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International Response: Legal Authority Is Uncertain for U.S.-Led Cargo Interdiction Effort U.S. officials have said there is debate over how much legal authority exists under which to conduct the Proliferation Security Initiative — a U.S.-led effort to interdict suspect shipments of WMD-related cargo, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 23). Some U.S. officials have said that current laws allow for most of the effort, and all that is needed is better coordination and enforcement. Legal experts, however, differ over what existing laws allow, the Post reported. Under current international law, countries may board ships with the permission of the country whose flag the ship is flying, or if the ship is unmarked, according to the Post. Ships carrying illicit cargo — such as illegal drugs — or those transiting between countries with established agreements, can also be stopped and captured. “The plan is to use existing authorities in the first instance, because if you do that in a proactive way by sharing information with others and being prepared to move, you’ll have an 80 to 85 percent solution,” a White House official said. However, there currently is no international ban on shipments of WMD-related materials, according to the Post. To address this, some legal experts have recommended that the United States work within the United Nations to expand the current legal authority. “More important than adding one country after another to the president’s initiative, you need to get something through the U.N. Security Council,” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. “The reason is, if you’re going to get international common usage, that is the most efficient way to make that happen,” he said. U.S. officials said the Bush administration has no plans to seek U.N. approval for seizures of WMD-related cargo because of concerns that such a move would trigger debate over what would qualify for interdiction. They also said that the initiative would not result in the creation of a large-scale international system, such as a task force or an enforcement mechanism. “It’s not like there’s going to be some big unveiling, where the marker will come down and all of a sudden we’re going to be out there looking for bad guys shipping around bad things,” a U.S. Defense Department official said. “We’re doing that now,” the official said. There are also concerns over the U.S. motive for the initiative, according to the Post. While Bush administration officials have said the initiative is meant to be a global effort, some countries are concerned that it is a covert attempt to establish a blockade around North Korea, the Post reported. In a speech last week, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton explicitly linked the effort to both North Korea and Iran. Initiative members are planning to enlist more members by targeting costal Asian and Middle East countries, as well as those countries whose flags are most often used by traffickers, officials said (Bradley Graham, Washington Post, August 3).
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