06 Jun 1998 Scoop #190: July 6, 1998

Activities at the June 25 & 11 and May 28 Stanton foreign & defense policy meetings, chaired by Laszlo Pastor of Coalitions for America & Amy Ridenour of The National Center for Public Policy Research.

Baker Spring of The Heritage Foundation reviewed the Clinton Administration’s September 1997 Memorandum of Understanding with Russia, which revives and multilateralizes the 1972 ABM Treaty, which the Clinton Administration believes bans the U.S. from defending itself from incoming nuclear weapons.

Spring explained why none of the three provisions signed by the Administration are in the U.S. interest, and why U.S. Senate ratification is needed if the Memorandum of Understanding is to have the force of law.

Spring further explained why, under international law, the 1972 ABM treaty should be considered null and void, and distributed a new 38-page Heritage Foundation report, “The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the End of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty: A Memorandum of Law,” prepared for the Heritage Foundation by the law firm of Hunton and Williams.

Concludes the report: “When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the ABM Treaty became impossible to perform in accordance with its original provisions. Because of the unique terms and conditions of the ABM Treaty, and the underlying assumptions of the parties, none of the states that emerged from the Soviet Union, either alone or with others, could carry out the totality of the Soviet Union’s obligations under the ABM Treaty. Consequently, the obligations of the United States under the Treaty were discharged at the time the Soviet Union disappeared. Although a number of the former Soviet republics have indicated that they are prepared to undertake the Soviet Union’s role in the ABM Treaty regime, this willingness alone is insufficient to bind the United States. Transforming the ABM Treaty from a bilateral accord, applicable to the entire Soviet territory, into a multilateral convention, applicable only to a portion of the former Soviet territory, and redrafting in the process a number of key substantive Treaty provisions fundamentally alters the bargain originally struck by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972. The President cannot, of his own authority, accomplish these results. Accordingly, the United States can again be bound to the ABM Treaty only if two-thirds of the Senate agrees to the revisions required by the transformation of the ABM Treaty, and the President then chooses to ratify them.”

Contact Baker Spring of The Heritage Foundation at 202/546-4400 or [email protected] or review these and other Heritage reports about the ABM treaty, U.S. defense policy and U.S.-Russian relations at http://www.heritage.org.

Joan Hueter of the American Council for Immigration Reform announced that the Clinton Administration is trying to revive the administrative procedure whereby people can purchase a green card for $1,000 and without a background check, even though Congress voted against this practice last year. Hueter reported that the appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice and State has a provision in it to restore this procedure, which is known bureaucratically as provision 245i. Hueter reported that the immigration department likes this because it gets to keep the money. She also recommended a web site to participants for information on immigration: Roy Beck’s “Numbers USA” site at http://www.numbersusa.com. Contact Joan Hueter at 202/328-1245 or [email protected].

Dr. Emilio-Adolfo Rivero of the Popular Republican Party, Ltd., a Cuban exile organization, is asking the United States Congress to pass a Joint Resolution opposing investment in Cuba’s economy for as long as Fidel Castro remains in power. Rivero said, “By providing capital to Castro’s Cuba, [investors] support his stay in power.” Although a resolution has not yet been introduced, Rivero said he has met with the staff of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and says the idea of a resolution has the support of Cuban-American Members of Congress Ileana Ros-Lethinen (R-FL) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) as well as Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson. Contact Dr. Rivero at 301/927-2167.

Bonny Stilwell reviewed the new book “The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror” written by David Hoffman and published by Feral House. Stilwell recommended that participants read the book, which contains a forward by Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key, who was the primary force behind a County Grand Jury formed to investigate details of the bombing uninvestigated by the McVeigh and Nichols trials. Contact Bonny Stilwell at 703/360-1173.

Paul Georgia of the Competitive Enterprise Institute spoke on legislation introduced by Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO) to stop the Clinton Administration from implementing the Kyoto Protocol until the international treaty is ratified by the Senate. S. 2019 prohibits federal funds from being used to write or enforce regulations related to the Protocol’s restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions until after Senate ratification. Contact Paul Georgia at 202/331-1010 (http://www.cei.org).

David Funderburk, U.S. Ambassador to Romania during the Reagan Administration, updated participants on events in that country. Funderburk, who visits Romania frequently, reported that he is very optimistic about Romania’s current leader, whom he called “a Vaclav Havel-like figure” and who will soon visit the U.S. to address a joint session of Congress