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– Lisa Beyer
Bloomberg News
August 27, 2018
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Defense Threat Reduction Agency Created

On October 1, Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced the merger of several Pentagon agencies to form the new Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), whose mission is to combat the danger of weapons of mass destruction. "At least 25 countries are in the process of developing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons and the means to deliver them," warned Cohen at DTRA's headquarters near Dulles International Airport. "We must confront these threats in places like Baghdad before they come to our shores."

The formation of DTRA, recommended by the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative, consolidates the Defense Technology Security Agency, Defense Special Weapons Agency, and On-Site Inspection Agency. DTRA's eight directorates include Nuclear Support, On-Site Inspection, Cooperative Threat Reduction, Technology Security, Special Weapons Technology, Chem-Bio Defense, Counterproliferation, and Force Protection. DTRA Director Dr. Jay C. Davis, former associate director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will report to the under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology. The new agency has roughly 2,100 employees and a fiscal year 1999 budget of about $1.9 billion.

Russia Seeks to Speed CFE Adaptation

Russia declared on September 15 that "it is necessary to accelerate negotiations" on adapting the 1992 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty to the post-Cold War environment. Moscow seeks a completed treaty before the April 1999 summit at which Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary are expected to be welcomed formally into NATO. That same day, NATO members endorsed a more relaxed timeline, aiming to conclude negotiations before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit late next year. Both NATO and Russia, however, have stated they would like to record progress by this December.

A.V. Grushko, head of the Russian delegation to the Joint Consultative Group (JCG)—the governing body of the CFE Treaty—also called on NATO to drop a proposal that would limit temporary deployments of tanks, armored combat vehicles and heavy artillery within the treaty's "flank zone" covering the northern and southern flanks of Europe. (See ACT, June/July 1998.) Moscow seeks to limit the NATO presence on new members' territories as the alliance expands, while NATO maintains it needs flexibility to conduct its missions and to ensure equal status for new members. The adaptation talks on the CFE Treaty have been underway since January 1997.

'Section 655' Report Details U.S. Arms Trade

The Defense Department delivered over $19.3 billion in arms and military assistance to 116 countries during fiscal year (FY) 1997, while the State Department approved commercial export licenses that could result in sales of weapons and equipment valued at over $24.7 billion to more than 150 countries and territories. These figures, covering the period from October 1, 1996 to September 30, 1997, were contained in the latest "Section 655" report that the two departments prepare annually for Congress.

Nearly 81 percent of the deliveries, conducted through the Foreign Military Sales program and various grant programs—excess defense articles, emergency drawdowns and international military education and training (IMET)—flowed to the Near East and South Asia ($8.3 billion) and the Far East (almost $7.3 billion). Taiwan ($5.69 billion), Saudi Arabia ($4.69 billion) and Egypt ($1.2 billion) were the leading recipients. Aircraft, including 23 F-15S and 89 F-16 fighters, helicopters and associated spare parts represented over half ($9.8 billion) of the total deliveries.

NATO allies combined for $9.4 billion of the approved licenses, while Japan accounted for $4.6 billion. States have four years to act under the licenses, not all of which result in actual sales.

Additional States to Follow EU 'Code of Conduct'

In an August 3 statement, the European Union (EU) welcomed the joint declaration by 13 European states to "align themselves to the criteria and principles" of the recently approved (June 8) EU code of conduct on arms exports. Under the code's eight general criteria, EU members pledged to deny arms exports to states that may use the weapons for internal repression or aggressively against other states and to consider an importer's human rights record before approving an arms sale.

Of the 13 non-EU states (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), all but Iceland and Norway have applied for EU membership; the declaration enables these states to align their arms export policies with those of the EU. Four of the 13, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), ranked among the top thirty arms suppliers for the period 1993–1997: the Czech Republic (13th), Norway (21st), Poland (22nd) and Slovakia (24th).

The 13 states declared that the non-legally binding code would "guide them in their national export control policies." However, they will not take part in the key operative provisions of the code, such as circulating notices of arms export denials and consulting with other states over controversial sales. EU countries want the notification process to remain limited to protect sensitive information.

House Prohibits Funds for ABM Succession

On August 5, the House approved (240-188) an amendment to the departments of Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary appropriations bill prohibiting any funds to be used by U.S. delegates to the Standing Consultative Commission (SCC) to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on ABM Treaty succession. Signed in September 1997, the MOU identifies Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine as the successor states to the former Soviet Union under the treaty. The amendment, introduced by Representative David McIntosh (R-IN), seeks to prevent implementation of the MOU before the Senate has given its advice and consent to ratification. The administration has stated that it will not submit the MOU (as well as the START II extension protocol and the ABM-TMD "demarcation" agreements) to the Senate until Russia has ratified START II. Some congressional Republicans have argued that the ABM Treaty is not currently in force pending Senate approval of the MOU.

The final language on the McIntosh amendment must still be worked out in a House-Senate conference. The administration maintains, however, that it has no plans to implement the MOU at the current session of the SCC, which began on September 9. During this session, the United States, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are scheduled to conduct the latest five-year review of the ABM Treaty and complete the implementing details for the September 1997 agreement on confidence-building measures (CBMs) for theater missile defense systems.

UN Reports on Yugoslav Arms Embargo

On August 5, more than four months after the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan informed the Security Council that the UN has failed to establish a monitoring regime for the embargo due to lack of funding. At the same time, he warned that the situation in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians are battling Serb forces, "continues to deteriorate" and that the "attitudes of the two sides appear to be hardening."

