HELMS CHARGES SOVIET BREACH OF INF ACCORD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R000300060016-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: January 25, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/07: CIA-RDP90M00005R000300060016-1
Helms charges
Soviet breach
of INF accord
By Mary Belcher and Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sen. Jesse Helms has called on
the CIA and the National Security
Agency for an immediate review of
an alleged "major violation" of the
U.S.-Soviet accord eliminating medi-
um-range nuclear missiles as the
Senate begins its scrutiny of the
treaty today.
Mr. Helms, the leading opponent
of the treaty, declined to provide de-
tails of the alleged breach. But in
letters Saturday to CIA Director Wil-
liam Webster and NSA Director Lt.
Gen. William Odom with "top se-
cret" enclosures that were not re-
leased, Mr. Helms asked that highly
classified information on the charge
be verified in time for Secretary of
State George Shultz's testimony
scheduled for today.
"If this information is confirmed;'
Mr. Helms wrote Mr. Webster and
Gen. Odom, "I shall urge Chairman
I Claiborne] Pell to ask you to appear
on an immediate basis, perhaps as
soon as Monday afternoon, before
the Committee on Foreign Relations
sitting in closed session in a secure
facility."
In an accompanying press re-
lease, Mr. Helms said, "If the classi-
fied information is accurate, I ques-
tion whether there should be further
Senate action at this time on the pro-
posed treaty."
The move by the North Carolina
Republican is the first salvo in the
conservatives' fight against the in-
termediate nuclear forces agree-
ment signed last month by President
Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev.
The INF treaty is the subject of
three separate sets of hearings this
week. Mr. Shultz this morning will be
tic first of nearly 40 witnesses to
trestify on the treaty before the Sen-
ate Foreign Relations Committee,
dvhile Defense Secretary Frank Car-
Wcci kicks off parallel hearings by
the Armed Services Committee. The
Senate Intelligence Committee also
will begin a closed-door examination
of the pact this week.
; A Reagan administration intelli-
gence source said the evidence ob-
fiained by Mr. Helms relates to large-
scale deployments of hidden SS 20
Missiles that were not declared by
the Soviets in data used to negotiate
the treaty.
At least two-thirds of the Senate
Must approve the INF treaty for rati-
fication, and Senate leaders have
predicted that it will be pass by mid-
April.
The INF treaty would eliminate
fiver the next three years 2,611
medium- and shorter-range missiles
It at can fly from 300 to 3,400 miles.
sets a precedent by requiring an
4symmetrical reduction of weapons,
eliminating the Soviet stock of 1,752
missiles and the U.S. arsenal of 859
systems. It also for the first time al-
lows U.S. and Soviet observers to
visit each other's missile sites to ver-
ify treaty compliance.
Mr. Pell, Rhode Island Democrat
and chairman of the Foreign Rela-
tions panel, wants his committee to
vote on the treaty by early March,
fending it on to the full Senate.
Armed Services Chairman Sam
iJunn will focus his panel's hearings
Qn the NATO alliance and report the
findings to Mr. Pell, who has juris-
Q~ction over the legislation. The
Georgia Democrat, one of the Sen-
4te's most influential defense ex-
perts, said he has a generally "posi-
rive" attitude toward the INF pact
but has not ruled out the possible
need to amend it.
Senate leaders from both parties
have vowed to push the treaty toward
ratification. Senate Minority Leader
Robert Dole of Kansas, after some
initial hedging, has endorsed the
treaty, and Minority Whip Alan
Simpson of Wyoming has promised
to vigorously fight for its approval.
Mr. Helms' aim is to win the 34
Senate votes needed to kill ratifica-
tion or the 51 votes necessary to pass
amendments that would require the
Reagan administration to renegoti-
ate sections of the treaty with the
Soviets.
A 180-page report on the INF
treaty, prepared by the minority
staff of the Foreign Relations Com-
The Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
A-)
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Date
25
mittee, suggests that the soviets
may have deployed secret installa-
tions for SS-20 nuclear missiles.
"The Soviet Union may well possess
significantly more SS-20s missiles
than are accounted for in the treaty;"
the report states.
The report - entitled "The Treaty
on Intermediate-range Nuclear
Weapons. Does It Decrease - or In-
crease - the Danger of Nuclear
War?" - includes arguments by
treaty critics and the pact itself, an-
notated by Mr. Helms with his spe-
cific concerns. It also has an intro-
duction by former NATO comman-
der-in-chief Gen. Bernard W. Rog-
ers, a critic of the INF treaty.
