|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Senators Ask President to Destroy Chemical Weapons NewsMax.comWashington -- U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) has organized a coalition of Senators who are asking President George W. Bush to mobilize all available resources in order to speed up the destruction of deadly Cold War chemical weapons stored at depots in eight states across America, and to continue to use military personnel to defend the storage sites in the interim. Deadly chemical agents are stored in facilities in Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Utah, Maryland, Arkansas, Colorado, and Oregon. In addition to Bayh, the letter to Bush is signed by Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Bob Bennett (R-UT). "The inadvertent release of chemical agent from any of these facilities in any direction would be catastrophic," the lawmakers wrote. The Senators also praised the Administration for taking quick action to secure the facilities after September 11. "The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to establish restricted flight zones over the facilities and the U.S. Army's enhanced troop presence at these sites is welcome and reassuring." "These facilities represent low probability, high risk targets," Bayh said. "But we must be prepared for every threat. So the most prudent thing to do is to take the threat entirely off the table by safely destroying these chemical agents as quickly as possible." In their letter to President Bush, the Senators asked the administration to follow through on five specific actions, and offered their full support for the effort: "We must take every reasonable precaution to safeguard the public from danger in these troubled times. We therefore ask that the following steps be taken to enhance security and safety at the eight chemical agent destruction sites: 1. full consideration be given to additional measures to increase the security of the sites and surrounding communities; 2. the enhanced Army troop deployments be made indefinite; 3. the restricted flight ban be made indefinite and regularly evaluated for its effectiveness; 4. renewed efforts to remove the agent as efficiently and carefully as possible, consistent with highest environmental and safety standards; and 5. where appropriate, expediting construction of agent destruction or neutralization facilities, again consistent with highest environmental and safety standards. We stand ready to provide such assistance as you deem necessary to carry out the above mentioned requests. Our shared objective is to protect our communities and eliminate the chemical agent as safely and soon as possible."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: |
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2012 NewsMax.Com |