White House misled Joint Chiefs on ABM Treaty talks

by Bill Gertz
The Washington Times, May 31, 1996

Clinton administration officials misled the Joint
Chiefs of Staff about efforts to reach an agreement with
Russia at last month’s summit on the complex issue of
clarifying the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty,
Pentagon officials said.

To prevent details from being disclosed to the press,
the military service chiefs were not told in advance of
the Moscow summit about a White House plan to hold
detailed talks between the two presidents aimed at
reaching a partial agreement on what short-range
anti-missile defense systems are legal under the 1972 ABM
Treaty, according to officials who spoke on the condition
of anonymity.

Several days before the April 22 summit in Moscow, a
Pentagon briefer, explaining the White House summit
agenda for defense issues, told a meeting of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff that the issue of ABM theater missile
defense (TMD) demarcation would not be brought up at
meetings between President Clinton and Russian President
Boris Yeltsin, or other defense officials, they said.

“At the [Joint Chiefs] meeting, the chiefs were
told ABM-TMD demarcation will not be discussed at the
summit,” one official said. “In fact that
briefing was part of a deliberate deception plan on the
part of the White House.”

The postsummit realization that some officials acted
dishonestly with the military chiefs upset many in the
Pentagon, particularly officials charged with developing
missile defenses.

“Everybody was outraged,” one official said.
“The only conclusion we could come to was that the
White House negotiated with the Russians against its own
military.”

A second official said a senior general who took part
in the briefing, held in the secure Pentagon room known
as “the tank,” specifically asked the briefer
to clarify whether the issue would be raised. The
general, concerned over Russian backtracking at earlier
arms talks, was told missile defense would not be
discussed at all, the official said.

“That conversation did occur, and that answer was
received,” a spokesman for the general said, asking
that his name and service not be identified.

The briefer, an aide to Gen. John Shalikashvili,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained that the
only defense topics to be discussed at the summit would
be the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, efforts to
reach a nuclear test ban treaty, and chemical and
biological weapons.

Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin said during a
postsummit news conference on April 22 that they had
discussed the ABM issue extensively.

Mr. Clinton told reporters “real progress”
was made on the ABM-TMD issue during five hours of talks.
“I’m convinced that if we do this in an open way
that has a lot of integrity, I think we’ll all be just
fine on this and I think it will work out very
well,” Mr. Clinton said.

Asked if the chiefs were deceived on the issue, a
senior White House official had no comment. A spokesman
for Gen. Shalikashvili also had no comment.

A new round of ABM talks with Moscow on missile
demarcation began May 20 at the Standing Consultative
Commission (SCC) in Geneva. The White House official said
the Russians presented proposals at the session with
“wrinkles” – positions – opposed by U.S.
negotiators.

An earlier round of SCC talks broke off after they
were deadlocked over Russian insistence on reversing
agreements reached earlier by U.S. and Russian officials
outside the formal talks.

Russia announced in the earlier meeting that any
Pentagon work on higher-speed regional missile defenses
would be regarded by Moscow as illegal under the ABM
Treaty until a second agreement is reached, a classified
State Department cable said.

Pentagon officials said a political agreement reached
by U.S. and Russian officials at the summit will limit
U.S. use of space-based sensors with advanced missile
defenses, such as the Navy’s wide-area system known as
Upper Tier. It also would bar work on the Air Force’s
airborne laser gun, which will be capable of knocking
down missiles shortly after takeoff.