1. US Statements on BMD
US Defense Department spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley reported that work on missile defense may conflict with an arms control treaty as early as this winter, though he was not specific about the timing or type of missile defense work that could violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Quigley did state that the treaty compliance review group found that no missile defense activities planned in the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, would conflict with the treaty. While the Republican controlled House of Representatives has recently approved research and development funding for missile defense, the Bush administration faces a greater fight from the Democratically-controlled Senate, where some Senators have voiced concern about approving actions that may violate the 1972 ABM Treaty.
"Pentagon: Work May Violate Treaty"
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, in response to a question on missile defense, "America is interested in a new strategic framework that moves away from the old framework of mutually assured destruction where nations protected themselves from other nations simply by having the ability to overwhelm them and destroy them with nuclear weapons." He added, "We would reduce the number of such strategic offensive weapons, and at the same time build defensive weapons that could defend us against those very irresponsible nations that are pursuing weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to put such weapons on." Powell stressed that the missile defense system "would be a limited defense that would threaten none of the major nuclear powers" and would "add to strategic stability."
"Transcript: Powell Discusses Korean Peninsula, Missile Defense"
US House of Representatives minority leader Democrat Richard Gephardt accused the Bush administration of an obsession with missile defense and of pursuing a unilateralist approach to world affairs that risks antagonizing Russia and undermining relations with Europe. He promised to forge a bipartisan majority in Congress to block any missile defense system that would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty and defended formal arms control negotiations as essential to maintaining the nuclear peace. Speaking about Russia, Gephardt said, "This is a country that is strapped financially in the most severe way. ...Are we worried about their command and control, about something getting out of hand? So that to me is the major threat that we still face. And treating that in a sensible way is severely complicated by our obsession with going ahead with this missile defense plan, which we haven't proven can work, and we haven't developed, and that we certainly haven't worked out with the Europeans and the Russians."
"Gephardt Launches an Attack on Bush's Foreign Policy"