ATHENS, Ga. – U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss will join former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and U.S. Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, currently overseeing a new White House initiative to investigate visa access by suspected terrorists, in discussing homeland security at the University of Georgia on Monday, Oct. 20, during the 2003 Richard B. Russell Symposium. The program begins at 9 a.m. in the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
Hutchinson and Nunn will discuss “The WMD Threat to the American Homeland” with Ruth David, president and CEO of Anser (Analytic Services Inc.); Stephen E. Flynn, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Joseph Henderson, CDC associate director for terrorism and response; and Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. Chambliss, who serves on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Armed Services Committee among others, will deliver the keynote address.
Hutchinson’s involvement in the new visa initiative was announced on Monday by senior White House officials. A few days earlier the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonpartisan nonprofit group cochaired by Nunn, began running television ads urging President George W. Bush and the Democratic candidates for president to take action to keep nuclear, biological and chemical weapons out the hands of terrorists.
“The threat of weapons of mass destruction being used on American soil is real,” said Gary K. Bertsch, director of the Center for International Trade and Security at UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. “We are fortunate to have some of the nation’s top experts coming to discuss this threat and what can be done about it.” Bertsch will serve as moderator.
Held biennially, the Russell Symposium is open free to the public. It is jointly sponsored by UGA and the Richard B. Russell Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Russell, who served Georgia in the U.S. Senate for 38 years.
