Obama Administration Still Pressuring Congress to Ratify LOST

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
May 27, 2012

 

 

 

 

The Obama administration is still pressuring Congress to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST); citing that without the treaty , the US military is at an increasing risk of confrontation while at sea.

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting, senior defense officials like General Martian Dempsey, chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff claimed that “If we do not ratify over time, what would happen is that we put ourselves at risk of confrontation with others who are interpreting customary international law to their own benefit.”

“If we are not a party to this treaty and can’t deal with it at the (negotiating) table, then we have to deal with it at sea with our naval power,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. “And once that happens, you clearly increase the risk of confrontation.”

Panetta along with Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, tried to entice the panel, claiming that LOST would bring huge economic and military benefits to the US government.

However, the dispute quickly came up against the same protests that have blocked the treaty’s ratification in the US.

“My problem is with sovereignty,” Republican Senator Jim Risch said, nonchalantly glancing through the pages of LOST. “There’s 288 pages here, and as you read it, there’s some good stuff in here. But if we have to give up one scintilla of sovereignty that this country has fought, has bled for. . . I can’t vote for it.”

LOST encompasses “all ocean space, with all its uses, including navigation and over flight; all uses of its resources, living and non-living, on the high seas, on the ocean floor and beneath, on the continental shelf and in the territorial seas…. The Convention is widely recognized by the international community as the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and the seas must be carried out.”

LOST will install a 200-nautical-mile (370-km) of elite economic zones that create coastal states rights of expansion and exploitation of natural resources. The ability of other countries to navigate, overfly and lay communications cables across the regions would rest in the hands of the UN.

LOST would give the UN authority over everything above and below the seas and oceans of the world. Under LOST, there will not be an ability to veto as with the UN Security Council.

The 62nd UN General Assembly Plenary meeting recorded this statement with regard to LOST: “The Assembly had before it a 22-part resolution on oceans and the Convention on the Law of the Sea … by which it would call on States to harmonize, as a matter of priority, national legislation with the provisions of the Convention and, where applicable, relevant agreements and provisions…. The Assembly then adopted the resolution by a recorded vote of 146 in favour to 2 against . . .”

Lawmakers and defense officials said the treaty would strengthen the military’s hand in dealing with growing powers like China and Russia and others that have joined the convention and are seeking to establish claims in the Pacific and Arctic.

At a prior hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January of 2012, Hilary Clinton remarked that the ratification of LOST is a priority for her “because it is long overdue”.

Clinton scoffed and made light of LOST , alluding to the conspiracy theories of world government by saying: “Honestly, I don’t know where these people make these things up.”

In Section 106 of the bill to ratify LOST is the power to engage the executive branch of our US government to apply LOST through executive orders, regulations, directives and/or delegations of authority.

Obama signed his executive order Stewardship of the Oceans, Our Coasts and the Great Lakes and the Interim Report of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (IOPTF).

The purpose of IOPTF is to adhere to LOST. The report will provide the framework for planning and conservation, economic endeavors, user adherence and sustainable use; as well as social justice, as dictated by LOST and the UN. An estimated $900 million will be used for the implementation of a global approach to our land, oceans, coastal areas and Great Lakes.

The US Senate is expected to vote on LOST next month. More committee meetings and hearings may occur prior to the vote.

The Obama administration is pressuring Congress in all ways they can to get this UN treaty ratified because once it is law in America, the UN will finally have their grip on our Constitutional Republic.

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