IN THE FACE OF IMMINENT DEFEAT, CLINTON PULLS THE PLUG ON SENATE ACTION ON THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

(Washington, D.C.): Just as the United
States Senate was supposed to begin
debate on a self-described “top
presidential priority” — the
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) — the
Clinton Administration reached a stunning
conclusion: It did not have the
votes to approve ratification of this
treaty. That decision was
reportedly reached late last night on the
basis of mounting evidence that well
over one-third of the Senate was
persuaded that the Convention was so
flawed as to ensure that it would not be
global or verifiable — and, therefore,
would not be effective.

The Dole Test

That conclusion took on particular
significance in light of a letter sent
yesterday by the Republican presidential
nominee, Robert Dole, to
his successor as Senate Majority Leader,
Trent Lott (R-MS). As noted in a Decision
Brief issued by the Center
yesterday,⁽¹⁾
Senator Dole endorsed three
criteria adopted by President Ronald
Reagan in the 1980’s: effective
verification, real reductions and
stability. He suggested that
Sen. Lott and other members of the Senate
“apply the same criteria, adapted to
these particular [i.e., chemical] weapons
and to the post-Cold War multi-polar
world.”

Clearly, many members of the Senate
shared Senator Dole’s eminently
reasonable concerns: “Do we have
confidence that our intelligence will
detect violations?” “Will the
treaty eliminate chemical weapons?”
And “Will the treaty be truly global
or will countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria,
Libya and North Korea still be able to
destabilize others with the threat of
chemical weapons?” And the CWC
ultimately failed because Senators
learned that, however regrettable, the
indisputable answers to these questions
are, respectively, “No,”
“No,” and “Yes.”

In addition, Senators — and their
constituents — were troubled to learn
about a number of other grounds for
concern about the CWC. These include the
fact that: the Convention would enable
UN inspectors to demand access to any
site in the United States to
conduct intrusive challenge inspections
lasting up to 84 continuous hours in
duration; it would impose
substantial, costly reporting and
regulatory burdens on thousands of U.S.
companies having nothing to do
with the manufacture of chemicals, let
alone the production of chemical weapons;
and it would oblige this country
to transfer technology and equipment
directly relevant to such production to
other parties — including rogue states
like Iran and Cuba.

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy salutes
Senator Dole and his former colleagues,
notably Sens. Lott, Jon Kyl
(R-AZ) and Jesse Helms
(R-NC), for their influential leadership
in facilitating and informing the needed
debate on the Chemical Weapons
Convention. By so doing, they have not
only created the opportunity for
a concerted effort to develop more
effective means of dealing with the
real and growing threat of chemical
warfare. They have also
reestablished that the Senate is
once again prepared to fulfill its
constitutional responsibility as a
“quality control” mechanism to
prevent fatally-flawed accords like the
CWC from becoming the supreme law of the
land.

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1. See Bob
Dole Advises Senate Colleagues to ‘Pass
Up’ Illusory C.W.C. if Not Global,
Verifiable, Constitutional
(No. 96-D 83).