THE ‘ROSENBERG OPTION’: WILL THE NUCLEAR SUMMIT IN MOSCOW PRODUCE A MELTDOWN FOR U.S. SECURITY?

(Washington, D.C.): President Clinton is expected to arrive in
Moscow today to attend a summit on nuclear safety. This summit is
designed, in part, to offer an opportunity for President Clinton
and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to boost their respective
political campaigns by appearing to grapple with the threat posed
by the proliferation of deadly nuclear materials and
technologies.

Just as the recent anti-terrorism summit actually had the
effect of whitewashing a principal practitioner of terrorism,
Yassir Arafat, this summit meeting may wind up contributing
to the nuclear threat facing the United States. That appalling
prospect arises not least from the possibility that President
Clinton could exercise an option prepared for his Moscow visit —
an option that would entail the greatest transfer of U.S. nuclear
secrets to the Kremlin since the Soviet spies, Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg, supplied Joseph Stalin with information about this
Nation’s fledgling nuclear program roughly fifty years ago.

In an op.ed. article which appeared in yesterday’s Washington
Times (a copy of which is attached),
the Center for Security Policy’s director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.,
warns of the dangers associated with what he calls the
“Rosenberg Option.” This option would offer Boris
Yeltsin’s government the “crown jewels” of America’s
nuclear weapons program.

These include sophisticated computer programs that allow
precise modeling of implosion physics and other exotic phenomena
that must be understood to validate existing weapons designs and
to create new ones. Also proposed for release to the Russians are
test cases that would allow the Kremlin to confirm the
performance of these models. Thanks to earlier, reckless Clinton
Administration decisions to ease export restrictions, Russia will
also have the use of powerful supercomputers needed to run such
demanding software.

Since Russia continues to modernize its offensive
nuclear arsenal and to sell nuclear-weapons related technology to
nations like China and Iran, it is entirely possible that the
“Rosenberg Option” would actually abet the military
capabilities of potential U.S. adversaries. The Center
for Security Policy believes that so portentous a step must not
be taken without careful consideration by the Congress and an
informed public debate. Toward that end, it calls upon the
Clinton Administration to refrain from offering to transfer such
sensitive information at this time. Should it refuse to exercise
such restraint, the Center urges the Congress to ensure that no
such transfers will be allowed to occur without express
authorization from the legislative branch.