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U.N. Resolution 1284, adopted in December 1999, calls for the streamlining of economic sanctions and for their eventual suspension once UNMOVIC has reported that Iraq is cooperating with U.N. resolutions on dismantling its WMD. This resolution remains the legal basis for continuing to control Iraq's assets, but Iraq has refused to allow UNMOVIC on the ground, insisting that the sanctions should be lifted since it has disarmed to the extent called for by U.N. resolutions. U.N. Resolution 1284 places no limits on the volume of petroleum that Iraq can export for humanitarian needs.
The inflammation of US nationalism since 11th September has blinded it to the potential strategic disaster of a split with Europe. If an American strike against Iraq were to go badly wrong, the resulting international discord could spell the end of the cultural entity known as "the west".
Many well-meaning political figures have made the mistake that Senator James Inhofe made on Meet the Press on August 18: "Our intelligence system has said that we know that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction -- I believe including nuclear.
The Iraqis focused their efforts on developing an implosion-type weapon, whose basic design involves surrounding a subcritical mass, or core, of fissile material (in this case, highly enriched uranium) with conventional high-explosive charges. The charges are uniformly detonated to compress the nuclear material into a supercritical configuration. Iraq's weaponization program was in its early stages at the time of the Gulf War. In spite of making progress in the high-explosive testing program, Iraqi scientists were still struggling to master the high-explosive charges that must be precisely fabricated in order to produce homogeneous shock waves against the core after ignition.
More than seven years after the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) signed the landmark Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), the benefits and drawbacks of that accord are coming into stark relief. A new agreement should give developing countries the flexibility to adopt domestic policies that are geared to enhance domestic production and protect the livelihoods of their rural poor.
Iraq ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty on October 29, 1969, pledging not to manufacture nuclear weapons and agreeing to place all its nuclear materials and facilities under IAEA safeguards. Iraq violated its NPT obligations, however, by secretly pursuing a multi-billion-dollar nuclear weapon program. Iraq's near-term potential to develop nuclear weapons has been curtailed by the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, adopted in April 1991, following Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The events and implications of 9/11 will continue to shape U.S. foreign policy and defense strategy for the foreseeable future.
On August 1, the Senate agreed to an amendment proposed by Senator Richard Lugar that would allow the Bush administration to waive congressional requirements so that the Department of Defense could resume funding construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye, Russia. Congress requires that administrations annually certify that Russia has complied with its chemical weapon treaty responsibilities in order for CW elimination funds to be expended.
As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins two days of hearings on Iraq on July 31, it is useful to review what we know and what we don't know about Saddam's efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad's pursuit of WMD and its refusal to permit UN weapon inspectors to carry out their Security Council mandate is a critical issue as Washington debates possible military action against Saddam Hussein. Weapons inspectors were able to destroy more facilities, missiles and weapons after the Gulf War than the allied military during the actual military operation.
This testimony examines "minor crimes" under Chinese law and how they are punished. It focuses on re-education through labor, a mechanism of punishing "minor crimes," by discussing its legal background, the legal and human rights problems it presents, the current debate in China about its future, and the reasons for recommending its abolition.