Mr. Helms said the report was de-
signed to give senators "hard ques-
tions" to ask administration wit-
nesses appearing before them.
A handful of conservatives led by
Mr. Helms stands ready to harpoon
the INF pact with "killer amend-
ments" to force its renegotiation.
,,We will have initiatives and some
of them will be amendments, but we
wouldn't describe them as 'killer
amendments; " said one Senate
source close to the Helms team, who
prefers to describe the group as
"perfectionists"
Mr. Helms and Republican Sens.
Steve Symms of Idaho, Malcolm
Wallop of Wyoming, Dan Quayle of
Indiana, Larry Pressler of South Da-
kota and possibly others are ex-
pected to withhold their support un-
less the treaty is amended to meet
broader demands, possibly requir-
ing renegotiation.
Mr. Wallop, for example, has said
he favors a "self-abrogating" treaty
if Soviet cheating is revealed. Mr.
Quayle wants the Reagan adminis-
tration to create a "NATO defense
initiative" office in Western Europe
in exchange for his support.
ssoooad uoueoijuua ayl dash of Ui
plnoM aq ptes aH ?slstu 3Jlxa SutM
-1g8tJ? Aq paietltut sluautpuatue
aqi laoddns lou Iltm aleuaS aql luapMJ
-UO3 st ay xaam lsel ptes etuaoJtle3 Jo
uolsue. O ustd dtgM AltaofeW 1ng
'gijuaJls old
-napenb Jo aldul paleunlsa sit utoJJ
UMOp 'OJVN JaA0 a8eluenpe Z-?
e ,iluo sploq it letli os sooJOJ Ieuotl
-uanuoo sit aonpaJ of load MesagM
aql JoJ eutlleo luatupuatue ue paonp
-oJ1ut say Apeaalu Jalssaad JIA
ContnUtl
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/07: CIA-RDP90M00005R000300060016-1
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/07: CIA-RDP90M00005R000300060016-1
2
on track by encouraging senators to
express their concerns in amend-
ments or reservations not requiring
renegotiation.
Senators from a wide political
spectrum, however, are wondering
how the removal of INF and shorter-
range nuclear missiles from West-
ern Europe will affect NATO allies,
whose conventional-force strength
is numerically inferior to that of the
Warsaw Pact. Other leading con-
cerns are over Soviet compliance
with past arms control agreements
and whether the INF treaty's ver-
ification provisions are tough
enough.
Opponents and proponents agree
that the significance of the INF
treaty - which would eliminate only
5 percent of the superpowers' nu-
clear arsenals - is in the
groundwork it lays for talks on long-
range strategic weapon reductions
[START], which are expected to be
the subject of a Reagan-Gorbachev
summit this spring in Moscow.
Thking what a Senate source de-
scribed as the "high moral ground,'
Mr. Helms, the senior Republican on
the foreign relations panel, will ar-
gue that the INF treaty would defeat
traditional arms control objectives.
Instead of curbing prospects for
war, he says the removal of INF mis-
siles from Western Europe leaves
NATO allies more vulnerable to at-
tack. lb compensate for conven-
tional force imbalance, defense
spending must rise.
Mr. Helms also contends that
while the INF agreement would
eliminate missile systems, it does
not eliminate their explosive nuclear
warheads, which could be recycled
for use in other weapons.
However, even some conserva-
tives recognize that the momentum
for treaty ratification is too great to
fight.
"We're basically working to make
lemonade out of this lemon," said
Daniel Casey, executive director of
the American Conservative Union.
He said the chances that "killer
amendments" will be adopted are so
"infinitely remote" that his group is
interested only in helping shape the
debate.
Ideally, Mr. Casey said, the debate
will raise public awareness about
Soviet compliance problems. Sec-
ondly, by forcing the issue of West-
ern European defenses against nu-
clear weapons, it could sharpen
American interest in its own protec-
tion, building support for develop-
ment of the Strategic Defense Initia-
tive.
"Both sides know that the stakes
are high in this one," said Kathleen
Sheekey, legislative director for
Common Cause, one of 111 diverse
groups that have coalesced to push
for ratification. "For the hard-liners
it stirs fear, and in the arms control
community it stirs hope."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/07: CIA-RDP90M00005R000300060016-1