[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 8 (Monday, February 23, 2004)]
[Pages 235-236]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

February 14, 2004

    Good morning. On September the 11th, 2001, America and the world saw 
the great harm that terrorists could inflict upon our country, armed 
with box cutters, mace, and 19 airline tickets.
    Those attacks also raised the prospect of even worse dangers, of 
terrorists armed with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear 
weapons. The possibility of secret and sudden attack with weapons of 
mass destruction is the greatest threat before humanity today.
    America is confronting this danger with open eyes and unbending 
purpose. America faces the possibility of catastrophic attack from 
ballistic missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction, so we are 
developing and deploying missile defenses to guard our people. The best 
intelligence is necessary to win the war on terror and to stop 
proliferation, so we are improving and adapting our intelligence 
capabilities for new and emerging threats. We are using every means of 
diplomacy to confront the regimes that develop deadly weapons. We are 
cooperating with

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more than a dozen nations under the Proliferation Security Initiative to 
interdict lethal materials transported by land, sea, or air. And we have 
shown our willingness to use force when force is required. No one can 
now doubt the determination of America to oppose and to end these 
threats to our security.
    We are aggressively pursuing another dangerous source of 
proliferation, black-market operatives who sell equipment and expertise 
related to weapons of mass destruction. The world recently learned of 
the network led by A.Q. Khan, the former head of Pakistan's nuclear 
weapons program. Khan and his associates sold nuclear technology and 
know-how to rogue regimes around the world, such as Iran and North 
Korea. Thanks to the tireless work of intelligence officers from the 
United States and the United Kingdom and other nations, the Khan network 
is being dismantled.
    This week, I proposed a series of new, ambitious steps to build on 
our recent success against proliferation. We must expand the 
international cooperation of law enforcement organizations to act 
against proliferation networks, to shut down their labs, to seize their 
materials, to freeze their assets, and to bring their members to 
justice.
    We must strengthen laws and international controls that fight 
proliferation. Last fall at the United Nations, I proposed a new 
Security Council resolution requiring all states to criminalize 
proliferation, enact strict export controls, and secure all sensitive 
materials within their borders. I urge the Council to pass these 
measures quickly.
    The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, one of the most important 
tools for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, is undermined by a 
loophole that allows countries to seek nuclear weapons under the cover 
of civilian nuclear power programs. I propose that the world's leading 
nuclear exporters close that loophole. The Nuclear Suppliers Group 
should refuse to sell enrichment and reprocessing equipment and 
technologies to any state that does not already possess full scale, 
functioning enrichment and reprocessing plants.
    For international rules and laws to be effective, they must be 
enforced. We must ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency is 
fully capable of exposing and reporting banned nuclear activity. Every 
nation should sign what is called the Additional Protocol, which would 
allow the IAEA to make broader inspections of nuclear sites. We should 
also establish a special IAEA committee to focus on safeguards and 
verification. And no nation under investigation for proliferation 
violations should be able to serve on this committee or on the governing 
board of the IAEA. Governments breaking the rules should not be trusted 
with enforcing the rules.
    Terrorists and terrorist states are in a race for weapons of mass 
murder, a race they must lose. They are resourceful. We must be more 
resourceful. They are determined. We must be more determined. We will 
never lose focus or resolve. We will be unrelenting in the defense of 
free nations and rise to the hard demands of our dangerous time.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 10:55 a.m. on February 13 in the 
Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February 
14. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on February 13 but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of this address.