ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997 TAG: 9704070071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
President Clinton rounded up allies included Colin Powell and Jim Baker to push for U.S. approval of an international ban on chemical weapons.
On one side is President Clinton and a bunch of Republican big guns; on the other, Sen. Jesse Helms and other Republican big guns. In the balance hangs the United States' response to a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons.
Clinton brought out his five-star Republicans on Friday - former Secretary of State Jim Baker and retired Army Gen. Colin Powell among them - as he launched what he vowed would be a ``highly public, visible'' campaign to get the Senate to approve the treaty before an April 29 deadline.
Baker, a veteran of both the Reagan and Bush administrations, which negotiated the Chemical Weapons Convention, fired sharp language on the treaty's behalf.
``The argument that some have used against ratification of the CWC is that it would somehow undermine our national security,'' he said. ``Frankly, the suggestion that George Bush and Ronald Reagan would negotiate a treaty detrimental to this nation's security is outrageous.''
Ratification of the treaty, Baker said, ``is at its core really a test of American leadership.''
``We're going to have to work like crazy to pass the thing,'' Clinton said.
The high-powered group hopes to persuade Helms, the North Carolina Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to allow a vote by the full Senate on the treaty. Approval requires two-thirds support.
So far, Clinton has not passed the first hurdle. Despite the administration's assertion that it has bent over backwards to oblige him, Helms has not agreed to let the treaty advance from his committee.
He has, however, agreed to hold hearings next week, when he promises to bring out his own set of GOP heavyweights, in the forms of former defense secretaries Caspar Weinberger, Donald Rumsfeld and James Schlesinger and former U.S. representative to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick.
``There have been a number of inaccurate reports in the press that I have agreed to a vote on this treaty despite many outstanding disagreements on vital issues,'' Helms said Friday.
His resistance is no small problem, according to supporters of the ban. If the United States fails to ratify the treaty, it will lose the right to help direct the treaty's enforcement.
More than 160 other nations have signed and 70 have ratified the compact to outlaw poison gases.
``If the Senate fails to ratify the convention before it enters into force, our national security and, I might add, our economic security will suffer,'' Clinton said.
Helms contends that the treaty is flawed because it will not be signed by the nations that pose the greatest threats to peace, including Libya, North Korea, Syria and Iraq.
He also says it is not verifiable and will force U.S. chemical companies to submit to illegal searches.
But Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the treaty would prompt other nations to do what the United States already is doing - get rid of chemical weapons.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 linesby CNB