The State Department Can’t Seem to Get Its “Fact Sheets” Straight on Missile Defense

Steven Groves / May 19, 2010

On April 8 President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed what was supposed to be the next historic step in nuclear disarmament—the “New START” treaty. However, a major rift between the two nations immediately arose regarding the effect of the treaty on U.S. ballistic missile defense. In short, the Russians contended that the New START treaty froze current U.S. capabilities while the U.S. responded that the treaty had no effect whatsoever on missile defense.

Specifically, on April 8—the day the treaty was signed—the Russian Federation issued a statement saying: “The Treaty … can operate and be viable only if the United States of America refrains from developing its missile defence capabilities quantitatively or qualitatively.” In the same statement the Russians effectively threatened to withdraw from New START if the United States increased the capabilities of its missile defense systems.

In response to the Russian unilateral statement, the State Department released a “Fact Sheet” on the same day that was just as unequivocal, but was completely opposite to the Russian statement. Titled “Ballistic Missile Defense and New START Treaty” the State Department announced the “Key Point” of the Fact Sheet as follows: (more…)