Political Quotes

“one of the charges made consistently during the weeks of debate over this treaty is the charge that supporters of this treaty desired to see chemical weapons abolished from the earth, while opponents have no such interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. Opponents of the treaty also desire to see these heinous weapons abolished. We have simply contended that a poorly drafted treaty will not only fail to achieve that worthy end, but could even lead to their increased proliferation. I am pleased to report that, as of this morning, opponents of the original treaty draft have prevailed in our efforts to add teeth and additional safeguards to what was heretofore an unacceptable document. To begin with, the Senate yesterday voted to add twenty-eight additional provisions to the CWC. These provisions tighten our intelligence sharing procedures to keep classified information out of the wrong hands, would maintain the stricter exporting restrictions as outlined in the ``Australia Group'' protocol, would enhance monitoring and verification of compliance, and would greatly beef up our military's chemical warfare defense capabilities. In addition, the Senate leadership this morning received a letter from the President committing him to withdrawing from the convention if it leads to the degradation of our chemical weapons defenses, or leads to chemical weapons proliferation. I believe this treaty is now worthy of ratification and will vote accordingly.”