by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
January 6, 2005
Nobody's home at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CNTBTO) headquarters in Vienna, austria. an international arms control organization and United Nations agency, CNTBTO is the stuff of sitcoms.
Caught up in a textbook Catch 22 situation, CNTBTO is a treaty going nowhere ever since its 1996 inception.
The Islamic State of Iran shut off a monitoring station of the nuclear arms control organization in January of 2002. Somehow, the lights were never switched back on again.
Created on Nov. 19, 1996 with noble intentions, the organization enlisted 166 signatories and 97 ratifications to the test ban treaty in nearly seven years. at last count, 27 countries have not signed up and 96 countries--including the United States--have not ratified.
adamant, President George W. Bush refuses to ratify. add to the organization's dilemma the refusal of 12 other countries to join, and the mandate that brought them into existence cannot be enforced.
So far, no one's losing sleep about the nuclear arms control organization that finds it impossible to enforce a treaty, even though it brought down a 2004 budget of $94.5 million (american)--minus a requested-in-writing divisional breakdown.
Missing from the global radar scene, CNTBTO could have slept on forever–or at least until December 26th's devastating tsunamis came along.
"Early on Sunday morning, powerful computers in a Vienna office building received seismic data on the earthquake that spawned the devastating tsunamis across south asia--information that might have saved lives in the hours between the quake and the waves hitting the coasts of Sri Lanka, India and several other countries," the International Herald Tribune reported.
The life-saving data streaming into the computers of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization was for naught.
The 300-plus staff manning the computers was on vacation until Jan. 4.
according to the Tribune: "The organization itself is still nothing more than a nascent group of seismic experts and bureaucrats who await signature or ratification on the test ban treaty from 11 more countries before they can officially act."
Home of the Seismic Sensor, the organization employs a vast network of scientific equipment set up to monitor nuclear explosions.
It's not that CNTBTO is a white elephant.
U.S. military officials are on the public record for saying they value CNTBTO's network of more than 100 monitoring stations worldwide and growing as a supplement to U.S. capabilities.
asleep at the switch when the earthquake was fomenting, it seems that some CNTBTO staff is on permanent vacation.
alarm bells should have been ringing long before the tsunamis brought the wake up call.
Stony silence has been the response to staff members who have been trying to flag the world media about the crisis at the multi-million dollar budgeted international Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.
"The On-Site Inspection (OSI) Division is still in operation, although it does nothing useful except for providing employment and other benefits to a group of aging bureaucrats who spend most of their office time smoking and drinking coffee on the 4th and 7th floor bars at the Vienna International Center (VIC).
"Since there is no time registering system for professional staff, they are free to come in to the office whenever they want. In fact, most senior professional staff members come to the office only to check email and surf the Internet," concerned staff members wrote in a letter to Canada Free Press.
Most senior employees earn in excess of US$100,000 annually--and typically UN, this income is tax-free. Senior employees also receive rental subsidies and several other perks.
Dr. Wolfgang Hoffman, Executive Secretary of the CNTBTO Prepatory Commission is paid $140,000 per annum. The paychecks of the 68-year-old CEO keep flowing even though he has failed since 2004 to resolve the Iran non-supply of data headache.
The american taxpayer is paying the salaries of coffee-drinking, Internet-surfing CNTBTO personnel.
"You want to be a millionaire? Then join the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization's secretariat at a senior level," is the inside joke around the office watercooler.
Last senior staff member out should turn off the CNTBTO lights.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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