THE VERIFICATION MONSTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400350057-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: October 10, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE
ON PAGE ?G
'1'd'For Release ~"We~61 CI4 DP88-01315R0004003'500
The Verification MOnster.
EVER SINCE THE Senate Intelligence Commit- that verification has been all but washed out as an
tee's report on the new strategic arms treaty issue on which final judgment of the treaty will be
started coming into public view last week, a little based. Even before this report came out, it was evi-
minuet has been danced over the distinction between dent that opponents of the treaty did not wish to rest
verifying and monitoring. Whether SALT II can be their case on this issue; none really has. The country,
"adequately verified," in the commonly accepted as well as the Senate, has been undergoing a certain
yardstick, is ultimately a subjective question touch- education, in:which the new report plays its part. Its
ing matters of confidence and intent as well as cam- main point is that we-will be able to see more unde
eras in the sky, and one on which serious people may the treaty's terms than we can see without it
differ. But the questions of whether and. how the ;.The altered understanding of.the issue is- eviden
treaty's controls can be monitored can be answered. .: on at least three levels. Awareness has grown of the
with some objectivity by people with respect for evi . sophistication of-the United States' technical means
dente. ~: of monitoring Soviet programs. There is an aware-
So it is that some (but not. all) of those who find ness-the - furor over Soviet troops in. Cuba has
flaws in SALT for other reasons have taken a certain helped here-of the need for improved analytic capa
comfort from noting that the Intelligence Committee bility in the processing of intelligence and for politi-
does not pronounce .on verification. It does not even cal vigilance in overseeing collection and. analysis:
mention. the word. Pro-SALT people, meanwhile, And a broad sense has.developed of the pickle the
have saluted the committee's unanimous findings United States would be in if, by rejecting the treaty,,
that the treaty strengthens the American ability to it ;licensed unrestrained Soviet concealment and de-
monitor Soviet weapons under the treaty's controls ception in a strategic context newly inflamed by the.
and that without SALT II the Soviets could freely rejection of the treaty.
practice concealment and deception and make moni-This is not to say that, because the verification
Loring of the same forces more difficult still: issue no longer looks like the monster it once did, the
The tone of debate about the new report and in-. Senate has no further reason to look hard at SALT."
deed the progress of the whole treaty. debate indicate But the monster has been, if not slain, then tamed.
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400350057-1