The screws tightened

While we were being fed opium — “Amendments to the Bill have been defeated” — in fact a far-reaching amendment moved in the House of Representatives was accepted. It stands as part of the House Bill. This provision deploys an ingenious device to ensure that the US Government makes certain that we do not increase our weapons production. Section 4(o)(2)(B) of the House Bill lays down that in regard to India the US President shall present to the Congress every year “an analysis as to whether imported uranium has affected such rate of production of nuclear explosive devices.” Recall also that Section 107(a) of the Senate Bill binds the President to “ensure US compliance with Article I of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

To gauge the effect of these two Sections, let’s put two things together — the spin our government has been putting on the agreement here and what the US is bound to do by virtue of Article 1 of the NPT.

We are being told in asides, “The agreement will not limit our weapons production at all. The uranium we are able to import for our civilian reactors because of this agreement will, in fact, free the uranium we obtain from our own mines for use in weapons production.” The House and Senate Bills close this imagined latitude decisively. Recall that reference to Article I of the NPT. This Article mandates every signatory State “not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices.”

... contd.