nuclear-news

USA Senator Chuck Grassley has been delaying Congress action on nuclear terrorism

Another View: Nuclear treaties need Grassley’s help, Des Moines Register,  Nov 17, 2012 by GREG THIELMANN As the Congress gathers in Washington for its final session of the year, bipartisan cooperation is going to be needed more than ever to address the urgent issues facing the nation. One of its critical priorities should be approving two treaties that help construct barriers to nuclear terrorism.

Iowa’s Sen. Chuck Grassley, who had previously delayed passage, is now in a unique position to make this happen. For more than a decade, U.S. defense and security leaders have warned that nuclear terrorism poses a severe threat to American security. The 9/11 Commission report stated, “The greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States will materialize if the world’s most dangerous terrorists acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons.”…..
For too long, two anti-terrorism treaties have been waiting for congressional approval. These treaties, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the 2005 amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, are common sense measures that enhance the world’s ability to prevent incidents of nuclear terrorism and punish those responsible…

…After strong backing for the treaties from the president and his predecessor, the House of Representatives finally passed compromise legislation earlier this year with broad bipartisan support. However, rather than facilitating swift Senate action on the treaties, Senator
Grassley slowed the process by seeking amendments on issues his Republican colleagues in the House had already set aside.

The Grassley amendments are peripheral to the goal of spurring international action against nuclear terrorism. His insistence on imposing the death sentence for terrorism cases is quixotic and counterproductive given its absence in most of the world’s democracies and especially odd from a senator whose own state eliminated capital punishment from its laws in 1965.
The key question remains: Are we better off with the treaties than without them? Yes!……
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121118/OPINION01/311180031/-1/debatedemafter/Another-View-Nuclear-treaties-need-Grassley-s-help?nclick_check=1

November 19, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA