Clinton Orders Sanctions On India
Filed at 12:09 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
POTSDAM, Germany (AP) -- As India defiantly announced a second round of nuclear tests, President Clinton today ordered tough sanctions and said the underground nuclear blasts ''demand an unambiguous response.''
''It is imperative that we make clear our categorical opposition. We will ask other countries to do the same,'' Clinton said after meetings with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Clinton said the two rounds of tests were unjustified and created ''dangerous new instability'' in the region. He suggested that India conducted the tests because it believes it is ''underappreciated in the world as a great power.''
''It's a very sad thing,'' Clinton said.
The imposition of sanctions, which are mandatory under U.S. law, ends all U.S. assistance to India except humanitarian aid. It bars the export of certain defense and technology material, terminates any foreign military financing, ends U.S. credit and credit guarantees to India, and bars American banks from making loans or extending credit to the government except for purchasing food. Significantly, it also requires U.S. opposition to lending by international financial institutions to India.
India is the World Bank's largest borrower with $44 billion in loans to date. Clinton formally notified Congress that he was imposing sanctions and directed U.S. agencies to implement them.
Kohl, who stood at Clinton's side on the sun-washed terrace of the Sans Souci Palace, said his nation would take a ''fresh look'' at sanctions.
''This was the wrong decision for (India) to take. We do not accept that decision,'' he said.
Before meeting with Kohl, Clinton telephoned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and asked him ''not to respond to an irresponsible act in kind.''
Acknowledging that India's first blasts caught him off guard, Clinton said today he ordered CIA Director George Tenet to ''thoroughly review'' the performance of U.S. intelligence.
Clinton sidestepped a question on whether the United States was as surprised by today's tests as it was by Monday's blasts.
Tenet on Tuesday appointed retired Adm. David Jeremiah to lead a review team that is to report in 10 days on ''what lessons can be learned.''
Clinton took action after receiving a letter from Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who cited threats from India's nuclear neighbors and told Clinton, ''We value our friendship and cooperation with your country and you personally. We hope that you will show understanding of our concern for India's security.''
Defense Secretary William Cohen, testifying before a Senate subcommittee today, said India's tests threatened a ''chain reaction'' in the region. He declined to say whether India has the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead.
While the punitive ramifications played out, CIA officials questioned why they were caught so unaware.
Spy satellites trained on India's test site observed routine activities that proved to be elaborate efforts to conceal impending nuclear explosions, U.S. intelligence officials say.
India announced Monday that it had set off three nuclear explosions in the Thar Desert, 70 miles from the border of arch rival Pakistan. That was followed by two more tests today.
The failure of U.S. intelligence to warn of the test drew sharp questions from Capitol Hill and within the CIA.
A U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the initial feedback from satellite imagery specialists was that recent activities looked routine and there were no clear indicators of an impending test.
Nonetheless, the acknowledgment that the test site was being watched indicates it was a high-priority target of U.S. intelligence. Moreover, India's governing Hindu nationalist party announced in March, before it took power, that it would re-examine the country's longtime moratorium on testing.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the episode a ''colossal failure.'' It is inexcusable, he said, ''when our intelligence gathering agencies do not in a timely manner find out that there is a likelihood of some type of nuclear testing, especially of this magnitude -- three tests -- in an area that we've been watching for a long time.''
Shelby's committee planned a hearing today on India, plus a closed hearing Thursday with top CIA officials.
The Washington Post reported today that a U.S. spy satellite picked up clear-cut evidence of test preparations at midnight Sunday, six hours before the blasts. But because no unusual activity had been detected earlier, none of the U.S. analysts tracking India's nuclear program were on duty.
They did not see the more revealing satellite photos until they arrived at work Monday, after the test had been conducted.
Indian officials were careful to give no indications of the impending tests in talks with U.S. counterparts. In meetings Friday in Washington with India's foreign minister, ''there were no ...warnings that this was going to happen,'' State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. |
