Senate Proceeding on Dec 19th, 2010 :: 1:46:00 to 1:49:25
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1:45:58 to 1:46:01( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: states and terrorists. in addition, unlike strategic

1:46:00 to 1:49:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Cornyn

1:46:02 to 1:46:22( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: nuclear weapons, tactical weapons have very little transparency and very little accounting. the treaty should at least make a step in the direction to provide more transparency and an accounting requirement. achieving reductions in russian tactical nuclear weapons would also reduce the supply of those weapons that could be acquired

1:46:23 to 1:46:43( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: by groups like al qaeda. tactical nuclear weapons are among those that are the most susceptible to theft or illicit transfer because they're relatively small and compact, including so-called suitcase nukes. they are the most susceptible to theft or illicit transfer to terrorists and also rogu states.

1:46:44 to 1:47:05( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: during the cold war, the soviet union was known to have produced and deployed tactical nuclear weapons like sometimes called suitcase nukes, as i mentioned a moment ago. these nuclear weapons, unlike large strategic weapons that new start would limit, are a terrorist's dream. they're easily concealed and highly transportable.

1:47:06 to 1:47:26( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: they could all too easily be moved across our border and positioned in almost any building in the united states. additionally, the strategic posture commission in its 2009 report to congress found that russia's tactical nuclear weapons advance opens up new possibilities for russian efforts to threaten the use of

1:47:27 to 1:47:47( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: new -- of nuclear weapons to influence regional conflicts and threaten our allies. the commission observed that there is a -- quote -- "evidently rising value in russian military doctrine and national security strategy of nuclear tactical weapons." and these fears are coming to

1:47:48 to 1:48:12( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: fruition. as u.s. officials say that russia has moved tactical nuclear weapons to facilities near nato allies, several times in recent years, most recently this past spring. these actions again would run counter to pledges made by moscow that they would pull back tactical nuclear weapons and reduce their numbers.

1:48:13 to 1:48:33( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: by ratifying the start -- the new start treaty without aaddressing this asymmetry, the united states would squander valuable leverage to negotiate a future reduction in russian tactical nuclear weapons. the administration says no matter, we must ratify the new start treaty and we can deal with the tactical nuclear

1:48:34 to 1:48:54( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: weapons sometime in the future. well, again, we didn't do it in 2003 when vice president biden and others pointed out the emotion and the potential danger, and here we are in 2010 being asked in a lame-duck session to ratify this treaty and leave tactical nuclear weapons excluded once again.

1:48:55 to 1:49:15( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: it leads me to wonder whether, instead of the doctrine of trust, but verify, that we are bracing a doctrine of ignore it and it will simply go away. but we all know that it won't. russia would have little reason to agree to reduce its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons in a future treaty without extracting

1:49:16 to 1:49:27( Edit History Discussion )

John Cornyn: concessions from the united states when we could fix this issue now if we would simply