THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. On September the 11th, 2001, America
and the world saw the great harm that terrorists could inflict upon our
country, armed with box cutters, mace and 19 airline tickets.
Those attacks also raised the prospect of even worse dangers, of
terrorists armed with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
weapons. The possibility of secret and sudden attack with weapons of
mass destruction is the greatest threat before humanity today.
America is confronting this danger with open eyes and unbending
purpose. America faces the possibility of catastrophic attack from
ballistic missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction, so we are
developing and deploying missile defenses to guard our people. The
best intelligence is necessary to win the war on terror and to stop
proliferation. So we are improving and adapting our intelligence
capabilities for new and emerging threats. We are using every means of
diplomacy to confront the regimes that develop deadly weapons. We are
cooperating with more than a dozen nations under the Proliferation
Security Initiative, to interdict lethal materials transported by land,
sea or air. And we have shown our willingness to use force when force
is required. No one can now doubt the determination of America to
oppose and to end these threats to our security.
We are aggressively pursuing another dangerous source of
proliferation: black-market operatives who sell equipment and
expertise related to weapons of mass destruction. The world recently
learned of the network led by A.Q. Khan, the former head of Pakistan's
nuclear weapons program. Khan and his associates sold nuclear
technology and know-how to rogue regimes around the world, such as Iran
and North Korea. Thanks to the tireless work of intelligence officers
from the United States and the United Kingdom and other nations, the
Khan network is being dismantled.
This week, I proposed a series of new, ambitious steps to build on
our recent success against proliferation. We must expand the
international cooperation of law enforcement organizations to act
against proliferation networks, to shut down their labs, to seize their
materials, to freeze their assets and to bring their members to
justice.
We must strengthen laws and international controls that fight
proliferation. Last fall at the United Nations I proposed a new
Security Council resolution requiring all states to criminalize
proliferation, enact strict export controls and secure all sensitive
materials within their borders. I urge the Council to pass these
measures quickly.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, one of the most important
tools for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, is undermined by a
loophole that allows countries to seek nuclear weapons under the cover
of civilian nuclear power programs. I propose that the world's leading
nuclear exporters close that loophole. The Nuclear Suppliers Group
should refuse to sell enrichment and reprocessing equipment and
technologies to any state that does not already possess full scale,
functioning enrichment and reprocessing plants.
For international rules and laws to be effective, they must be
enforced. We must ensure that the International Atomic Energy Agency
is fully capable of exposing and reporting banned nuclear activity.
Every nation should sign what is called the Additional Protocol, which
would allow the IAEA to make broader inspections of nuclear sites. We
should also establish a special IAEA committee to focus on safeguards
and verification. And no nation under investigation for proliferation
violations should be able to serve on this committee or on the
governing board of the IAEA. Governments breaking the rules should not
be trusted with enforcing the rules.
Terrorists and terrorist states are in a race for weapons of mass
murder, a race they must lose. They are resourceful -- we must be more
resourceful. They are determined -- we must be more determined. We
will never lose focus or resolve. We will be unrelenting in the
defense of free nations, and rise to the hard demands of our dangerous
time.