Annan said that the UN, as he originally reported in April, did not have the funds to establish a comprehensive regime to monitor the March 31 embargo and that the resources pledged by other regional organizations, such as the European Union and NATO, fell short of the amount needed. With no regime in place, measuring the impact of the embargo has proved difficult, particularly between Albania and Kosovo, where arms continue to flow and there is little border control.

Senate Restores CTBT PrepCom Funding

On September 1, the Senate approved an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that restored the Clinton administration's request of $28.9 million in fiscal year 1999 funding for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Preparatory Commission, which is establishing the treaty's verification regime. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations had cut the funding in July. (See ACT, June/July 1998.) Although the amendment, co-sponsored by Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), passed by a vote of 49-44, some opponents of the CTBT have pointed to the close margin as an indication that the treaty would not receive the 67 votes necessary if a vote on ratification were held promptly. CTBT supporters, however, have noted that the September 1 vote dealt only with a narrow funding issue that was easy to oppose and argue that the treaty itself would have received much stronger support.

Additional countries have ratified the CTBT in recent weeks. Germany, one of the 44 states whose ratification is necessary for the treaty to enter into force, deposited its instrument of ratification on August 20. As of mid-September, the treaty has been signed by 150 states and ratified by 20.

Taiwan Arms Sale Proposed to Congress

In a move that could complicate Sino-U.S. relations, the Department of Defense notified Congress on August 27 of a proposed $350 million package of arms sales to Taiwan, including 728 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, 131 MK-46 torpedoes and 58 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned the proposed sale, claiming that it violates a 1982 Sino-U.S. joint communique in which Washington promised "gradually to reduce" its sale of arms to Taipei, and that it "infringes on China's sovereignty and damages China's peaceful reunification."

U.S. arms deals with Taiwan have long been a stumbling block to closer relations between Washington and Beijing. In 1992, the U.S. sale of 150 F-16A/B fighters to Taipei prompted China to end its participation in conventional arms talks among the permanent members of the UN Security Council and, according to some analysts, to pursue sales of proliferation concern with Iran and Pakistan.

In fiscal year 1997, Taiwan received $5.69 billion worth of arms and military assistance from the United States, more than any other country. With the August 27 announcement, the Pentagon has proposed $810 million in Foreign Military Sales to Taiwan in 1998, nearly 20 percent more than during the same period last year. American policy, as outlined in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, is to transfer defense articles and services necessary to maintain Taiwan's "sufficient self-defense capability."

Under the 1976 Arms Export Control Act, Congress must act within 30 calendar days of its August 27 notification if it wishes to block the proposed sale to Taiwan. Congress, however, has never blocked a proposed arms transfer following notice by the Defense Department.

IBM Fined $8.67 Million for Supercomputer Sale

On July 31 a federal district court judge imposed an $8.6 million fine on the Russian subsidiary of International Business Machines (IBM) after the firm pled guilty to selling 17 high-speed computers to a Russian nuclear weapons lab in Sarov (formerly known as Arzamas-16). The fines, the maximum criminal ($8.5 million) and civil ($171,000) penalties allowable, will be paid by IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd. Additionally, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration placed the company's export privileges on probation for a two-year period. During its probation, IBM East Europe/Asia has agreed it will not engage in transactions involving any nuclear or military end-users and will not use certain Commerce Department license exceptions to export high-performance computers. U.S. export laws restrict the sale of supercomputers to nuclear or military end-users in countries of security or proliferation concern, including Russia.

The case against IBM developed after Viktor Mikhailov, Russia's minister of atomic energy, announced in January 1997 that Russia had acquired several high-performance computers from IBM and Silicon Graphics for use in maintaining the safety and reliability of Moscow's nuclear arsenal. (See ACT, March 1997.) According to the U.S. Attorney, the ensuing investigation revealed that IBM East Europe/Asia, with the aid of two Russian companies, Jet InfoSystems and Ofort, had sold 16 IBM RS/6000 computers in September 1996 and 1 RS/6000 computer in November 1996 for a total of $2.1 million. Although Arzamas-16 claimed to want the computers for peaceful purposes, IBM admitted it had "reason to believe" the machines would be used for nuclear or military purposes. IBM had begun negotiating with Arzamas-16 in early 1995 and in February 1996 had requested Commerce Department approval for sale of a different model of the RS/6000, but Commerce rejected the license application in mid-October 1996.

Russia has refused to return the group of 16 RS/6000 computers and claims to have no knowledge of the whereabouts of the remaining IBM machine. U.S. officials, including Vice President Al Gore, have approached Moscow on the issue without result. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Amanda DeBusk said on July 31, "We are in extensive engagement with the Russian government and are trying to get those [supercomputers] back." The case involving Silicon Graphics, which allegedly sold four "Power Challenge L" servers to Chelyabinsk-70, another Russian nuclear weapons lab, remains under investigation by the Justice and Commerce departments. [Back to top]

Russia Clarifies Yeltsin Statement on Nuclear Cuts

During a December 2 news conference in Sweden, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced that Russia would unilaterally reduce its nuclear arsenal by one third, a statement that was quickly "clarified" by his aides. Presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky explained that Yeltsin had meant that Russia was willing to accept nuclear force reductions below the START III level of 2,000 to 2,500 deployed strategic warheads agreed to last March in Helsinki. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev told concerned members of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, that Russia had no plans to make unilateral reductions in its nuclear arsenal. "Neither the president, nor, for that matter, we, have proposed any unilateral reductions. Everything will be done on the basis of parity," Sergeyev said December 5.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgi Mamedov met with Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott December 3 4 in Washington to discuss a range of security and arms control issues, including START III. Although the United States and Russia are currently holding a series of expert level discussions on START III, the Clinton administration maintains that official negotiations on a follow on treaty cannot begin until the Russian Duma approves START II.

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