Fw: Nuclear Weapons: Oppose a Bad Nuclear Deal with India - FCNL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Guthrie" <kathyguthrie@fcnl.org>
To: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 4:35 PM
Subject: Nuclear Weapons: Oppose a Bad Nuclear Deal with India - FCNL

When President Bush visits India next week (March 1-3), he won't be
threatening to bomb that country, like he is Iran.

Instead, he will be offering to provide India nuclear technology which
he is criticizing Iran for possessing. At the top of the president's
agenda will be negotiating an agreement to provide nuclear technology
to India even though the leaders of that South Asian nation refuse to
endorse the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

That nuclear technology and fuel transfer agreement may be difficult to
negotiate. Indian leaders have refused to establish a clear separation
between their civilian and military nuclear programs. In addition,
India is not a member of the NPT, the international agreement endorsed
by 188 nations that bans the export of nuclear technology to states
that don't agree to international inspections of their nuclear
programs. No means exists to ensure that India is in compliance with
international safeguards designed to stop the spread of nuclear
weapons.

Nonetheless, President Bush has said publicly that he hopes to devise a
plan with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that enables the U.S. to
provide nuclear technology to India. The U.S. government is pressuring
Iran (an NPT member) to halt its nuclear program, while negotiating an
agreement to supply India, a country that refuses to sign the NPT, with
nuclear technology. This double standard defeats, rather than advances,
work to free the world of nuclear danger.

Reps Ed Markey (D-MA) and Fred Upton (R-MI) oppose this double
standard, and they have introduced a bipartisan resolution expressing
concern about the proposed U.S.-India nuclear deal. While conveying
strong U.S. humanitarian and scientific support for India, H.Con.Res.
318 cautions against providing a non-NPT country with nuclear
technology and fuel. The Upton-Markey provision should be supported.

*Take Action*

Please contact your representative and ask her or him to cosponsor
H.Con.Res. 318, which expresses concern about the proposed U.S.-India
nuclear deal.

To see talking points and write a letter to your representative visit
http://www.fcnl.org/redir/0206hconres318.htm.

See a list of current cosponsors at
http://www.fcnl.org/redir/0306cosp318.htm.

*Background*

India last tested a nuclear weapon in 1998, and, while relations
between India and Pakistan are relatively stable now, this proposed
agreement could renew tensions if a perception is created that India is
attempting to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal with U.S.-supplied
technology. One Indian analyst, when commenting about the proposed
nuclear deal, quipped: "Given India's uranium ore crunch and the
need to build up our minimum credible nuclear deterrent arsenal as fast
as possible, it is to India's advantage to categorize as many power
reactors as possible as civilian ones to be re-fueled by imported
uranium and conserve our native uranium fuel for weapon-grade plutonium
production." India apparently wants to use U.S.-supplied nuclear
technology and fuel for its civilian energy needs so it can use its own
nuclear resources to produce bomb-grade material.

While India is an emerging partner of the U.S., the administration
should be cautious not to proliferate nuclear technology, even to
democracies. In the past, democratic states have been a source of
nuclear proliferation. The A.Q. Khan network, a Pakistan-based group
which acquired nuclear technology and sold it to "rogue"
states in the 1990s, obtained its technology from South Africa and
Switzerland, both of which are democracies. The proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction is already a significant world problem;
U.S. policies should not contribute to this situation.

If the U.S. is trying to assist India's energy needs, the U.S. should
provide technology to improve India's coal-burning power plants, some
of the dirtiest in the world. Congress ought not to be lowering the
threshold on non-proliferation by weakening the U.S. Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Act of 1978 and the Atomic Energy Act, laws which
must be amended for the U.S.-India nuclear deal to occur. To this end,
please ask your representative to cosponsor H.Con.Res. 318. Thank you!
_______________________________________

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