WP: Report Faults US Action on Nuke Proliferation (and security)

[DeepModem Mom]

Report Faults U.S. Action On Nuclear Proliferation
Carnegie Study Recommends More Aggressive Tactics
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 21, 2004; Page A12


Within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush highlighted the menace posed by weapons of mass destruction, declaring: "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

That promise led to designations, such as the "axis of evil" for Iraq, Iran and North Korea; to steps, such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, which allows the United States to search ships for weapons material; and to war with Iraq, based on the belief that Saddam Hussein's government was sitting on a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and working toward an atomic bomb.

But according to a critical report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, it has not helped secure vulnerable nuclear facilities, criminalized the transfer of weapons technology or meted out punishments for countries that renege on their commitment to remain nuclear-free.

"If you're really worried that terrorists are going to get nuclear materials and build a bomb, then we have to be acting a lot more aggressively and thinking more comprehensively to lock down the global nuclear complex," said Jon Wolfsthal, one of five co-authors of the Carnegie report, "Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security." The report is being released today at the start of a two-day conference here on nuclear weapons sponsored by the think tank....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56471-2004Jun20.html