VOX POPULI: PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY URGES SENATE TO REJECT THE FATALLY-FLAWED CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

(Washington, D.C.): The United States Senate is
scheduled to vote in the near future on an arms control
treaty — the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) — that
will have a decidedly negative impact on the interests of
this Nation and its citizenry. This fatally-flawed treaty
purports to ban the production, stockpiling and use of
chemical weapons. It will, in fact, do no
such thing.

As the Center for Security Policy has noted
previously,⁽¹⁾
the CWC has myriad flaws. Not least among them are the
following:

• The CWC is not — as its supporters claim — global
  in its reach. In fact, some of the most
  dangerous nations on earth, including Libya and
  Iraq, have not signed the treaty, nor do they
  intend to. Others have done so confident
  that they can cheat without fear of detection or
  retribution.
• The CWC is not verifiable. Its extensive
  verification regime fails the most basic and
  important test: No U.S. official can
  state with any degree of confidence that if a
  state party chooses covertly to violate the
  convention, U.S. intelligence agencies will be
  able to detect the violation.
• The CWC will impose undue costs on a large
  universe of American industries that produce or
  even simply utilize chemicals in the course
  of their business operations. Such costs will
  arise as a result of new, burdensome reporting
  requirements and on-site inspections. Indirect
  costs will likely include the loss of proprietary
  business information during intrusive inspections
  by international monitors and lost production
  time due to these inspections — that may take as
  long as ten business days.

These and other serious shortcomings of the CWC were
articulated with characteristic flair in a syndicated
column published yesterday in the Washington Times
by one of the Nation’s most influential grassroots
advocates for a strong and morally centered America — Phyllis
Schlafly. (A copy of the Schlafly
column is attached.) Importantly, Mrs. Schlafly
raises an alarm about the CWC’s dubious
constitutionality:

“If the CWC goes into effect, what happens to
our Fourth Amendment rights? The CWC’s Technical
Secretariat, without a warrant, would be empowered to
inspect virtually everything within the premises,
including records, files, papers, processes,
controls, structures and vehicles, and to interrogate
on-site personnel.”

The Center for Security Policy commends Phyllis
Schlafley for adding her formidable voice to the chorus
of those who realize that the fatally-flawed Chemical
Weapons Convention is unworthy of ratification. Is the
United States Senate listening to this rising vox
populi?

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1. See, for example, the Center’s Decision
Brief entitled Profile in Courage:
Jesse Helms is Right to Block a Fatally-Flawed Chemical
Weapons Treaty ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-D_92″>No. 95-D 92, 14 November
1995).