US chemical weapons bill masks nuclear deployment

US chemical weapons bill masks nuclear deployment

The US Senate voted on April 17 to impose tough penalties, including death, on anyone dealing with chemical weapons. The Chemical and Biological Weapons Threat Reduction Act 1997 provides criminal and civil penalties for the unlawful acquisition, transfer or use of any chemical weapon or biological weapon.

The act targets Third World countries like Libya and provides a legislative rationale for defence secretary William Perry's warning last year that Libya was building a chemical weapons facility inside a mountain near the city of Tarhunah, and that a nuclear military strike against the alleged plant was an option.

In the preamble we read, "(7) the Intelligence Community has stated that a number of countries, among them China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Russia, possess chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them; (8) four countries in the Middle East — Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Syria — have, as a national policy, supported international terrorism".

Meanwhile, the Pentagon prepares for the Perry scenario. Six radar-evading B-2 stealth bombers were officially put into the US nuclear force on April 1. The US Air Force now has an atomic bomb to be used by the B-2 against underground bunkers. The 3.6 metre-long B61-11 drills deep into the earth before exploding in a blast whose shock waves can crush targets hundreds of feet below.

Democrats dismissed the bill, passed 53-44 on a nearly party-line vote, as unnecessary in light of President Clinton's support for the sweeping accord ratified by 72 nations that aims to rid the world of chemical weapons.

Senator Joe Biden of Delaware said he saw no need for it and criticised the process that brought the measure to a vote with little serious consideration less than a month after it was introduced. Yet others see a more sinister intent within conservative political-industrial-military circles.
[From South News.]

From GLW issue 273