Introduction of the "Omnibus Nonproliferation and Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Act of 2005"
INTRODUCTION OF THE ``OMNIBUS NONPROLIFERATION AND ANTI-NUCLEAR TERRORISM ACT OF 2005'' -- (Extensions of Remarks - February 08, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005
· Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, early on the morning of October 11, 2001, as lower Manhattan still lay smoldering, President Bush was told by George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, that a CIA agent was reporting that al Qaeda terrorists armed with a stolen Russian nuclear weapon were loose in New York City.
· The threat was not made public for fear it would cause mass panic, but senior U.S. Government officials were
evacuated, including Vice President CHENEY, to a series of undisclosed locations away from the capital. Nuclear Emergency Search Teams were dispatched to New York to look for the weapon, reportedly a 10 kiloton warhead that could have killed at least 100,000 people if it were detonated in Manhattan.
· Thankfully, the CIA report turned out to be untrue, but the danger we face from nuclear terrorism is all too real. Osama bin Laden has termed the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction ``a religious duty,'' while his press spokesman has announced that al Qaeda aspires to kill 4 million Americans, including 1 million children.
· President Bush has deemed a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States the number one national security threat facing this country. In a valedictory interview with the Associated Press, Attorney General John Ashcroft also singled out the danger to America posed by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
· We agree with the President and the Attorney General, and we share the conviction of almost every expert in and out of government who has looked at this problem: If we do not act now to secure existing nuclear material and weapons, as well as the expertise needed to build them, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is only a matter of time.
· We have consulted with a range of experts to produce a comprehensive set of policies that we believe will be effective in enabling the United States to prevent what Graham Allison of Harvard University has termed ``the ultimate preventable catastrophe.''
· Today, my colleague, Mr. SHAYS and I, are introducing the ``Omnibus Nonproliferation and Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Act of 2005'' which lays out a comprehensive plan to overhaul our nonproliferation program.
· As with America's intelligence programs, nonproliferation and disarmament programs are spread across the United States government. Thus, the centerpiece of our proposal, is the creation of an Office of Nonproliferation Programs within the Executive Office of the President to coordinate and oversee America's efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to nuclear weapons and to manage the effort to secure existing nuclear material in the former Soviet Union and other places.
· We need to modernize the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, created by Senator Richard Lugar and Former Senator Sam Nunn, by giving more flexibility to the President to carry out nonproliferation projects outside the former Soviet Union and by reducing red tape.
· The most vulnerable nuclear sites around the world must be secure. Our bill enhances the Global Threat Reduction Initiative announced last year by former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.
· We also propose a number of multilateral and bilateral efforts to secure nuclear material. In order to prevent another A.Q. Kahn ``nuclear supermarket,'' we urge the President to expand and strengthen his Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict the shipment of nuclear material. We also recommend that the President work with the international community to develop and implement standards to improve the security of nuclear weapons and materials and to explore ways to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
· We must address the vulnerability to theft of the Russian tactical nuclear arsenal, and our legislation authorizes the Department of Energy to assist Russia in conducting a comprehensive inventory of its tactical weapons.
· The President's authority to fund non-defense research by Russian WMD scientists must be expanded so these scientists would not be tempted to sell their secrets to North Korea, Iran or al Qaeda.
· As the nation grappled with the attacks of September 11, we repeatedly asked ourselves how we could have failed to foresee the danger posed by al Qaeda and taken steps to prevent 9/11. We know about the danger of nuclear terrorism; we have been warned repeatedly. We are in a race with terrorists who are actively seeking nuclear weapons. The choice is ours. We can continue doing what we are doing now and risk an almost inevitable nuclear attack or we can take action to prevent it. When one considers the consequences, the choice is really no choice at all.
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