Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

The White House should immediately provide Congress with a Pentagon report assessing the risks to U.S. security posed by Russia’s violation of an intermediate-range missile treaty, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas).

“I am deeply concerned that the Obama administration has been withholding information it is obligated to provide to Congress to protect what it considers to be the president’s ‘legacy achievements’ — such as New START and the recent nuclear deal with Iran,” Cruz, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, [said].

The senator, a Republican presidential candidate, wrote to President Obama on Friday requesting that he release a classified report produced by the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, on Moscow’s breach of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. “I request that you lift your embargo on this report immediately,” he stated, asking for a response no later than Sept. 1. …

The State Department publicly confirmed the treaty violation last year in an annual compliance report. Details of the violation have not been made public although U.S. officials say that it involves testing of a cruise missile called the R-500. A ground-launched cruise missile version of Russia’s new SSN-30A long-range anti-ship missile is also said to violate the INF treaty, according to defense officials.

The treaty prohibits deploying or testing ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges between 310 miles and 3,418 miles. Its passage led to the withdrawal of then-Soviet SS-20, SS-4, and SS-5 missiles from Europe and the elimination of U.S. Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles. Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, first disclosed in a speech in July that the White House was holding up the INF report.

SEE COMPLETE TEXT

  Cruz letter to Obama calls for release of Pentagon report on Russian missile violation, LIFE, WorldTribune.com