Now Comes The Other Shoe On The Nuclear Deal With India

White House Asks Congress to Alter Nuclear Aid Law: Administration Seeks Action Ahead Of Months of Negotiations With India

Bush administration officials said yesterday that they expect months of negotiations with Congress over a nuclear cooperation deal in the works with India but asked lawmakers to begin changes now to U.S. laws to accommodate a future agreement.

The proposed legislation, submitted yesterday by the chairmen of the Senate and House Foreign Relations committees, would exempt India from sections of the Atomic Energy Act that restrict trade with countries that are not party to nuclear treaties. India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, making it ineligible for U.S. civilian nuclear technology.

Let us hope that congress either has an attack of good sense; or that this process takes longer than this term of congress and their is a Democratic takeover of one or both houses; or that congress gets an attack of being on its high horse like it did with the League of Nations treaty. This deal is a threat to US security, world peace and sound judgment. India is as unstable as Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Palestine or Israel when it comes to nuclear weapons and use of nuclear power. The only countries that represent a greater threat in terms of nuclear weapons are North Korea, Iran, China and the former Soviet Bloc countries that have deteriorating weapons and technology for sale.

Yet, according to proposed legislation, the United States will recognize India, once a final accord is reached, as a country that does meet nonproliferation standards because the deal would bring some of India's nuclear facilities under international monitors. Declaring that India meets nonproliferation standards would virtually guarantee congressional approval of the deal.

Someone pinch me... I thought we had a UN agency that handles the determination as to whether a country is in compliance with nonproliferation? The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "is the world´s center of cooperation in the nuclear field. It was set up as the world´s "Atoms for Peace" organization in 1957 within the United Nations family. The Agency works with its Member States and multiple partners worldwide to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies." The IAEA is responsible for implementing and enforcing the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), not the United States by itself. Have we withdrawn from the UN, the NPT, and other international treaties in the past few months and nobody told us?

Republicans and Democrats have hailed White House efforts to improve U.S.-India relations less than a decade after the two nations were estranged over India's nuclear ambitions. But some in Congress are concerned about the agreement, which would provide U.S. nuclear power assistance to India while allowing the country to substantially step up its nuclear weapons production.

What scares me is the overall instability of the Indian sub-continent, India, Pakistan and the role China is having in the region... not to mention the terrorism that is currently occurring in India, Pakistan and neighboring states.

"This is round one of a 15-round match," Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said after briefing Congress on the legislation. The White House had hoped for quick action in Congress when it first announced a new strategic partnership with India, but the negotiations -- both with New Delhi and Congress -- have gone much slower.

There is something to be said when the language used to describe a "peaceful" negotiation process in terms of combat and force.

Under the agreement reached during President Bush's trip to India this month, India is to separate its civilian and military nuclear programs over the next eight years to gain U.S. expertise and nuclear fuel to meet its rapidly rising energy needs. India's civilian facilities would be subject for the first time to permanent international inspections. The Bush administration originally sought a plan that would have allowed India to continue producing material for six to 10 weapons each year, but the new plan would allow India enough fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year. Experts said this would far exceed what is believed to be its current capacity.

FIFTY WEAPONS A YEAR! This reminds me of a George Carlin routine about kamikaze pilots receiving their suicide mission orders from an admiral... the punchline is when one of the kamikaze pilots questions the sanity of the person(s) delivering the orders and developing the program. "Honorable General-san! Yes! "Are you out of your F@#$ing mind?!?"

Burns, a key negotiator on the deal, has spent two weeks meeting with members of Congress to address their concerns. "We're encouraged by our discussions on the Hill," he said in an interview. "Many members are in support, some are in opposition and the great majority are still waiting to hear the details. But we have a very good agreement that will advance our interests with India," Burns said.

In other words, he is doing the Bush administration's dirty work and arm-twisting of members of congress--especially those that are used to not employing their brains in the process of making policy for the US.

A group of senior U.S. experts on South Asia, many of them former government officials, wrote a letter yesterday to Congress in support of the deal, arguing that it was time to stop shunning the world's largest democracy. A group of nuclear experts wrote letters opposing the agreement, saying it would destroy years of efforts to combat the spread of nuclear weapons.

Here we see that science and the views of scientists are being cast aside and policy wonks, politicians and ultra-conservative agendas are given higher priority than facts, expert analysis and sound judgment.

[Side Note: The view that the current Bush administration, as well as the Reagan and previous Bush administration, censors the ability of government-employed or government-funded scientists from speaking or writing about issues in a way that is contrary to the views--political and ideological--has been independently offered to me by colleagues, friends and professionals in the EPA, NASA, NIH and other government agancies with whom I have had contact over the years.]

Two senior congressional Republicans, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (Ind.) and his counterpart in the House, Chairman Henry J. Hyde (Ill.) reserved judgment on the deal but predicted that Congress will try to set conditions for its support.

Dick Lugar has to determine what is in the deal for him. He has never supported anything that did not benefit his political future in some manner. Hyde, too, is a political opportunist. Anyone want to bet that the conditions are fully negotiable according to whatever power, influence and PAC funds are available at the moment? Ooops, I spilled the big dirty secret of our political system... the US is for sale or rent to the highest bidders.

Burns urged them not to do so, noting that it took the administration more than eight months just to reach the separation plan. "To reopen it risks never being able to achieve it again, reassemble it," Burns said.

One would think that the Bush administration would have been working with congress BEFORE making the deal with India so that more info and feedback could be distributed and collected... you know... like planning... but that doesn't seem to be a strong suit of any of our politicians.

The deal with India is a wrong-headed approach to nonproliferation, international treaty implementation and is cutting off our nose to spite our face. It is one more step toward portraying ourselves as an international bully that sees itself above the rest of the world. It undermines the IAEA, the UN and the balance of power in that region of the world.