Pentagon won't move weapons

The Pentagon will resume plans to build chemical weapons destruction plants in Kentucky and Colorado, eliminating the chance that some of those deadly agents and munitions could have been sent to Anniston.

The decision, contained in an April 15 memo but released Wednesday on Capitol Hill, ends the Pentagon's deliberations over whether it would be safer, cheaper and faster to ship weapons into other states rather than build two facilities from scratch.

The prospect of shipping weapons across state lines to existing incinerators, such as those in Utah and Alabama, drew intense opposition in Congress and the affected communities.

"There were a lot of people who, even if they were for burning, they were not for transportation," said Anniston architect David Christian. "That whole thing was just misguided. Politically it would have been suicide to actually try to ship through two or three states."

In the memo released Wednesday, Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne ordered the release of about $257 million for construction at the Army depots in Blue Grass, Ky., and Pueblo, Colo. The money had been frozen by the Department of Defense while alternatives were considered, even though federal law bans transporting the weapons.

The action spurred House and Senate members to confront Pentagon officials in hearings, propose additional legislation reiterating that transportation of the weapons was illegal, and write stern letters voicing their opposition.

Apparently it worked, said one Kentucky interest group that called Wynne's memo a "stunning about-face." Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky, said Wynne signaled a commitment by asking the chemical weapons program to submit a 2007 budget request that would "allow this effort to proceed forward successfully."

A warning shot?:

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said the decision was overdue, and the Pentagon always had assured him the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot would be used only for weapons stockpiled nearby.

"I am pleased the Department of Defense is keeping its word," he said in a prepared statement.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Anniston, said moving the weapons was never a practical option, and he suspects suggesting it was a way to warn Congress that additional funding would be needed to meet the deadline to destroy the nation's entire stockpile by 2012.

"They have sufficiently alerted us to the fact they have very real concerns about their cost estimates on these two sites and we shouldn't be surprised when they come back down the road saying we need a lot more money," Rogers said.

As of March 23, the United States had destroyed more than 11,200 tons of the weapons, 36 percent of the stockpile.

People who live near Anniston's incinerator said they were delighted with the decision, but not surprised.

Long-time anti-burn activist Rufus Kinney of Jacksonville said he was reassured that neither the congressional delegation nor the other communities where stockpiles were stored had supported the study of moving weapons.

"I didn't think they would get away with it because it goes away from the very purposes of destroying weapons at each site, in that it would be dangerous to move them because they were unstable and because of a threat of terrorism," Kinney said. "We're just so glad it didn't happen."

E-mail: morndorff@bhamnews.com