New START: On to the Senate Floor.

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

Stories we're following today: Friday, September 17, 2010.

It’s About Time We Got START – John Kerry in Foreign Policy [link]

• In an important first step Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee demonstrated that bipartisanship is not dead yet.
• The cuts in New START thus help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons by demonstrating America's commitment to our NPT obligations and encouraging the cooperation of non-nuclear states.
• Initially, some feared that the treaty, whose purpose is to limit offensive weapons, would also inhibit effective missile defenses. But this fear was put to rest by the military witnesses who testified to the committee. Each of them said the treaty doesn't limit our missile defense efforts in any meaningful way.
• Critics of this treaty's verification regime are also faced with two argumentative hurdles. First, not a single Republican senator opposed President George W. Bush's Moscow Treaty even though it contained no verification provisions whatsoever. And, second, the verification provisions established by the treaty, which include 18 short-notice on-site inspections each year, are significantly better than what we have now, which is nothing.
• The other big issue that has come up is the modernization of the facilities responsible for ensuring that America's nuclear weapons are safe and effective…Which is why the Obama administration has outlined a plan to spend $80 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade the U.S. nuclear weapons complex
• But this treaty is not about Barack Obama -- it is about the safety of the American people. That is what every senator has sworn to protect regardless of party affiliation…Now it is time for the full Senate to adopt the same bipartisanship demonstrated by the committee and approve New START without delay.

Senate Panel Approves Arms Treaty With Russia – Peter Baker in The New York Times [link]

• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14 to 4 to approve the treaty known as New Start, with three Republicans joining Democrats after negotiating an accompanying resolution addressing conservative concerns about missile defense and modernization of the nuclear arsenal.
• The vote was a rare instance in which Mr. Obama has won more than token Republican support for a signature initiative. But he still faces a battle to secure final approval on the Senate floor, where under the Constitution the treaty needs a two-thirds vote, meaning at least eight Republicans.
• [The Treaty] would establish a new inspection and monitoring regime to replace the longstanding program that lapsed last year with the expiration of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, or Start.
• This bipartisan vote sends an important signal that even in the most partisan, polarized season, ratifying this treaty is not a matter of politics. It’s a national security imperative.

Senate Committee Approves New START Treaty Amid Concerns Over Russian Cheating; DeMint a No-Show for Vote – Josh Rogin in the Foreign Policy blog “The Cable” [link]

• The Senate Foreign Relations committee approved a resolution to ratify the New START nuclear reductions treaty with Russia on Thursday, overcoming objections by Sen. James Risch about new top secret intelligence and after reaching a compromise over strategic posture with Sen. Jim DeMint.
• South Carolina's DeMint, whose attempt to add language on missile defense to the resolution was the focus of intense backroom negotiations, did not return from a break to attend the final vote.
• Risch confirmed that the information concerned Russian cheating on arms control agreements and said it was only the latest in a stream of documents and information that led him to have grave concerns that the New START treaty could move forward in a credible way.
• "The Cable" pointed out to Risch that allegations of Russian cheating, especially regarding the first START treaty, have been well reported and subsequently addressed by the administration (via"The Cable"). But Risch responded that the problem was worse than what's publicly known.
• Kerry convened a Wednesday briefing on the issue for SFRC members and consulted Vice President Joseph Biden on the issue before deciding that he believed the ratification process could proceed.

The U.S. Should Test Iran's Resolve to Stabilize Afghanistan - David Ignatius of the Washington Post [link]

• Iran is signaling that it wants to join regional efforts to stabilize Afghanistan -- presenting President Obama with an interesting diplomatic opportunity.
• President Obama discussed U.S.-Iranian engagement... [saying] that in addition to talks about curbing Iran's nuclear program, he favored a "separate track" for discussing Afghanistan, where the two sides have a "mutual interest" in combating the narcotics trade and fighting the Taliban.
• This position has not been communicated to the Iranians, in part because Washington is waiting to see whether Iran will return soon to negotiations about its nuclear program with the "P-5 plus 1" group.
• The administration's dilemma is similar to what the Bush administration faced in 2006, when it requested and then spurned Iranian help in Iraq. The worry then was the same as now -- that regional cooperation might blunt U.S. pressure on the nuclear issue. Several former senior Bush administration officials now view that stutter-step in 2006 as a significant lost opportunity.
• The question for the Obama administration is whether to take up these feelers.
• Advocates argue that stabilizing Afghanistan is a strategic priority and that the United States should seek help wherever it can. They also argue that rather than undermining talks on the nuclear issue, contacts on Afghanistan could be an important confidence-building measure.

U.S., Allies Working on New N. Korea Strategy – John Ponfret in The Washington Post [link]

• The United States and its allies in Northeast Asia (South Korea and Japan) are trying to fashion an opening to North Korea out of concern that the current policy toward the isolated nuclear-armed nation could lead to war, U.S. and Asian officials said.
• Some officials said they would want to see the North take specific steps to reverse its nuclear program before any real talks began.
• In late August, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gathered analysts and policymakers for a seminar on the North. According to participants, Clinton was convinced that the United States and its allies needed to find a way to reengage the North.
• There are signs that the North is also trying to find an opening. It has asked for - and accepted - South Korean aid after a series of natural disasters. And during the trip of its leader, Kim Jong Il, to China in August, he was quoted by China's official Xinhua News Agency as recommitting North Korea to denuclearization.
• "In fundamental ways, North Korea is still a black box," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the same Senate panel. "We have some glimpses and some intelligence and the like, but the truth is, oftentimes in retrospect some of that intelligence has proven to be wrong. It's a very, very hard target, probably the hardest target we face in the global arena."
  

The Lighter Side

Top New Zealand Military Scientist Quits After Resume 'Lies' - Associated Free Press [link]

• NEW Zealand's top military scientist has quit, it was announced today, after allegations that his resume falsely claimed he was an ex-Marine and an Olympic bobsledder who raced against Jamaica's "Cool Runnings" team.
• Previous employers and colleagues told 60 Minutes that Stephen Wilce had claimed he designed guidance systems for Britain's Polaris nuclear missiles, a now-defunct system that was launched in 1960, at the height of the Cold War. He also said he had worked for MI5 and MI6, the British secret services, the program reported.
• Mr. Wilce headed Defence Technology Agency (DTA) for five years but TV3's 60 Minutes alleged he had padded his resume with false claims about his qualifications and past achievements.
• 60 Minutes reported that no record existed of Mr Wilce serving in the Royal Marines or having combat experience, and that no one on the 1988 British bobsleigh team had heard of him.
• Note: Ploughshares President Joseph Cirincione just concluded a State Department lecture tour in Australia and New Zealand.