than an
alliance. We share a civilization," Bush said today.
"These trans-Atlantic ties could not be severed by
U-boats. They could not be cut by checkpoints and barbed
wire - And they certainly will not be broken by
commercial quarrels and political debates."
6/17/2001 from Reuters:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010617/ts/bush_nuclear_dc_1.html
Report: Bush Stunned by U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Size
Sunday June 17 1:28 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush was stunned last
month when told of the extent of the U.S. nuclear
arsenal, Newsweek magazine reported in its June 25
edition, released on Sunday. ...
... the magazine noted in detailing the vast U.S.
nuclear arsenal, which includes 5,400 warheads on
intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1,750 nuclear bombs
and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and
B-52 bombers, 1,670 ``tactical'' nuclear weapons and
another 10,000 warheads in bunkers around the United
States. ...
6/17/2001 from The New York Times:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nyt/20010617/ts/
putin_urges_bush_not_to_act_alone_on_missile_shield_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/17/world/17PREX.html
Putin Urges Bush Not to Act Alone on Missile Shield
By FRANK BRUNI
BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, June 16 - Russian President
Vladimir V. Putin cautioned President Bush today about
developing a missile defense shield without Moscow's
consent, telling Mr. Bush that such an action could
seriously strain relations between the two countries.
...
"Any unilateral actions can only make more complicated
various problems and issues," Mr. Putin said, referring
to the recent signals from the Bush administration that
it would press on with a missile defense even if allies
and the Russians continued to object. ...
6/17/2001 from msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/585107.asp
U.S. to proceed on missile plan
Rice: Time to move past '72 ABM treaty
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON, June 17 - While the United States
would like to move forward on its missile defense
plan with Russia's blessing, the Bush
administration will proceed without it, National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
Rice said the United States would also likely
abandon the 1972 ABM treaty - a landmark arms
control agreement with Russia - to make it happen.
"The United States has made it clear that it's
time to move on to a new era," Rice said on NBC's
Meet the Press program....
Rice said it was unclear when the U.S.
would end the treaty, but Secretary of State Colin
Powell said on another TV show Sunday that it
would happen when the curbs on missile defense are
blocking U.S. technology.
Powell said the agreement was reached in a
different era. "We cannot allow its constraints"
to bind American technology, he said on ABC's
"This Week."
Powell, too, said the United States was
going to move forward for its plan to shield
against a missile attack.
Russia President Vladimir Putin, who is opposed
to the missile defense idea, said the 1972 ABM treaty
banning such missile defense plans is the "cornerstone
of the modern architecture of international security."
He has warned the United States that if it proceeded on
its own, that would only complicate U.S.-Russian
relations.
Throughout his six-day trip to Europe last week,
Bush said he wanted to make the case to Putin that such
a shield is not designed to give Washington a strategic
superiority over Moscow, but rather to protect against
"blackmail" from rogue states. ...
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