Rumsfeld: US will miss weapons deadline

By Associated Press
8:27 PM PDT, April 12, 2006

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has told congressional leaders that the U.S. will miss an extended deadline to dispose of the country's chemical weapons stockpiles.

In a letter Monday to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rumsfeld said he expects only two-thirds of the stockpile to be destroyed by April 2012.

That date is a five-year extension from the previous deadline, set in a 1997 international treaty.

"The department will continue working diligently to minimize the time to complete destruction without sacrificing safety and security," Rumsfeld wrote in the letter, released Wednesday by the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Ky.

Craig Williams, director of the working group, said new incineration schedules indicate disposal at sites in Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, Colorado and Kentucky all will miss the deadline.

A Maryland site has completed the disposal, and Utah and Indiana remain on schedule.

Williams said he was disappointed, but not surprised, that the deadline would be missed.