For America to survive and prosper as a free and independent republic, she must have help to overcome massive deception. UN Treaties have always been the subject of such deception. In this report, we look at the deceptions visited on Americans by supporters as well as by soft “opponents” of the Law of the Sea Treaty.
A few months ago, the Obama administration launched a new push for Senate ratification of the long-stalled treaty. The Obama push has been aided by Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and an obviously Insider-orchestrated campaign.
Early on, Senator Kerry announced he would defer consideration of the unpopular LOST by the full Senate until a lame duck session following the November elections — a devious tactic. Lame ducks have often been used to stampede unpopular internationalist schemes through Congress when retired, retiring, and returning congressmen are less sensitive to the voters.
However, since Kerry began a series of Senate hearings allowing a variety of seemingly uncoordinated voices to urge support for the treaty, 34 GOP senators have joined Senator Jim DeMint (R – S.C.) in announcing their opposition to the UN treaty (via an open letter to Senator Harry Reid). If these 34 hold firmthen the Senate could not muster the two-thirds vote required to approve the treaty.
When the GOP opposition reached the 34-vote threshold, Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth responded:
“No letter or whip count changes the fact that rock-ribbed Republican businesses and the military and every living Republican Secretary of State say that this needs to happen, and that’s why it’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ for the Law of the Sea.”
Unfortunately, unless opposition to this internationalist scheme becomes more than defense, Seth is right. Following Napoleon’s maxim that the purely defensive is doomed to defeat, the opposition will ultimately succumb to determined Insider pressure and deception.
Short History of the Treaty
“Negotiations” for the United Nation’s Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) were completed in 1982. By 1993, a sufficient number of nations had accepted the treaty for it to go into effect a year later. As one result, the International Seabed Authority was established in 1994. (Also in 1994, prompted by U.S. objections, some changes to the treaty were approved by some of the signatories.) To date, 162 countries plus the European Community have bought into the Convention.
Despite the Convention’s acceptance by so many countries, U.S. proponents have never mustered sufficient support in the Senate.
Stepped-up Orchestration of Support
A new wave of Insider orchestration has been evident in the latest drive to convince senators to ratify the treaty. Favorable testimony by administration officials as well as politicized military chiefs was to be expected.
However, the Democratic push was aided by a May 31st op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. All five living GOP former secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker III, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice, declared that it was “Time to Join the Law of the Sea Treaty.”
More significant than their common GOP affiliation is the fact that each in turn had headed up the pre-eminent CFR-controlled department of the federal government, and all except CFR veteran Henry Kissinger are current members of the CFR. Their endorsement of this internationalist power grab is reminiscent of the prominent public advocacy of NAFTA by CFR-heavyweight Kissinger and former CFR chairman David Rockefeller during the months leading up to congressional approval.
But a new twist to the renewed LOST drive was added — a push to convince the public and Congress that “business interests” were anxious to see the U.S. ratify the treaty and that substantial American jobs were at stake.
An age-old tactic of revolutionaries is to create the illusion of mass support to pressure legislators, making it difficult for them to oppose these “popular” demands. And that is what we are likely dealing with here — “illusion.” The Insiders have long worked to organize top echelons of the corporate world to represent the “business community.”
In a preface to the 1987 Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy: Public Affairs Giving and the Forbes 100, future Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld refuted the myth that big-business is conservative: “Seven out of ten public affairs dollars from the top 25 corporate contributors support establishment liberal — and some support even outright radical — causes.”
Two of the more vocal supporters of the treaty at the hearings were Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue. Note, however, that both Verizon and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are corporate members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Moreover, the Establishment media united in suggesting that the American “business community” was desperately calling for the treaty as a means to protect American investment in tapping ocean resources.
However, in a 2006 paper exposing the flaws in the treaty, law professor Jeremy Rabkin opined: “It remains a fair question whether a complex U.N. regulatory bureaucracy—especially one that counts international wealth redistribution as one of its functions—is a reassuring presence for investors.”
Any UN treaty is bad!
Perhaps the greatest deception of all with respect to LOST is the United Nations itself. The UN is not a democracy of free nations, but a steppingstone to a world government power grab by internationalists who effectively control the UN. Rejecting this internationalist milestone is an essential step toward preserving our Republic.
