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Pelosi's ties to Chavez have real consequences

The Foreign Ministry is examining an initiative aimed at reaching a long-term non-belligerence pact with Lebanon to prevent renewed fighting along the northern border. The initiative was first revealed two weeks ago during a strategic discussion over the future of the Middle East peace process that was held as part of the ministry's evaluation of regional developments. The evaluation is the first of its kind, and was initiated by ministry director-general Aharon Abramovich, and later supported by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni's close advisers and senior ministry officials participated in the discussion. Given the officials' close relationship with Livni, the...

Anyone watch CNN Late Edition today (September 14, 2008) - the Democratic governor on the panel equated Palins comments that that if a NATO member was attacked the US would fulfill their responsibilities to defend was condemned as advocating a military attack on Russia!!! Is Obama advocating that the US no longer be in the business of defending freedom and democracy anymore?? Is NATO truely just a piece of paper to them to discard? So much for the free world standing together after 50 years of the NATO treaty. I hope McCain attacks this sentiment big time; how can any...

The state of Texas urged the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to go ahead on Tuesday with the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, arguing that he has several times received all of the review of his case that American or international law requires. But, the state added, if there are other foreign nationals in Texas who have not had the same review of their treaty-based claims, the state will join in to make sure that it happens. Medellin’s lawyers have asked Justice Antonin Scalia, as Circuit Justice for the area that includes Texas, to postpone his...

When the result of the Irish Republic's referendum is announced on Friday afternoon, and if it amounts to nul points for the Lisbon treaty, there will be only one name on the lips of defeated eurocrats: Declan Ganley. A multimillionaire entrepreneur, devout Catholic and father of four young children, Mr Ganley is the son of Irish emigrants who struggled to return to Galway from England as soon as funds permitted. Declan Ganley says taxi drivers and grannies are giving him hard cash He has never been involved in politics but his barnstorming campaign against the treaty has set teeth on...

Voters in Ireland could scupper the controversial EU treaty, a poll suggests. The survey, just days before the referendum, found that the 'No' vote had surged into the lead for the first time. Of those polled, 35 per cent said they would vote to derail the Lisbon Treaty on Thursday - double the number three weeks ago.

Lisbon will be crucial for Cowen The first and most pressing political challenge for the new taoiseach [Irish leader] will be to secure the passage of the Lisbon Treaty in the referendum to be held on June 12. Though European issues often tend not to be rated by the electorate, it would be difficult to overestimate the importance placed by the government on passing the treaty. Belief in the treaty is shared by all other parties in the Dáil apart from Sinn Fein, and all parties will campaign on the issue. However, should the treaty be rejected by voters, it...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2008 – A proposed arms-control treaty banning use of cluster munitions and aiding countries that use them could affect U.S. operations with NATO allies, a Defense Department official said. A draft treaty to enforce the ban is now circulating among Oslo Convention nations, and it prohibits any form of assistance to countries that use cluster munitions, Joseph Benkert, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs, told online journalists and “bloggers” in a conference call yesterday. Cluster munitions -- small explosives dropped from airplanes and fired from artillery -- have ignited heated international debate, with...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2008 – A proposed arms-control treaty banning use of cluster munitions and aiding countries that use them could affect U.S. operations with NATO allies, a Defense Department official said. A draft treaty to enforce the ban is now circulating among Oslo Convention nations, and it prohibits any form of assistance to countries that use cluster munitions, Joseph Benkert, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs, told online journalists and “bloggers” in a conference call yesterday. Cluster munitions -- small explosives dropped from airplanes and fired from artillery -- have ignited heated international debate, with...

When we saw Mr Brown emerging from his surreptitious signing of this treaty, we should have been under no illusions as to the significance of what he has set his hand to. This was the day when our country finally abandoned any pretence to exist in its own right in the world or to run its own affairs. More than ever, we are to become just a small, subordinate part of this highly questionable new entity which is already in the process of changing our lives - as through its insistence on virtually unlimited immigration - in ways which even...

PARIS, Dec. 13 -- European leaders on Thursday signed a new treaty that in most member countries will never go before the public.

