WHY THE SENATE MUST NOT APPROVE THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

(Washington, D.C.): On 25 April, the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee took action that — if adopted by the full Senate —
will do serious harm to the national security of the United
States. On that day, the Committee passed a Resolution of
Ratification to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) crafted by Sen.
Richard Lugar (R-IN), clearing the way for a floor vote
on this fatally-flawed treaty.

This outcome was made possible when fewer than half the
Committee’s Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in
rejecting a Resolution of Ratification drafted by Committee
Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC). The Helms
resolution would have addressed many of the flaws inherent in the
treaty. Instead, under the Lugar Resolution, the CWC will be
presented to the full Senate with its most objectionable
provisions intact. These include the following:

• The Lugar Resolution would require the U.S. to
  destroy its entire arsenal even though potential
  adversaries will retain large chemical stockpiles.
  By contrast, the Helms Resolution would have allowed the
  United States to keep a small stockpile of chemical
  weapons to use as a reasonable in-kind deterrent against
  chemical attack until we could verify that all
  signatories to the CWC had begun dismantling their
  chemical weapons programs and until non-signatory rogue
  states such as North Korea, Iraq and Libya had destroyed
  their chemical arsenals. If Sen. Lugar’s approach
  prevails, it is far from clear how the Nation will deter
  chemical attacks from such rogue states, particularly if
  U.S. “negative security assurances” — to the
  effect that America will not use nuclear weapons against
  non-nuclear states — are observed.
• The Lugar Resolution will prohibit the United
  States military from using non-lethal riot
  control agents — including tear gas — to protect
  American servicemen overseas and minimize unnecessary
  civilian casualties. This provision will force
  military commanders who are faced with a hostile group of
  civilians into the absurd and outrageous position of
  having to choose between using deadly force against the
  civilians and doing nothing to protect their troops.
• The Helms Resolution would have explicitly
  subjugated the CWC to the Constitution of the United
  States; the Lugar Resolution does not. This is a
  particularly important issue insofar as the inspection
  regime contained in the CWC raises serious questions that
  could infringe upon the constitutional rights of American
  citizens and companies.
• The Helms Resolution would have imposed
  discipline on the sharing of sensitive intelligence with
  the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,
  a vast new bureaucracy being created for the vain purpose
  of monitoring compliance with the CWC. The Lugar
  Resolution has no such protections.
• The Helms Resolution would have required the President to
  certify before the CWC could enter into force
  that Russia has begun to comply with existing agreements
  made with the United States concerning the destruction of
  its massive chemical weapons arsenal. The Lugar
  Resolution asks the President simply to provide a report
  to Congress on Russian compliance with these agreements after
  the CWC has entered into force.

These and other flaws addressed by the Helms Resolution — and
ignored by the Lugar substitute — should be sufficient to
scuttle this dangerous agreement. There are, moreover, other
problems that further argue against Senate advice and consent to
the Chemical Weapons Convention. The attached,
recent op.ed. piece by Dr. Kathleen Bailey — an
internationally recognized arms control expert and long-time
friend of the Center for Security Policy — details a number of
these, notably the CWC’s “profound repercussions for
companies which depend on proprietary formulae and processes for
their competitive edge.”

The Center for Security Policy salutes Senator Helms
for his courageous leadership in opposing a seriously defective
Chemical Weapons Convention. It calls upon Senator Dole
and other responsible members of the Senate to join him in
ensuring that the United States is spared the dangers inherent in
so fraudulent a response to the very real — indeed, burgeoning
— threat of attacks involving lethal chemical agents.