Romney Still Wrong on New START

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today, Tuesday, July 27, 2010:

Romney Keeps Getting It Wrong On START - Daniel Larison in The American Conservative [link]

• Mitt Romney seems not to have learned anything from the thorough thrashing his first op-ed against START ratification received, as he has written a response to Sen. Lugar’s rebuttal that mostly just repeats previous errors and misleading statements.
• It is somewhat telling that even Fred Hiatt’s editorial page came out in favor of ratification and dismissed Romney’s argument as lacking in substance. Ratification opponents might almost conclude that the Post rigged the debate in favor of the treaty by allowing Romney’s nonsense to serve as the main argument against it.
• The most impressive thing about Romney’s second attempt is how he has managed to ignore almost everything Sen. Lugar (and every other critic) said in the course of dismissing Romney’s arguments as ill-informed and discredited.
• In this case, Romney has decided that mistaken Heritage Foundation staffers are the best experts he can find, and now that he has received their advice nothing is going to dissuade him from attacking a treaty that most arms control experts believe ought to be ratified.

Corker Says UPF May Cost $4-5 Billion - Knoxville News Sentinel [link]

• Sen. Bob Corker today said the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant could cost between $4 billion and $5 billion. That's a sharp increase from the cost range -- $1.4-$3.5 billion -- used by the NNSA and its contractors over the past couple of years.
• Corker visited Y-12 for classified briefings and tours as part of his preparations for the upcoming ratification of the New START Treaty. Tennessee's junior senator, a Republican from Chattanooga, made it clear that his vote on START will be tied to whether he's satisified with the Obama administration's commitment to modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

European Union, Canada Adopt New Sanctions Against Iran Over Nuclear Program - Associated Press [link]

• The European Union and Canada on Monday separately adopted new sanctions against Iran, targeting the country's foreign trade, banking and energy sectors.
• The moves are the latest in a series of measures taken by the international community in an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program. The EU's measures, which leaders agreed to in principle in June, also blacklist Iran's shipping and air cargo companies.
• "I think today we sent a powerful message to Iran, and that message is that their nuclear program is a cause of serious and growing concern to us," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
• "But our objectives remains to persuade Iranian leaders that their interests are served by a return to the table," Ashton said. "Sanctions are not an end in themselves, our objective is, was, and will be to bring Iran to the table to resolve this issue."

Valerie Plame Wilson: How to Dismantle 23,000 Atom Bombs - Mother Jones [link]

• Plame Wilson talked to Mother Jones about appearing in [Countdown to Zero], how we can tackle a problem so big, and the upcoming movie about her, in which Naomi Watts plays the reluctant celebrity spy:
  •  "These emergent terrorist threats and the spread of nuclear technology and materials have made it much more likely that terrorists will get their hands on a nuclear weapon and that just changes the whole calculus."
  • "None of us involved in the film would have done it if we didn't think that we couldn't actually make a difference." 
  • "There's a big social action campaign that has been constructed around the film and your readers can go to GlobalZero.org or TakePart.com. So when they come out in the sunlight after seeing the movie and are blinking and going, Geez, they can actually do something. You can go to these sites, you can petition your senator to ratify the START treaty, you can sign the Global Zero Declaration."

A View from the Dark Side 

Quality Control or Rubber Stamp? - Frank Gaffney in the Washington Times [link]

• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected soon to vote on President Obama's New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). As usual, its majority is lining up to perform the role of rubber stamp on whatever treaty an executive signs and wants ratified.
• To ensure that outcome, the committee holds hearings in which only proponents are allowed to testify. When it feels the need at least to acknowledge that there are opponents, the latter typically are outnumbered 10-1. The effect is as predictable as it is cynical: Most panel members know of no reason to disapprove ratification. 
• If senators take their constitutional responsibilities seriously...they must not rubber-stamp the New START Treaty. Just say no.