The Real Damage
The acknowledged Number One Post-Cold-War Threat to US National Security (Appendix H) has been since 1992 the proliferation of Russian nuclear weapons, fissile materials, weapons technologies and technologists. The Nunn-Lugar-Domenici US-Russia Lab-Institute and related programs [such as the program to dispose of the tons of Plutonium being recovered from dismantled "Soviet" nuclear weapons have been our best vehicle for meeting-in cooperation with the Russians-that threat of "loose nukes." (Statement by Senator Nunn on how the "loose nukes" problem is now worse than it was in 1992. <WWW.csis.org/energy/event120498nunn>)
Perhaps because the Clinton Administration had placed all its nuclear proliferation prevention "eggs" in the Comprehensive Test Ban "basket." (Testimony of ACDA Director John Holum; Senate Committee on Governmental affairs [3/18/98] Holum testified in support of ratification that CTBT was both a Nonproliferation Treaty and an Arms Control Treaty. He also claimed that the Clinton Administration's oft repeated commitment to achieve a CTBT in 1996 was instrumental in achieving the indefinite and unconditional extension of the NPT in 1995. Holum warned about the consequences to NPT and whole Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime if the Senate delayed ratification of CTBT. He noted that in order to assuage the concerns of Congress, US adherence to the CTBT would be conditional on [among other things] our maintaining a science based stockpile Stewardship program.) it did not fully appreciate the importance of vigorously pursuing the NLD approach to preventing the proliferation of Russian "loose nukes." Now, as the Clinton Administration frantically tries to shift to previous Administrations the blame for what the Cox Report charges are "thefts" by the PRC of nuclear weapons "secrets," Secretary Richardson imposes draconian "security" measures on the "lax security culture" the Administration claims it "inherited" from the Reagan-Bush Administrations. The Administration either doesn't realize or doesn't care that those draconian measures are going to further devastate our own nuclear weapons infrastructure while killing the one set of programs-the "Nunn-Lugar-Domenici" programs-which had any chance of preventing the proliferation of Russian "loose nukes."
The first step in recovering from the Clinton Administration's PRC spying debacle, will be to have that debacle and the Clinton Administration Openness and Engagement polices fully aired in Congress. Blame should be assigned, not for the damage that may have been done by PRC intelligence gathering, but for the very real damage that has been done to our ability to meet the Number One Threat to our National Security. It may not be possible for the United States to again become a leader in Real World nuclear proliferation prevention, but we have to try.
After all, as the Cox Report notes-what the PRC is suspected of having "stolen" from us, it could have got from the Russians, without "stealing." If now, as a result of the actions taken in haste because of the Cox Report, we are unable to continue effectively our NLD Lab-Institute programs with the Russians, if we are unable to effectively assist the Russians dispose of their excess weapons plutonium, then-for a price-the PRC may well supplant us. What might the "price" of the PRC be for helping Russia with the financing of their Plutonium disposition facilities? For starters, the Russians do have about 30,000 warheads they don't know what to do with. And some of those warheads would be of considerably more use to the PRC than the W-70 [Mod 3] Lance Missile Warhead [which I believe is no longer of any use to us either, and has been "retired" from our stockpile.]
So, the way things are going, with the Cox Report being used as the Administration is using it, maybe the United States, Russia and the People's Republic of China are now on the road to solving all our respective problems. If the Russians can get the "foreign aid" to dispose of their excess Plutonium from the PRC, then Congress won't have to supply it. And if the PRC can get what they want from the Russians, then the PRC won't need to spy on us. Now all we have to worry about is how many of the 30,000 Russian warheads will the PRC get in exchange for helping the Russians prevent the proliferation of all that excess weapons Plutonium.
The irony in all this is, that if the PRC has been able to obtain US unclear weapons "secrets"-and there is little evidence in the "redacted" Cox Committee Report that it has-it was able to obtain them all as a direct result of the Clinton Administration's non-proliferation policies of: