Cato Daily Dispatch for November 1, 2001
Missile Defense Deal Likely To Be Struck By Bush, PutinMicrosoft, Justice Dept Pushing To Settle Antitrust Case
Senate Committee Rejects CIA Drug Interdiction Flights
Missile Defense Deal Likely To Be Struck By Bush, Putin
The United States and Russia would allow extensive testing to develop a missile defense system and aim to cut strategic nuclear warhead levels by about two-thirds under a deal that U.S. officials said is likely to emerge from this month's summit between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Washington Post.
This agreement would not scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which U.S. officials said remains the ultimate goal of negotiations with Russia, but would allow the administration to move ahead with the vigorous testing and development program it hopes to begin early next year.
"Testing will go on, but there will be no announcement of a U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty," one official said. "That would be associated with a decision to deploy a system which will come later."
One year ago, Senior Defense Analyst Charles Peña proposed in the Cato study "Arms Control and Missile Defense: Not Mutually Exclusive," the construction of a limited National Missile Defense system at the same time that both countries conduct bilateral arms reductions. This is the kind of agreement Bush and Putin seem to be negotiating.
In "National Missile Defense: Examining the Options," Peña and Barbara Conry discuss a realistic view of the challenges of deploying missile defense. In the study, ""Arms Control and Missile Defense: Not Mutually Exclusive," Peña suggests that a limited NMD system could be built without endangering relations with Russia.
Microsoft, Justice Dept Pushing To Settle Antitrust Case
Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department have agreed on the outlines of a settlement in the long-running antitrust case against the software maker, according to The Washington Post.
Sources cautioned that the wording of the agreement had not been finalized and that negotiations could still break down. But there is a strong push to reach a deal before the parties go back into court tomorrow to report on the status of the talks, sources said.
"They're trying to get it done by Friday," said one source close to the situation.
"The trick, of course," writes antitrust expert Robert A. Levy in "The Microsoft Decision: Prospects for the Company, Implication for Antitrust," "is to come up with a formula that will appease the state attorneys general, who insist they will keep litigating if a proposed settlement does no more than slap Microsoft on the wrist."
Senate Committee Rejects CIA Drug Interdiction Flights
The CIA should no longer run U.S. drug interdiction flights over Peru if they are resumed, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence recommends, according to The Washington Post.
The committee blamed errors by the Peruvian military and poor U.S. management of the interdiction program for the April 20 accidental downing of a Baptist missionary flight that was misidentified as a drug-smuggling flight. Two people were killed and three others survived. U.S. officials then suspended the interdiction program and a similar effort in Colombia.
"The lack of judgment displayed by key individuals involved was the primary factor leading to this disaster," committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the report yesterday.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby, (Ala.), the committee's ranking Republican, said the CIA was at fault.
For fifteen years, Cato's Ted Galen Carpenter has called for the United States to stop its international drug war. Read his admonitions to the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.
Also, Cato's David Boaz discussed the Peru tragedy on CNN's "Crossfire." Video of the segment is available online.
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