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American Morning

President Bush Announces U.S. Wants to Withdraw from Anti- Ballistic Missile Treaty

Aired December 14, 2001 - 07:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Just an hour before the Pentagon released the tape of Osama bin Laden yesterday, President Bush emerged from the White House to announce that the U.S. wants to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Well, today's newspapers are covered with news of the bin Laden tape, but there is less about the ABM issue.

Was this a deliberate move by the administration?

For his perspective, let's turn to our ambassador in residence, Richard Butler, former chief U.N. weapons inspector and now with the Council On Foreign Relations. Good morning.

RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: So what do you make of the timing of this? We know that there have been some key Democrats who have been highly critical of the president's expected move.

BUTLER: Right.

ZAHN: And lost in all the coverage today is the fact that Mr. Bush made this unilateral move. Why should Americans care?

BUTLER: They should care very deeply. But on your first question, it shows how it worked. I don't know whether they meant to do it deliberately or not, to slip this one through with the bin Laden tape to come one hour later, but it worked.

And that caused, that should cause concern. It's not just Senator Biden. People around the world have been very worried about this whole idea of missile defense and that it might actually cause other countries to make new nuclear weapons, to create a new nuclear arms race.

ZAHN: Well, let's talk about that, because chief among those critics has been Senator Biden and he feels that this will spark a new arms race, particularly in Asia.

BUTLER: Yes, well...

ZAHN: Is he right? BUTLER: Yes, he is, and I call your attention to this. I mean quite frankly, Paula, I was stunned to hear Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, yesterday ask the world to believe that the missile defense shield that we're going to try and build -- and it's not clear that it will work -- but asked the world to believe that it would discriminate between missiles coming from rogue states like Iraq and the ones that might come from other nuclear weapons states.

You think about it. We are asking Russia and China to believe that we can put up in the sky something to shoot missiles down and this stuff in the sky somehow is going to be able to say ah, that's an Iraqi one. We'll shoot that one down. But we'll let the Russian and Chinese ones stay there.

I mean it beggars the imagination to think that anyone would believe that.

ZAHN: All right, so you made it quite clear that you think this is a colossally stupid thing to do.

BUTLER: I wouldn't go that far.

ZAHN: So what are you telling me? Do you want to soften the language a little? You don't think it's a very good idea.

BUTLER: I think it's the wrong thing to do at this time. Research, fine. OK? No one in their right mind would speak against the idea of defense and it's a national right. But, Paula, we're looking at the wrong thing. The big danger to this world is nuclear weapons and that's what we should be getting under control.

Now, they're talking about cutting the long range systems, fine. But there's all that loose Russian stuff out there. The Nunn-Lugar Act is not adequately financed to bring all those Russian supplies under control. We have behaved in a way that has weakened the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which stops weapons spreading to other countries. We've not done anything near enough to prevent these weapons from getting into the hands of terrorists like our friend Osama bin Laden.

They are looking at the wrong thing. Paula, the problem is nuclear weapons, not just the vehicles, the missiles that carry them. It will cost god knows how many billions of dollars, not necessarily going to work. They say this treaty is a cold war relic. But one of the relics from the cold war that we haven't dealt with is that the long range systems today are still on three minute alerts. And all the experts say that's not necessary anymore. That's very dangerous. Take them off alert.

I could go on but you've probably got another question.

ZAHN: You have written about all this quite poignantly in a new book you have out called "Fatal Choice."

BUTLER: Kind of you to mention it.

ZAHN: So what are you suggesting the president should have done?

BUTLER: Well, at the end of my book I put forward a plan of action and it includes some of the things that the president and President Putin have already announced. But they've not done enough. As I said, the cold war alert states should change. They really ought to stop nuclear testing. They really ought to stop the production of special fissile material that makes the core of the nuclear weapons, exactly the sort of stuff that Osama bin Laden was trying to get hold of.

I also propose a new international mechanism to bring weapons of mass destruction as a whole under control. Let me make it clear, we don't, we shouldn't have to strip ourselves naked. No one should. We should be able to defend ourselves. But basically I argue, Paula, that the real problem is nuclear weapons, not the missiles that carry them. And that's where we should be investing our time.

ZAHN: I need a quick response to this, as we rely on Russia right now in this war on terrorism, what impact will this move by President Bush have on long-term relations with that country?

BUTLER: I'm very worried about that. Putin was guarded. He said this decision is a mistake. And again, the reasons that were advanced for withdrawing from the treaty with respect to Russia's concerns were actually quite unconvincing. I think Russia has got interests in staying on board with us in the coalition against terror and so on. But this is a decision that they do not like and I think it imposes an unnecessary strain under our present circumstances.

I deeply regret it.

ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there, making it abundantly clear how you feel this morning.

BUTLER: OK.

ZAHN: Richard Butler, have a good weekend. See you next Monday.

BUTLER: See you.

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