Top scientists endorse CTBT
Organization urges Senate to give 'early and favorable consideration to the Treaty' The American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the nation's oldest professional societies, strongly endorsed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty recently at their annual meeting in Philadelphia. President Clinton addressed the group and thanked them for supporting the Treaty. The AAAS, dedicated to the advancement of scientific and technological excellence, joins four former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in backing a treaty that bans all nuclear testing. The Joint Resolution of the AAAS Board of Directors and the AAAS Council approved Feb. 15 reads: Whereas the American Association for the Advancement of Science has long been active in support of efforts to reduce the profound risk to human life and society that would result from the use of nuclear weapons, and		Whereas the end of the Cold War has brought unparalleled opportunities for reduction of the global threat of nuclear destruction and for strengthening constraints on nuclear proliferation, and Whereas the goal of achieving international agreement on a total ban on all nuclear testing for all time was pursued through global negotiations over a period of nearly forty years, and Whereas these negotiations have produced the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was overwhelmingly approved by the UN General Assembly in September, 1996, and has now been signed by a majority of the world's nations, including the U.S., and Whereas a commitment to conclude the CTBT was an essential element in bringing nations to agree in 1995 to an indefinite and unconditional extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Whereas the CTBT establishes a far-reaching verification regime which, when combined with our nation's own capacity to monitor nuclear explosions, provides the United States with the means to ensure that this Treaty

is effectively verifiable and in no way undermines the nation's nuclear deterrence capability, and Whereas the CTBT contains a "supreme national interest" clause that would enable the U.S. to withdraw from the Treaty regime with six months notification should it be determined that additional nuclear testing is essential to ensure the safety or reliability of a nuclear weapon type critical to the Nation's nuclear deterrent, and

Whereas the CTBT was submitted to the United States Senate on September 22, 1997 for its advice and consent to ratification, Be it therefore resolved that the Board of Directors and the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science urges the United States Senate to give early and favorable consideration to the Treaty and its advice and consent to ratification as soon as possible.