[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 97 (Thursday, June 27, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        DEFENSE AGAINST WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ACT OF 1996

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN M. SPRATT, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 1996

  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, Dhahran is a grim reminder that terrorists 
today are not only insidious and stealthy but technically 
sophisticated. It is only a matter of time till they couple their 
unconventional tactics with unconventional weapons. Terrorists have 
already released chemical weapons in the Tokyo subways. Biological, and 
even nuclear weapons, are only a few steps removed, and well within 
their reach.
  For that reason, I am pleased to sponsor in the House a bill that 
Senator Nunn, Senator Lugar, and Senator Domenici offered in the Senate 
this morning as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill. Rep. 
Bill McCollum, who has a longstanding interest in counter-terrorism, 
joins me as a cosponsor.
  In the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, we set forth 
a set of policies to respond to a threat that has emerged and grown 
with the end of the cold war. We can all be relieved that the risk of 
nuclear attack by Russia has receded. By the end of this year, Ukraine, 
Byelorussia, and Kazakhstan all should be free of deployed nuclear 
weapons. But the breakup of the Soviet Union has opened up a storehouse 
of destructive weapons and components to terrorist groups and nations 
hostile to the United States. So, ironically, while the risk of nuclear 
annihilation has become more remote, we find ourselves faced with a 
growing risk of attacks, albeit limited, by nuclear, biological, or 
chemical weapons.
  We have spent considerable time in the House debating defenses 
against intercontinental ballistic missiles, and it is a pertinent 
debate about a serious threat. But our focus on ICBMs may have 
deflected our attention from a far more likely threat: a terrorist-type 
bomb, with a nuclear, biological, or chemical warhead. This technology 
is easier to develop than ICBMs, and as the chemical attack in the 
Tokyo subway makes clear, terrorist groups can and will use these 
weapons. In fact, they offer terrorists plausible deniability--they can 
use such weapons and leave the United States with no clear-cut enemy to 
retaliate against. Ballistic missiles, on the other hand, leave a 
return address written in several thousand degrees fahrenheit.
  This bill will help shift attention to the everyday threats that 
proliferation is creating. Moscow has acknowledged that it has 40,000 
metric tons of chemical weapons in its stockpile. There are about 80 
facilities in the former Soviet Union that store weapons grade nuclear 
materials, and as the Center for Strategic and International Studies 
said in a report released this week, these poorly protected storage 
sites are patrolled by demoralized and underpaid guards. Russian law 
enforcement officials reported 54 cases of theft of fissile materials 
in 1993 and 1994, and both German and Czech officials have seized 
fissile materials originating in the FSU. In Project Sapphire, we 
airlifted 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium-enough for a dozen 
bombs--from a facility in Kazakhstan that was protected by little more 
than a padlock. We cannot possibly bring all of the nuclear, chemical, 
and biological weapons and materials of the former Soviet Union here to 
the United States; we must help these nations secure these materials, 
and by doing so, help protect ourselves.

  It is not just the FSU, of course, that we have to be concerned 
about. Libya is constructing a chemical weapons facility in Torhuna. 
North Korea probably possesses enough plutonium to make several nuclear 
weapons. China is assisting Iran in building a uranium hexafluoride 
[HEX] facility which converts uranium into a gaseous form so it can be 
diffused to produce highly enriched uranium. There are allegations that 
a Russian General helped smuggle binary nerve agents to Syria. All 
these incidents point to the possibility of a terrorist-type attack by 
some weapon of mass destruction at some point in the not-too-distant 
future.
  The legislation Representative McCollum and I are introducing today 
addresses the problem in three broad ways:
  First, stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and their 
components. The FSU offers terrorist groups and nations hostile to the 
United States their multiple chances to pilfer or acquire on an 
inchoate black market various weapons of mass destruction [WMD]. This 
bill will help the FSU tighten up security over these weapons and 
materials, and monitor and verify their status.
  Second, making sure the United States can detect and interdict 
weapons of mass destruction and their materials. The United States has 
concentrated very little effort on how to detect weapons of mass 
destruction or their component materials if smuggled into this country, 
and we have done too little to learn how to disable these weapons 
safely, once discovered. This bill will help develop these 
capabilities.
  Third, being prepared should the United States be the victim of a 
weapon of mass destruction. The United States is not equipped to deal 
with an attack by a weapon of mass destruction. The World Trade Center 
and Oklahoma City bombings were devastating, and the bombing in Dhahran 
shows just how vulnerable Americans are to terrorist attack--but these 
attacks pale in comparison to a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon 
attack. This bill will train Federal, State and local officials to act 
in a coordinated way in response to nuclear, biological, or chemical 
weapon attacks.
  I am pleased to have Representative McCollum join me in introducing 
this legislation. He is a leader in the Congress on this and related 
issues of law enforcement. He was a member of the CSIS steering 
committee that produced The Nuclear Black Market study published 
earlier this week, which helped frame this legislation. And as Chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Representative 
McCollum's support of this legislation will be critical in ensuring its 
adoption.
  Representative Weldon weighed cosponsoring this legislation with 
Representative McCollum and me, but decided to take more time to 
consider specific parts of the bill. I understand that Representative 
Weldon may introduce a modified form of the bill sometime next month, 
and I hope to work with him on that. Representative McCollum and I 
likewise may modify or add to the bill before us, so this does not 
purport to be the last word on the subject, but it does represent a 
solid, bipartisan baseline from which to start. In dealing with threats 
like these, we do not need to divide along party lines. The bill 
received an enormous vote of support in the Senate this morning. I hope 
we can amass the same support in the House and move the bill swiftly to 
passage or include it in the Defense authorization conference report, 
so that we can begin implementing it in earnest.

                          ____________________