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Withdrawal from the ABM Treaty: Legal Considerations
On December 13, 2001, President Bush gave formal notice to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine that the United States was withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because of the constraints it imposes on the testing of missile defense systems; and six months later, on June 13, 2002, the treaty effectively terminated. The ABM Treaty has been in force since 1972. Pertinent legal questions that have been raised about U.S. withdrawal concern whether the treaty allows it; if so, the procedure to be followed; and, finally, the constitutionality of the President doing so unilaterally without the involvement of the Senate or Congress. This report briefly discusses these issues, as well as the recent federal district court decision in Kucinich v. Bush dismissing a suit by 32 members of the House challenging the constitutionality of the President’s action.
Possible Missile Attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
This report examines the circumstances surrounding the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). The report considers several factors that lead investigators to believe that the plane may have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from a Buk road-mobile missile erector-launcher, including the type of damage directly sustained by the plane, the large debris field, the crash's proximity to an active conflict zone in which military aircraft had recently been shot down and U.S. intelligence that detected a missile launch from the area around the time the plane was overhead.
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