Council on Foreign Relations task force largely backs Obama's nuclear stance

A bipartisan panel of nuclear weapons experts, convened by the Ploughshares-funded Council on Foreign Relations, is endorsing much of President Obama's ambitious arms-control effort.  The CFR task force, co-chaired by William J. Perry and Brent Scowcroft, released a report calling for reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles as part of the START extension and ratification of the test ban treaty to "lessen nuclear threats and promote cooperation on disarmament." Scowcroft told reporters that he thought it would be "a tough struggle" to get the 67 Senate votes necessary for ratification but he was "cautiously optimistic."