"In a last minute rush to get a nuclear deal with India at any cost, President Bush appears to have caved to Indian demands and compromised U.S. security by blowing a hole in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

“The United States has now pushed over a nuclear domino that falls against 187 other nations – all signers of the Nonproliferation Treaty -- to review why they should honor a document which the nuclear superpowers no longer respect.
It empowers the hawks in every rogue nation to put their nuclear weapons plans on steroids now that they can no longer be isolated as non-signers of an agreement that has been shredded.

"There is bipartisan opposition to this deal in the Congress, and when the full story is known it will be a bookend to the Dubai port deal – another case of the Bush Administration announcing a commercial deal without due regard for its impact on national security interests.

"While the full details are not yet available, it appears that the Bush Administration is going to open up nuclear trade with a country which has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which refuses to accept full scope international safeguards over all its nuclear facilities, and which refuses to halt production of fissile materials for nuclear bombs.

"The Bush Administration has failed to come up with a safeguards plan that has any credibility whatsoever -- even as a figleaf.  It appears that Bush negotiators

 Failed to insist that all of India’s old spent fuel be safeguarded against diversion to weapons
 failed to get India to agree to halt production of new fissile material for bombs.
 failed to in its characterized top negotiating objective -- getting India to put its fast breeder reactors under safeguards.
 Also – two of the existing heavy water reactors that had previously been considered “civilian” are not covered by safeguards.

In sum, the so-called “safeguards” are so weak that India will be able to divert enough material from its civilian program to build more than 1000 nuclear weapons in addition to the 50-100 bombs it has already built – all with the approval of the United States of America.

"The President appears to have given away the store for an agreement that provides the U.S. with no real benefit, while threatening our security by destroying an international nonproliferation regime that has been help stop the spread of the Bomb.

"This nuclear deal is a dagger pointed at the heart of the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.  The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty cannot survive if the United States puts its stamp of approval on exemptions to countries who fail to comply with its controls.  The Nuclear Suppliers Group cannot survive if its export controls are applied selectively.

"If we allow India this loophole, Pakistan – like India, a country that has not signed the Nonproliferation Treaty --has already indicated its interest in making a similar deal – if not with the US, than with China.  Iran, a country that has signed the Treaty, will note that U.S. insistence on compliance with full scope safeguards appears to be limited to countries that it does not like.  If other Nuclear Supplier nations follow the example set in this deal, the entire nuclear proliferation regime will begin to collapse, and we may ultimately return to the kind of world that President John F. Kennedy once feared -- a world in which we don't ask who has the bomb, but who does not.

"I intend to fight this terrible agreement and block any legislation that would alter the restrictions on nuclear trade that are in U.S. law.  At the same time, I believe that the 45 nations who are Members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group need to send a strong signal to President Bush and to the U.S. Congress if they do not wish to see the NSG Guidelines destroyed.”