Jan 2001

The most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States today is that weapons of mass destruction or weapons-usable material located in Russia could be stolen and sold to terrorists or hostile nation states and used against American troops abroad or citizens at home.

The panel recommends a $30 billion program to help Russia secure its nuclear stockpile.

But the current budget levels are inadequate and the management of the U.S. government's involvement is too diffuse. The existing scope and operation of the programs leave an unacceptable risk of failure and the potential for catastrophic consequences. The new president and the leaders of the 107th Congress face the urgent challenge of devising a stronger response proportionate to the threat.

"We want to give the public a wake-up call about how serious this problem is," Mr. Cutler said.

The task force did identify one major cloud on the horizon: Russia's continuing trade with Iran in dual-use nuclear technology and missile technology, as well as Russia's apparent intention to supply new conventional weapons systems to Iran. Despite the fact that these issues have been raised with Russia at the highest level, the problems have not yet been resolved. While the task force affirms that the DOE nonproliferation programs are unequivocally in the U.S. national security interest, the task force is particularly concerned that if Russia's cooperation with Iran continues in a way that compromises nonproliferation goals, it will adversely affect U.S.-Russian cooperation in a wide range of other important nonproliferation programs.

"If there is going to be attention paid (to this issue) there has to be a very strong presidential leadership," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., a panel member.

Maybe Bush is waiting to use a more direct approach to end the Russian-Iranian road block?