U.S. CANT ELIMINATE ARSENAL UNTIL 2017: Even with allowable five-year extension, U.S. won't be able to comply with treaty

THE U.S. HAS FORMALLY ASKED for the one-time, five-year extension to 2012, which is allowed under the chemical weapons treaty, for complete destruction of its 31,500-ton arsenal. The original treaty deadline is April 29, 2007. But the U.S. has conceded that even with the extension, it will be in noncompliance because it will likely destroy only 66% of its stockpile by 2012 and will probably not eliminate it entirely until 2017 or beyond. Meeting the 2017 target "will depend both on the willingness of Congress to continue funding the chemical demilitarization program despite increasing costs and on cooperation from the affected states and localities," says chemical weapons expert Jonathan B. Tucker, author of "War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World Warltoal-Qaeda." On April 19, Eric M Javits, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, formally asked OPCW's Executive Council for the extension. The next day, Dale A. Ormond ...