WASHINGTON, DC The Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty recognizes Sen. Rick Santorum as the first 2012 presidential candidate to express strong public opposition to the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST). As Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry signals a desire to bring LOST to a vote next year, the Coalition calls on all others seeking the presidency to do the same.
Asked about his views on LOST during a recent appearance on Frank Gaffney's Secure Freedom Radio program, Sen. Santorum responded:
...This is another attack on American sovereignty. This is another idea from those who believe in more world governance to transfer power and authority to international bodies, to have those international bodies have the ability to enforce those treaties in the United States and again directly attack the sovereignty of our country.
The world is a better place when the United States is in charge. The world is a better place when they have a stable and democratic government that is promoting the values that America promotes, being in charge of our sea lanes, being in charge of international situations, as opposed to these international organizations - most of which are made of up tyrants and dictators and people who have interests that are antithetical to the interests of our country and to freedom-loving people.
That is the big difference here. Who do you want to be, in a sense, in control of the seas - do you want America and the values that we promote, or do you want these despots and countries that are controlled by people whose values are very much against what we believe in?"
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In another segment of Secure Freedom Radio, scheduled to air tonight, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton seconded these sentiments and urged the other candidates to make known their views on LOST. Click the video below.
Highlights of Amb. Bolton's remarks include the following:
The treaty is really a relic of the 1970s and it's been an objective of the international left for thirty years now to get the United States to sign on to the treaty, which basically internationalizes the seabed and puts control over undersea resources in an international authority and locks in rules of navigation that the U.S., up until now, has had considerable flexibility in following because of our strength both in the commercial and military naval field.
The U.S. joining this treaty really renounces the freedom that we have now under customary international law and would subject us to the votes of the treaty adherents, which are undoubtedly much like the General Assembly of the U.N., going to be very negative in their views of the U.S. role.
In these days before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, I'd like to see all the Republican candidates oppose [LOST]. I think that is their inclination, but I think we should get them on record. I think people need to know about these issues as they cast their votes in the caucuses and primaries.
The Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty - an informal group of past and present national security practitioners and others committed to safeguarding the U.S. Constitution and the sovereign exceptionalism it makes possible - believes that the concerns about the Law of the Sea Treaty expressed by Sen. Santorum and Amb. Bolton are fully justified. The Coalition joins them in opposing ratification of LOST, a treaty described by some of its supporters as "a constitution for the oceans," because, among other reasons, this accord would:
in the name of redistribution global wealth, require the United States to make royalties payments on oil and gas produced on our own continental shelf to an unaccountable international organization known as the International Seabed Authority (ISA);
subject even the interior of the United States to internationally dictated environmental regulations over which we would, as a practical matter, have no say;
compel the U.S. to submit to the whims of mandatory international dispute-resolution mechanisms virtually certain to be hostile to American economic and security interests;
and entail restrictions that could be used to constrain the U.S. Navy's global mobility on and use of the world's oceans. Such restrictions would be undesirable at any time but particularly so at a moment when the Navy is facing severe budget cuts - cuts that will affect its presence and operations around the planet and otherwise endanger our naval forces' ability to perform their vital missions in an increasingly dangerous world.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry is said to be contemplating a renewed push for the LOST Treaty that Ronald Reagan refused to sign, with hearings taking place perhaps as early as the first quarter of 2012. Consequently, the Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty calls on all presidential candidates, as well as this year's candidates for the United States Senate, to answer publicly two questions:
1. Do you believe our sovereignty and other vital interests would be compromised by U.S. ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty? And
2. Do you oppose or support Senate approval of LOST?
The Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty is a project of the Center for Security Policy.securefreedom.org
