01/30/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09675

THREATS FROM WEAPONS SPREAD

"If the September 11^th terrorist attacks taught the United States nothing else," said Under Secretary of State John Bolton, "it taught us not to underestimate the intentions and capabilities of rogue states and terrorist groups. We will not be complacent [about] the threat of any kind of attack on the U.S., especially from weapons of mass destruction, whether chemical, biological, nuclear, or from missiles."

Mr. Bolton is Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. As he told the sixty-six nation Conference on Disarmament recently, the September 11^th attacks made all too clear the grave threats from terrorists, their state sponsors, and the rogue states that seek weapons of mass destruction. Civilized countries must defend against these threats. And to do so, they must hold accountable any states that violate commitments to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

With very few exceptions, terrorist groups have not acquired and cannot acquire weapons of mass destruction without the support of nation-states. This support may be technical assistance or funding. Such assistance may have taken the form of simply turning a blind eye to terrorist camps within a country’s borders. But the fact that governments that sponsor terrorist groups are also pursuing nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile programs cannot be ignored.

Three such countries are North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. In his State of the Union Address on January 29^th, President George W. Bush pointed out that, "North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens. Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom. . . . The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. . . . This is a regime that agreed to international [weapons] inspectors, then kicked out the inspectors."

"States like these, and their terrorist allies," said Mr. Bush, "constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. . . . They could provide these arms to terrorists. . . . They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the U.S."

As President Bush said, the U.S. "will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons."