By Hilary Roxe
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell asked a congressional watchdog group on Monday to ensure the Pentagon follows through on newly adopted requirements designed to speed up the disposal of two stockpiles of chemical weapons.

Citing evidence of the Defense Department's "hostile intent" toward the chemical weapons disposal programs in Kentucky and Colorado, McConnell asked the Government Accountability Office to carefully watch how money is spent at those sites.

The Kentucky Republican said the Pentagon has "crippled disposal efforts" at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot and Colorado's Pueblo Chemical Depot, added to the total cost of destruction through at "stop-start-stop approach," and "wasted precious time" in meeting an international treaty deadline.

Earlier this year, McConnell amended a spending package to require the Pentagon to release frozen money earmarked to the sites, spend $100 million within four months, report to Congress on a bimonthly basis and stop studying whether to move the weapons stockpiles elsewhere. President Bush signed the bill into law this month.

Under an international treaty ratified by the Senate in 1997, the nation's stockpiles of chemical weapons, must be destroyed by 2012.

"I told the residents of Madison County that I would watch DOD like a hawk and I am fulfilling that promise," McConnell said of his letter.

The GAO is a nonpartisan agency charged with examining how taxpayer money is spent, conducting investigations and audits when necessary.

"We have broad authority to follow the federal dollar wherever it goes," said Laura Kopelson, a GAO spokeswoman.

Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a watchdog organization in Berea, Ky., said the letter is "an extraordinary move," that illustrates the level of oversight needed to make sure the program moves forward.

"It is an indictment of the way this program has been handled, no matter which way we slice it," he said