CENTER WARNS SENATE THAT CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION IS A HOAX, MUST BE REJECTED

Testifying this morning, associates of the Center for Security Policy served notice on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the pending Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is fatally flawed and urging its rejection. The three expert witnesses opposing this accord were: Dr. Kathleen Bailey, a former Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: Amoretta Hoeber, a former Deputy Under Secretary of the Army; and Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., who formerly acted as an Assistant Secretary of Defense and is currently the Center’s director.

Unfortunately, as anticipated in a press release issued yesterday by the Center,(1) only three Senators — Chairman Claiborne Pell (D-RI), Ranking Member Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) — were in attendance. The failure of more members of the Committee to follow their leadership in examining this Convention with care, or at least showing up, prompted Mr. Gaffney to make the following observation:

"…The Senate Banking Committee on May 25, 1994 held a highly publicized hearing into the evidence that chemical and/or biological weapons were used against U.S. forces in the course of the war with Iraq. I am not in a position to tell you whether or not such use occurred during Operation Desert Storm…

 

"One thing seems clear, nonetheless: The Banking Committee’s hearing was not the last of its kind. Indeed, whatever the truth of the allegations against Saddam Hussein, there will in the future be even more painful hearings before the United States Congress examining the use of chemical and biological weapons against American military personnel and perhaps even our civilian population.

 

"I would like it recorded that, when the time comes for such hearings into the terrible consequences of chemical attacks against U.S. troops or civilians, precious little interest was expressed in a treaty: that served to increase the vulnerability of our troops; that misled our public — and publics around the world — about the continuing threat of chemical warfare; and that may actually have served to increase that threat by legitimating dangerous nations all too happy to be party to the hoax known as the Chemical Weapons Convention."

Concerns raised by critics in the hearing have prompted the Foreign Relations Committee, at Sen. Helm’s request, to take testimony from; Russian scientists knowledgeable about Moscow’s ongoing chemical and biological weapons programs; chemical manufacturing and chemical using concerns that are likely to be affected by the reporting and inspection requirements of the CWC; and technical experts from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory familiar with the lab’s studies establishing that the Convention’s verification regime can be easily circumvented. also at Sen. Helm’s urging, the full transcript of this hearing is to be printed and make available before the Senate is asked to give its advice and consent to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Additional excerpts of Mr. Gaffney’s testimony are attached. Copies of his complete testimonyDr. Bailey and Ms. Hoeber may be obtained by contacting the Center. and that submitted by

1. See Center Press Release: Senate to Get Facts from Center Associates on Flawed Chemical Arms Treaty; Will Anyone Listen?, (No. 94-P58, 8 June 1994)