Obama's word breaks ice in Geneva arms talks

President Obama's use of the word “verifiable” in his April 5 Prague speech injected new hope into disarmament talks, putting the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament on a possible course toward negotiating a treaty after years of deadlock. The Bush administration argued a pact could not be verified by inspections and monitoring. While only India, Pakistan, and possibly Israel and North Korea continue to produce fissile materials for nuclear weapons, the global surplus is huge. Ploughshares Fund advisor Frank von Hippel of Princeton University and co-chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, recalled once telling a U.N. meeting, "Nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and prevention of nuclear terrorism are easy. All we have to do is get rid of 2,000 tons of the stuff."  (Read the panel's draft treaty here.)