Anti-proliferation effort will receive no separate funding, personnel
The White House is not planning to dedicate specific personnel or funding to support the Proliferation Security Initiative, the centerpiece of the federal government's efforts to stem the global spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Guy Roberts, director of negotiations policy at the Pentagon, said Friday that the Defense Department could handle its PSI responsibilities with existing capabilities. President Bush launched the initiative early last year during a speech in Poland, and the program has been touted as a key tool to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists or hostile nations. The effort quickly took shape as a coalition of 11 countries dedicated to monitoring and intercepting WMD shipments before they reach their intended client or target.
The inaugural PSI countries-Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States-have been holding exercises to simulate sea and air interdictions. Other nations have joined the effort and officials credited the initiative with stopping a shipment of nuclear weapons-related materials from being smuggled into Libya.
The program has grown in importance since its inception, with allegations surfacing regularly of WMD proliferation by Pakistan and North Korea.
Roberts said that would-be proliferators must now adjust their efforts to avoid detection and the program has become "a huge thorn in their sides." Current plans, however, do not call for adding any infrastructure to support the effort.
"There is no secretariat, there is no building," Roberts said. "There is no office called PSI."
Roberts noted also that the administration had not included a separate line item for PSI in the fiscal 2005 budget request.
Defense officials are planning to fund PSI operations, but are essentially saying that "We're not going to tell you how or where the money will come from," said a staffer in the office of Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who has supported efforts to increase the Defense Department's force size.
Michael Moodie, president of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, said that the initiative could succeed without additional funding or personnel, but it will require sacrifices elsewhere in the Pentagon.
"I think it's a question of what priority it is given within the overall complex of efforts on proliferation," Moodie said. "The corollary is that something else on which they work will get less attention."
Instead of operating with one central office or control center, PSI will be driven by several international working groups, according to Roberts. An operational experts group and an intelligence group are developing PSI procedures, while a legal group is determining what actions the PSI members may legally take outside their own territorial boundaries.
Roberts said the effort is gaining ground. The U.S. recently reached an agreement with Liberia, for example, that will allow PSI members to board Liberian ships suspected of carrying WMD or related material. Many shipping companies register their vessels in Liberia as a flag of convenience.
Clay Moltz, of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said PSI's operational funding needs could be covered by money set aside for international exercises or counterproliferation efforts. He added that a central manager would help the broad, international effort run smoothly.
"It would be useful to have a coordinator for PSI activities, to have a small office," Moltz said.
Moltz and Moodie both believe that PSI can be a successful counterproliferation tool and should be given a chance to succeed.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, is confident that it can successfully coordinate PSI monitoring and interdiction activities without adding to its current force structure or command and control capability.
"We will stop these shipments," Roberts said. "We really can do no less."