Clinton Urges Senate To Ratify Test Ban Treaty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton Tuesday called on the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), saying it would be a ``tragedy'' if it failed to act on the landmark accord to ban all nuclear testing.

The treaty has been blocked by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, who insists that Clinton first send the Senate an unrelated treaty on global warming as well as amendments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

While never mentioning Helms by name, Clinton accused the North Carolina Republican of holding the CTBT hostage to the other matters, neither of which, he said, was ready for Senate consideration.

``We have a chance right now to end nuclear testing forever,'' Clinton told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. ``It would be a tragedy for our security and for our children's future, to let this opportunity slip away.''

The CTBT has been signed by 152 nations and ratified by 41. To enter into force, it must be ratified by all 44 countries in the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament that have nuclear reactors or research programs, including the United States.

Clinton's Rose Garden remarks were timed to coincide with a news conference by a group of senators from both parties who urged Republican Senate leaders to take action on the treaty.

``We cannot allow this important treaty to be ignored any longer, and we will not,'' said Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, adding Democrats planned to step up their efforts to force consideration of the issue.

Republican Sens. James Jeffords of Vermont and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voiced support for the treaty, which Clinton signed in 1996 and submitted to the Senate in 1997.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called the decision by Helms and Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to bottle it up ''irresponsible'' and ``stupid.''

``I respect their rationale. I do not respect their decision,'' Biden said. ``This is overwhelmingly in the interest of the United States.''

A spokesman for Helms said the senator would not allow the Senate to moved on the CTBT until Clinton submitted the controversial ABM treaty amendments and the global warming treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997.

``There is something wrong when the administration is signing treaties and amendments that it is afraid to submit to the United States Senate,'' the spokesman said.

Under Senate rules, a committee chairman can effectively block legislation from leaving the panel and therefore from being considered by the full chamber.

The White House insists that it does not want to submit the ABM amendments -- negotiated with Russia -- until the Russian Duma ratifies the START II strategic arms reduction treaty.

Clinton also said he did not want to send the Senate the Kyoto global warming treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, until developing countries are included in it -- something sought even by those who oppose the treaty.

The president said that to ``hold it hostage to two matters that are literally not ripe for presentation to the Senate yet would be a grave error, I think, and I hope that we can find a way around that.''

Clinton said that at the very least, he would like the Senate foreign relations committee to hold hearings on the CTBT treaty in the autumn, allowing for a public debate on a matter that he argued the majority of the Americans supported.

*NOTE*--- I would just like to take the time to quickly say that although I am in full support of a treaty that would end (suppoesedly) all nuclear testing, I find it funny that Clinton, who recently was at the forefront of NATO's horrifying bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, is now championing this cause. Fucking Hypocrite. (This is just my view, if you feel differently, email me and let me know why.) ~Andy Power