Obama Signs START Treaty Away from Reporter Questions
Updated 4:25 p.m. ET
In the Oval Office this morning, Presidnet Obama signed two copies of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia. And though he views it as a major foreign policy achievement of his presidency, only a small number of still photographers were allowed to cover the treaty signing. Reporters and TV camera crews were deliberately excluded by the White House.
The White House often restricts coverage of such events when it doesn't want to subject the president to questions from reporters he'd sooner not answer. There are plenty of such questions today about new violent protests in Egypt, a day after President Mubarak's decision to remain in office but not seek re-election in September.
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Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the treaty-signing was planned as a still-cameras-only event and reporters were not excluded to protect the president from questions. But at the same time Gibbs conceded there were questions that neither he nor the president could appropriately answer about dealings with Mubarak.
"Some things in foreign policy have to be done away from TV cameras," said Gibbs at his press briefing.
Just yesterday, reporters were excluded from a photo-op of the president's Cabinet meeting, though still-cameras were invited. Officers of the White House Correspondents Association wrote Gibbs today "to protest in the strongest possible terms" the exclusions of reporters and TV crews from the two events.
Earlier in the day, Gibbs deputy Josh Earnest said the White House was treating the treaty event like an ordinary bill signing."
A CBS News count shows that since taking office, Mr. Obama has signed 367 pieces of legislation into law. He has staged signing ceremonies for the 30 bills he regarded as most significant, including the health care overhaul measure and the Wall Street Reform Act.
There's no question he regards the START Treaty of equal or greater importance. In his campaign to win Senate ratification of the treaty during the lame duck session of Congress late last year, he called it "a national security imperative for the United States."
Its importance was also underscored by the witnesses to the treaty signing in the Oval Office this morning. They included Secretary of State Clinton, Defense Secretary Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. Members of Congress looking on included Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.).
The START Treaty places new limits of 1550 deployed nuclear warheads on the U.S. and Russia. That includes the warheads used on ground and sea-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers. The total represents a 30 percent reduction in the maximum allowed under the last arms agreement, the 2002 Moscow Treaty.
The new treaty also limits the number of missile launchers and heavy bombers each nation may have to 800. The number of missiles and heavy bombers are limited to 700.
The latest START agreement also provides for expanded on-site inspections of each nation's nuclear weapons arsenals.
And the treaty contains no constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or advanced U.S. missile defense programs.
The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on December 22 last year by well-over the two-thirds margin required by the Constitution. The vote was 71-26. Thirteen Republicans supported ratification.
The Russian Duma voted its approval in Moscow last month.
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.