Dick Lugar: “when I brought the START II Treaty to the floor last month, I did so in my capacity as the manage for the Foreign…”

“when I brought the START II Treaty to the floor last month, I did so in my capacity as the manage for the Foreign Relations Committee. In my opening statement, I sought to lay out for the body the key provisions of the START II Treaty, the assessment of the treaty of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the force structure implications of the treaty for both the Russian Federation and the United States, and the reasons why this treaty is, on balance, in the national security interests of the United States. But, Mr. President, I have also approached consideration of the START II Treaty from the vantage point of my membership on the Select Committee on Intelligence. I have spent a great deal of time analyzing United States capabilities to monitor compliance with arms control treaties and the START II Treaty in particular. I want to share with my colleagues my major findings and explain each of them briefly. First, no aspects of the START II Treaty text are likely to cause compliance issues because of the manner in which they are worded. I repeat, I have found no aspects of the START II Treaty text that are likely to cause compliance issues because of the manner in which they are worded. Indeed, START II, by banning test-flights and deployment of MIRV'd ICBM's after 2003, may lessen the likelihood of compliance issues regarding the number of re-entry vehicles with which an ICBM is equipped or tested.”