Accordingly, no treaty that enhances the authority of the UN is acceptable. And politicians who merely claim to be “uneasy” about a UN treaty, see reasons for “caution,” or are continuing to “study” it cannot lead us to safety.
The internationalist power grab with this particular treaty, and several specific reasons why it should be opposed have been amply identified in the past, which is why the treaty has never made it through the senate. For example, in 2004, J. William Middendorf, former secretary of the Navy during the Nixon-Ford administrations, testified that ratification of the treaty would constitute “a potential turning point for the U.S. in the history of international relations.”
Middendorf further warned that the treaty would be “a step in the direction of international taxing authority” and posed “unnecessary risks to national security.” The step toward “international taxing authority” should alarm Americans. One of the huge steps internationalists envision for expanding the authority of the UN is to provide it with its own independent revenue stream, so it will not be dependent on the good will of member nations.
Beware of False Friends
In June, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in opposition to the treaty. He also penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Why the UN Shouldn’t Own the Seas” (WSJ 6-12-12). Although Rumsfeld identified several good reasons why the treaty should be rejected, conservatives should be wary of embracing Rumsfeld as their champion.
In 1969, President Nixon selected Donald Rumsfeld to head up the scandal-ridden Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) — the federal “poverty” agency. During his campaign, Nixon had typically promised to abolish the OEO. But, according to the Washington Post (6-13-69): “Donald Rumsfeld, far from presiding over the liquidation of the Office of Economic Opportunity, has moved in his first 18 days on the job to revive it as the dominant innovative force on most aspects of domestic policy.”
Three decades later, when President George W. Bush selected Donald Rumsfeld as his secretary of defense, former Reagan-aide Jude Wanniski expressed his delight over the choice in a World Net Daily article (1-3-2001):
“The young Rumsfeld became one of the Young Turks of 1965, determined to reform the party. The group included Jerry Ford, Melvin Laird and other ‘moderates.’… They only would be a little more conservative than the liberal Democrats of the LBJ era, who were committed to Big Government to solve all economic and social ills…. They would give the people what the people seemed to want, i.e., a well-managed Big Government.”
Although Rumsfeld’s tenure as an explicit CFR member would be limited (1974-1980), during his second stint as secretary of defense (under President George W. Bush) he would have as his deputy secretary CFR-veteran Paul Wolfowitz. In 2005, Wolfowitz left his defense post to head up the UN-affiliated World Bank.
Perhaps Dick Cheney provides an even better warning regarding the Rumsfeld influence. Cheney tied his early career to Rumsfeld during the Nixon administration. Cheney subsequently posed as a “conservative” congressman from Wyoming, while accepting CFR membership and, in 1988, would serve on the CFR’s Board of Directors.
Conservatives need to become more sophisticated at recognizing Establishment-boosted conservative leaders (like a William F. Buckley, Jr.). They also need to understand the deceptive Insider tactic of controlling the opposition, when opposition to revolutionary plans is to be expected.
The Establishment did not let the Rumsfeld opposition to LOST go unanswered. In a subsequent Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Conservatives and the Law of the Sea Time Warp,”op-ed, John Norton Moore took polite exception:
“The former defense secretary seemed to be in a time warp, harking back to his mission of 30 years ago during the Reagan presidency, completely dismissing the treaty’s 1994 renegotiation….
“All of the Reagan conditions for Part XI were met in a 1994 renegotiation. President Clinton submitted the treaty to the Senate, acknowledging that it met all U.S. objectives….
“The treaty, favorably reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2004 and 2007, was on President Bush’s priority list but has never been put to a vote. It is now once again before the Senate, with overwhelming support from military and business leaders, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Financial Services Roundtable….
“Mr. Rumsfeld’s mission for President Reagan was a service to the nation. His time-warp testimony, however, does a disservice to a remarkable treaty that expands U.S. sovereign rights, powerfully serves U.S. needs for the Navy and the Coast Guard, and provides American industry with the security necessary to generate jobs and growth.
“Mr. Moore … served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, including serving as U.S. ambassador for the Law of the Sea.”
What readers of the Journal’s op-ed were not told, however, was that John Norton Moore was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Recommended action:
• Read and share Masters of Deception: The Rise of the Council on Foreign Relations by G. Vance Smith and Tom Gow.
• Write your two U.S. senators in opposition to the UN’s “Law of the Sea” power grab. See our website News posting for a list of senators who have announced their opposition to LOST.