Critics assail Law of the Sea treaty

[unhappycamper]

Critics assail Law of the Sea treaty
By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 4, 2007 18:32:30 EDT

Critics of the Convention of the Law of the Sea argued at a hearing Thursday that signing the treaty was a “recipe for disaster,” leading to the creation of “a socialist entity” to police the world’s oceans.

Frank Gaffney, a former member of the Reagan administration who now heads the Center for Security Policy, argued that critics of the treaty have been “underrepresented” in hearings on the subject. He said the high percentage of Senate Foreign Relations Committee members who favor the treaty “amounts to a rubber stamp” of support for the Law of the Sea Convention.

The 200-page treaty covers myriad issues related to the world’s oceans, including fishing, mining, navigation, shipping and other activities; 155 countries have signed it, but the United States has not. The Bush administration, which supports the treaty, has said it would enhance security on the high seas. Critics such as Gaffney, however, argue that ratifying the treaty could hinder naval counterterrorism efforts by subjecting U.S. military personnel to review by foreign magistrates.

~snip~

Under the terms of the treaty, the legality of seizures made by Coast Guard and Navy ships would be subject to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in Hamburg, Germany, and a five-person international arbitration panel. The United States and the flag state of the seized vessel would have input in selecting some of the arbitrators.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said this arbitration panel could be a “recipe for disaster” for American maritime interests. He called for another hearing in which additional critics of the treaty would be called to testify.

~snip~

Retired Adm. Vern Clark, a former chief of naval operations and now a member of the corporate board of defense contractor Raytheon, said the treaty provides a “stable and predictable legal regime” at sea.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_lawofthesea_071004w/



uhc comment: Gaffney's an interesting character.





http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1183

Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration official who got his start working under Richard Perle on the staff of Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA) in the 1970s, is a prominent neoconservative hardliner whose Center for Security Policy (CSP) serves as a clearinghouse for information and analyses that promote controversial weapons programs, a Likudnik line on Mideast peace issues, and an expansive "war on terror" targeting "Islamofascists" (a popular Gaffney term) throughout the Middle East.

Despite his often extremist views, Gaffney is frequently cited in the press as an "expert" on U.S. foreign policy, appearing regularly on the BBC and other radio and TV broadcasts. He is also a prolific writer, having published in most major media outlets and opinion journals, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, National Review, Newsday, and Commentary magazine.

Typical of Gaffney's diatribes was a March 2006 article for the Jewish World Review titled "Islamofascist 'Coup' in Turkey," in which Gaffney pushed his familiar refrain that "Islamofascists" are poised to create a "Muslim caliphate," in this case by trying to overturn Ataturk's secular legacy in Turkey. He wrote: "Ending Ataturk's experiment and restoring the Muslim caliphate it supplanted has long been a goal of Islamofascists, adherents to a dangerous political movement whose global reach and terrorist methods have largely been enabled by decades of investment by the world's repressive Islamist regimes, led by Saudi Arabia. The rise of Islamofascism has prompted some in the West to hope that Turkey would continue to serve as a model for the Muslim world even after an avowed Islamist named Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2002 parlayed a minority of votes into a monopoly of power. This delusion contributed to the European Union allowing its negotiations for Turkish accession to the EU to be skillfully used by Erdogan to checkmate Turkey's military." He concluded: "It behooves the European Union to reinforce the political impact of such sentiment by making clear that Islamofascist behavior will be what precludes Turkey from being eligible for membership, not efforts by the Turkish military to counter the Islamists' takeover. And the United States and other freedom-loving nations must make clear that they view an Islamist Turkey as no model for the Muslim world and a threat to that nation's standing as a valued member of the free one."



sourcewatch. org sez:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frank_Gaffney

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., is president, CEO, and founder of the Center for Security Policy -- "a small think tank funded mainly by U.S. defence contractors, far-right foundations, and right-wing Zionists" <1>. Gaffney is considered to be a "neo-con" (neo-conservative). <2>.

He was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (1987) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Richard N. Perle (1983-87). Gaffney is the former chairman of the High Level Group at NATO. He is a senior advisor at Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT).

He is a regular contributor and "pundit" in FrontPageMag.com.




The Center for Security Policy sez:


http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/home.aspx?sid=47&categoryid=47&subcategoryid=115&newsid=12531



President and CEO of the Center, he is one of America's foremost experts on National Security Policy.


The news page over there is telling: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Home.aspx?SID=66



Salon.com sez:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/02/16/radio_debate/


Debate with Frank Gaffney
Glenn Greenwald
Friday February 16, 2007 14:55 EST

For those who were unable to listen, C&L has now posted the full audio podcast of the debate I had last night on the Alan Colmes Show with Frank Gaffney, one of the most extremist, pernicious and influential neoconservatives in our country. The debate covered many topics, including the (now-removed) vile Op-Ed he wrote on Wednesday, which relied upon a fabricated quote from Abraham Lincoln, equated opposition to the Leader and the war with treason, and called for Senators such as Carl Levin to be hanged as traitors.

Unlike many of these types of debates, I think this one is really worth listening to. Tough-guy warmongers love to run around spewing the language of Treason against political opponents, or beating their chests and issuing calls for vastly escalated slaughter in the form of sloganeering such as "the U.S. needs to start doing what needs to be done in the Middle East." But when challenged about these views or called upon to say explicitly what they mean, they very frequently lack the courage of their convictions, fearfully running away from the clear meaning of what they said. From the start, because he was aggressively challenged (including by Colmes), that is what Gaffney did.

On several occasions, he lost control of himself, even using profanities. Aside from the entertainment value that provides, it illustrates an important point. Gaffney is a professional right-wing extremist. He has been in the Reagan administration, on every television and radio show for years, and is very well-funded by numerous neoconservative funding sources. The fact that he became so shrill and defensive and even frightened reveals that neocons know that America is turning against them and beginning to realize the destruction they have wrought and the culpability they possess for what they have done to our country.



If you're so inclined, read more about Frank: http://www.google.com/search?q=Frank+Gaffney&hl=en&start=10&sa=N

[Kolesar]

1. The arguements against the "Law of the Sea Treaty" were the same 30 years ago

I lost track of what happened to the 1970s/1980s version of the treaty. But it looks like the neoconservatives have just found newer, exciting terms to plug into the same counterarguements.