----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 4:25 PM Subject: HELMS SAYS U.S. NOT BOUND BY ABM TREATY Thursday January 11 Helms Says U.S. Not Bound by ABM Treaty By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The influential chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Thursday that the United States was not bound by an arms control treaty that Russia has said would be violated if a missile defense were deployed to protect the United States and its allies. Sen. Jesse Helms, who will be going into his seventh year as head of the committee, said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) expired when the Soviet Union dissolved and should not be an impediment to a U.S. missile shield. ``The United States is no longer bound by the ABM Treaty -- that treaty expired when our treaty partner the Soviet Union ceased to exist,'' said Helms, a North Carolina Republican. ``Personally, I do not think that a new ABM Treaty can be negotiated with Russia that would permit the kind of defenses that America needs and must have,'' he said in a speech at The American Enterprise Institute. President Clinton deferred a decision on whether to deploy a national missile defense system to President-elect George W. Bush, who takes office on Jan. 20. Russia and China have opposed a U.S. national missile defense, saying it could lead to a renewed arms race. Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's choice for defense secretary, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday the United States must develop defenses against missile attack. But he refrained from setting any date for deployment. Helms said his top priority would be to undo Clinton's endorsement of a treaty to create the first permanent global court for trying alleged war criminals. Some Republicans are concerned such a court could lead to a foreign country putting members of the U.S. military on trial. ``I will make reversing this decision and protecting America's fighting men and women from the jurisdiction of this international kangaroo court my single highest priority in the new Congress,'' Helms said. Bush's team has criticized the treaty as flawed and said that Bush would not send it to the Senate for ratification in its current form. The International Criminal Court would be set up in the Netherlands to try individuals accused of mass murders, war crimes and other gross human rights violations. The tribunal would not come into force until 60 countries ratify the treaty, and so far almost half that number have done so. Helms said he intended to work with the Bush administration to ensure that the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would be invited to join NATO, an expansion that Russia opposes. ``We must show Russia's leaders an open path to good relations, while at the same time closing off their avenues to destructive behavior,'' Helms said. He said he hoped more action would be taken to undermine foreign leaders such as Cuban President Fidel Castro and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. ``We must have a new Iraq policy, and such a policy must be based on a clear understanding of this salient fact: Nothing will change in Iraq until Saddam Hussein is removed from power,'' Helms said. He advocated a new U.S. policy on Cuba, saying debate over whether to lift the economic embargo against the communist-ruled island was likely to end with a Bush White House which supports keeping it. Helms said the types of policies that undermined communism in Poland could also be applied to Cuba. On Taiwan, Helms said the island's self-defense capabilities were not keeping up with China's military modernization and it was ``imperative that we act quickly to reverse the decline.'' Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, Fl. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
