Schram - NTI Celebrates Decade of Safeguarding World
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Martin Schram-
It is the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-governmental organization whose ideas and money have been leading governments and nations in keeping us safer for the last decade.
The NTI is one of those alphabet organizations you certainly care about, but may not know about. (Faithful readers here have a head start today, since I’ve long involved my journalism in the NTI’s causes.) Founded by media entrepreneur Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., NTI has worked privately to safeguard the world’s weapons of mass destruction before they fall into the hands of terrorists.
When they created NTI on January, 8, 2001, one of their key missions seemed to be to convince Americans that a major terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland was a very real threat. Eight months later on 9/11, no American needed to be convinced of that.
But, though it seems strange today, many political leaders in Washington and worldwide still had to be convinced of the urgency of fully funding efforts to safeguard the world’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and the materials needed to make them. Some Washington hard-liners still didn’t like the idea of spending U.S. dollars to secure Russia’s so-called loose nukes.
But Nunn, who had teamed up with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to enact the historic Nunn-Lugar program financing such efforts, set about building an NTI that was similarly bipartisan and global. NTI’s board and advisers includes leaders from around the world.
Soon NTI seemed uniquely positioned to resolve certain global problems.
Such as a secret operation planned in the summer of 2002, half a world away. Top officials from the United States, Russia and Yugoslavia feared thieves could steal 100 pounds of weapons grade uranium -- enough for two nuclear bombs -- at an aging, poorly secured reactor in Belgrade’s Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences. Plans were made to secretly move the uranium to Russia so it could be down-blended. But congressional restrictions prohibited the U.S. government from funding a vital part of the operation. So a State Department official asked if NTI could fund $5 million to complete the effort.
Time was tight -- they needed an answer in five days. It took maybe five minutes. Nunn and NTI President Charles Curtis called Ted Turner. “Why can’t the government pay for this?” Turner asked. Nunn explained the red tape. “Sign us up,” said Turner. Before dawn on August 23, 2002, Yugoslav, U.S. and Russian officials loaded three trucks at Vinca. Two trucks were decoys -- officials feared a hijacking. Mission accomplished.
Today NTI is a shaper of global consensus. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completed negotiations in which the Ukraine government agreed to get rid of its Soviet era highly enriched uranium by March 2012. Last month, South Africa shipped to the United States a research reactor’s highly enriched uranium. Importantly, NTI has fostered creation of an International Fuel Bank, thanks to a $50 million contribution backed by NTI adviser Warren Buffett -- so nations can develop nuclear electricity means without world concerns about bomb-making.
But one of the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s most impressive initiatives has nothing to do with nuclear threats, but lots to do with biological fears -- and symbolically a way to give peace a chance in a powder keg region. NTI has sponsored a Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance that consists of public health ministers from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
At a time of great political turmoil, these officials have met in Jordan and Ramallah to share data with the goal of heading off a potential pandemic in their confined region. “We try to help by doing what the governments can’t,” said NTI’s Dr. Louise Gresham.
Later this year, NTI will unveil a new effort -- a global index analyzing how each country is doing in safeguarding its weapons of mass destruction materials. “We will be very transparent,” Nunn said.
So it is that a non-governmental organization can make a world of difference.[[In-content Ad]]
It is the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-governmental organization whose ideas and money have been leading governments and nations in keeping us safer for the last decade.
The NTI is one of those alphabet organizations you certainly care about, but may not know about. (Faithful readers here have a head start today, since I’ve long involved my journalism in the NTI’s causes.) Founded by media entrepreneur Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., NTI has worked privately to safeguard the world’s weapons of mass destruction before they fall into the hands of terrorists.
When they created NTI on January, 8, 2001, one of their key missions seemed to be to convince Americans that a major terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland was a very real threat. Eight months later on 9/11, no American needed to be convinced of that.
But, though it seems strange today, many political leaders in Washington and worldwide still had to be convinced of the urgency of fully funding efforts to safeguard the world’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and the materials needed to make them. Some Washington hard-liners still didn’t like the idea of spending U.S. dollars to secure Russia’s so-called loose nukes.
But Nunn, who had teamed up with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to enact the historic Nunn-Lugar program financing such efforts, set about building an NTI that was similarly bipartisan and global. NTI’s board and advisers includes leaders from around the world.
Soon NTI seemed uniquely positioned to resolve certain global problems.
Such as a secret operation planned in the summer of 2002, half a world away. Top officials from the United States, Russia and Yugoslavia feared thieves could steal 100 pounds of weapons grade uranium -- enough for two nuclear bombs -- at an aging, poorly secured reactor in Belgrade’s Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences. Plans were made to secretly move the uranium to Russia so it could be down-blended. But congressional restrictions prohibited the U.S. government from funding a vital part of the operation. So a State Department official asked if NTI could fund $5 million to complete the effort.
Time was tight -- they needed an answer in five days. It took maybe five minutes. Nunn and NTI President Charles Curtis called Ted Turner. “Why can’t the government pay for this?” Turner asked. Nunn explained the red tape. “Sign us up,” said Turner. Before dawn on August 23, 2002, Yugoslav, U.S. and Russian officials loaded three trucks at Vinca. Two trucks were decoys -- officials feared a hijacking. Mission accomplished.
Today NTI is a shaper of global consensus. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completed negotiations in which the Ukraine government agreed to get rid of its Soviet era highly enriched uranium by March 2012. Last month, South Africa shipped to the United States a research reactor’s highly enriched uranium. Importantly, NTI has fostered creation of an International Fuel Bank, thanks to a $50 million contribution backed by NTI adviser Warren Buffett -- so nations can develop nuclear electricity means without world concerns about bomb-making.
But one of the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s most impressive initiatives has nothing to do with nuclear threats, but lots to do with biological fears -- and symbolically a way to give peace a chance in a powder keg region. NTI has sponsored a Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance that consists of public health ministers from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
At a time of great political turmoil, these officials have met in Jordan and Ramallah to share data with the goal of heading off a potential pandemic in their confined region. “We try to help by doing what the governments can’t,” said NTI’s Dr. Louise Gresham.
Later this year, NTI will unveil a new effort -- a global index analyzing how each country is doing in safeguarding its weapons of mass destruction materials. “We will be very transparent,” Nunn said.
So it is that a non-governmental organization can make a world of difference.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092