NOT EXACTLY AS WARNKE TOLD IT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503890004-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: July 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503890004-6
ARTS= Af e A W
JOHN LOFTON
WASHINGTON TIMES
30 July 1986
Not exactly as Wamke told it
How does one convey ade-
quately, in print, the in-
sufferable arrogance of
Paul Warnke, former
President Jimmy Carter's chief
SAID' II treaty negotiator?
The answer is that, in print, one
does not attempt this, because it is
impossible. The man must be seen.
And even then the thought keeps oc-
curring that certainly his-demeanor
is an act. It must be an act. But, alas,
it isn't. Su?fice.? it tt9 say that Mt
Warnke makes Wasfngton Pi~cst Ext
ecutive Editor- Ben, Bradll e'seen1
humble.
Early this month Mr. Warnke ap-
peared on WTTG-TV's daytime pro-
gram "Pan-
orama," in which
he was a partici-
pant in a discus-
sion about arms
control. And when
asked if the Sovi-
ets are cheating
on the SALT II
agreement -
which is like ask-
ing if the pope is
Catholic - he re-
plied:
"Our commis-
sioner at the
Standing Consul-
tative Commis-
sion, Gen. Rich-
ard Ellis, form-
erly head of the
Strategic Air
Command, has
testified to the
Congress that the record of compli-
ance is good on both sides:'
As far as the overall limits of the
SALT II agreement are concerned,
Mr. Warnke said, "We've abided by
them and the Soviets have abided by
them."
He also said that the CIA has con-
firmed that the "core provisions" of
the SALT II accord have been abided
by and that these provisions are
readily verified.
And on the subject of President
Reagan's Strategic Defense Initia-
tive, also known as Star Wars, Mr.
Warnke pooh-poohed the idea that
the Soviets are making any real pro-
gress in this area.
So, what's the story? Well, as.you
may have anticipated, it is not ex-
actly as Mr. Warnke tells it.
A spokeswoman for the CIA tells
me that she can't comment on what
the agency believes, but she notes
that Mr. Reagan has three times re-
ported to Congress that the Soviets
have exceeded SAIl II's strategic
nuclear delivery vehicle ljmits. And,
she says, since these were executive
branch reports, "it stands to reason"
that the CIA was involved in the re-
ports, which dealt with national se-
curity matters. "That's the way the
government works:'
And a source in Gen. Ellis's office,
who asks not to be identified, says
that Gen. Ellis agrees with the con-
clusions of these reports Mr. Reagan
has sent to Congress.
In February 1985, the president
told Congress that the Soviets have
violated two provisions of SAID' II by
illegally encoding electronic data
during their missile tests and ille-
gally modernizing their ICBMs.
And, said Mr. Reagan: "The United
States government also reaffirms its
previous conclusions that the
U.S.S.R. has probably violated the
SS-16 deployment prohibition of
SALT II...:'
In a report to Congress in De-
cember 1985, the president con-
firmed additional Soviet violations
of SALT I and SALT II, such as the
"use of former SS-7 ICBM facilities
in support of the development and
operation of the SS-25 mobile
ICBMs;' the "concealment of the as-
sociation between a missile and its
launcher during testing;' and strate-
gic launcher deployments in excess
of allowable levels.
Does Paul Warnke receive better
intelligence than the president?
When asked this question on "Pan-
orama," he replies, smugly of
course, that he just makes better use
of this data than Mr. Reagan does.
And responding to those who
might dismiss violations such as
these as merely "technical," a new
report by the Committee on the
Present Danger - entitled "Where
We Stand on Arms Control" - says:
"They presage the development of
substantially improved offensive
ballistic missile capabilities, includ-
ing a mobile, clandestine (and essen-
tially invulnerable) ICBM which
could serve as a major reserve force.
"Of all the officially documented
Soviet SALT II violations, the viola-
tion of the agreement that prohibits
deliberate concealment measures
arguably has the most foreboding
long-term implications because it
impedes the U.S. ability to monitor
other key aspects of Soviet force de-
velopment. Because of this, the
United States cannot expect to have
great confidence in its estimates of
Soviet deployments. This lack of
confidence will make it more diffi-
cult for the United States to plan for
a prudent defense posture:"
Even W. Carter said on April 25,
1979, that a Soviet violation of the
part of the SALT 11 accord prohibit-
ing deliberate concealment "would
be so serious as to give us grounds to
cancel the treaty itself."
But Mr. Warnke is most off-base
in his attempt to ridicule the signifi-
cance of what the Soviets are doing
in space. In an open letter to Con-
gress last month, 30 former Soviet
scientists- most of whom have doc-
torates in physics, engineering, or
computer Science - asserted that
"from our, own experience and un-
derstanding ... we are convinced
that the Soviet scientific community
and government leaders believe ef-
fective strategic
defenses are tech-
nically possible
and doable," and
that the Soviets
have been work-
ing on Star Wars
research since
the late 1960x.
These ex-Sov-
iet scientists also
said that the So-
viet Union de-
votes "much more
of its efforts and
resources into its
own Star Wars
program" than
does the United
States. And they
warned that the
Soviets would
likely continue to
roce with
their version of a Strategic Defense
Initiative even if an agreement were
signed prohibiting this.
In addition, the authoritative
Jane's Spaceflight Directory says the
Soviets hold an "almost frightening"
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lead over the United States in space.
The editor of this London-based pub-
lication, Reginald Thrnill, says the
Soviets are so far ahead of us in
space "that they are almost out of
sight." Mr. Turnill says:
"The fact is that Star Wars is a
phony controversy. Space has always
been 'militarized; the process hav-
ing begun before Sputnik I, with the
development of ICBMs" and the sub-
sequent introduction of spy satel-
lites. He says that U.S. military anxi-
eties about Soviet research in space
lasers are "well-founded;' observ-
ing: "Let there be no mistake. There
is a Soviet as well as a U.S. Star Wars
program:'
The Wall Street journal pas also
reported that while Mr. Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative encoun-
ters debate and delay in the United
States, "the Soviet Union is quietly
moving ahead with its own space-
defense plans:' And The New York
Times, in a dispatch from Moscow,
reports that while the American
space program tries to recover from
setbacks, "the Soviet Union is
pressing ahead in a vigorous bid for
pre-eminence in the heavens:'
Mr. Warnke?
John Lofton is a staff columnist for
The Washington Times.
2
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503890004-6