Russia has formally suspended its participation in a key arms control agreement dating from the Cold War. The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty sets limits on troops and weaponry across Europe. The suspension means Russia can move troops without notifying Nato. The bloc voiced "deep regret" over the move. Russia is unhappy with Nato expansion and US plans for missile defences in central Europe and says the treaty no longer serves its interests. The CFE treaty was signed by Western and former Warsaw Pact states in 1990, but was revised in 1999 to take account of former Soviet satellites...

Ronald Reagan thought a "law of the sea" treaty was a bad idea in 1978. As a private citizen, he devoted one of his daily radio commentaries to it. Four years later, as president, he refused to sign off on it because, in effect, it would have put sovereignty over more than 40 percent of the Earth's surface in the hands of an international body, accountable to no one. As Third World countries gained the majority in the United Nations General Assembly, the notion of controlling the world's seabed took flight, so to speak. Let the industrialized nations use their...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has signed the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Mr Rudd says it is the first official act of the new Government and demonstrates the commitment to tackling climate change. The ratification document will be sent to the United Nations and it comes into effect 90 days after that. Mr Rudd says Australia will be a full member of the Kyoto Protocol before March next year. The agreement means Australia's greenhouse gas emissions should not be higher than 8 per cent above 1990 levels. Ratifying the treaty was one of Labor's major campaign promises....

VIENNA, Austria - The Bahamas has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 141 the number of nations that have done so, the Vienna-based organization that administers the accord said Tuesday. Brent Symonette, acting prime minister of the Bahamas, announced Monday that he had signed the instrument of ratification and sent it to U.N. headquarters, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization said. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by all 44 states — listed in an annex — that participated in a...

For Release: October 31, 2007 Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org The More People Know About Sea Treaty, The Less They Support It Senate Committee Approves Treaty, But With Sharp Increase in Opposition Statement of David A. Ridenour, Vice President, The National Center for Public Policy Research on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote on the Law of the Sea Treaty this morning: The more people learn about the Law of the Sea Treaty, the less they like it. That's the message from this morning's vote of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Although the Committee voted to...

Senate Panel Backs Sea Treaty By JIM ABRAMS – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The Reagan-era "Law of the Sea" treaty was primed for its first-ever Senate vote, boosted by strong support from the Bush administration and an emphatic vote of approval Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee. With Senate ratification, the United States would join 155 nations that are party to a convention that sets rules and settles disputes over navigation, fishing and economic development of the open seas and establishes environmental standards. Treaty supporters, after making little headway for years, have gained momentum recently with concerns that...

In his 2004 State of the Union Address, President Bush said, “America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country.� Members of both parties and Houses of Congress applauded. But if the U.S. Senate votes to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea — known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or its appropriate acronym, LOST — he and his successors are going to need lots of permission slips. In 1982, Ronald Reagan, concerned about the treaty’s implications for our sovereignty and national security, formally rejected LOST because it did “not...

The EU treaty is "substantially equivalent" to the EU Constitution thrown out by Dutch and French voters in 2005, MPs have said. The European scrutiny committee said it should be "made clear" the UK can keep opt-outs of parts of the document. The Conservatives said the government was now "morally bound" to hold a referendum on the treaty, as had been promised on the constitution. But ministers say the two documents are "substantially" different. The treaty incorporates some of the old EU Constitution, on which Labour had promised a referendum before it was scuppered by the Dutch and French votes....

It is an impressive testament to the abiding affection and political influence of former President Ronald Reagan that the fate of a controversial treaty now before the U.S. Senate may ultimately turn on a single question: What would Reagan do? As we had the privilege of working closely with President Reagan in connection with the foreign policy, national security and domestic implications of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty or LOST), there is no question about how our 40th president felt about this accord. He so strongly...

Liberal Senate Democrats and the U.S. State Department are desperate to get the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty ratified. But Senator David Vitter, a conservative Republican, keeps getting in the way. Through skillful questioning during Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, the Louisiana Republican got a leading treaty supporter to acknowledge that America's enemies can manipulate the process of mandatory dispute settlement under the treaty so that the United Nations Secretary-General plays the key role in the outcome. Vitter called this a "recipe for disaster" for America and urged more hearings into the treaty's flaws.

A draft constitution was previously rejected by French and Dutch voters Legal experts from the 27 countries of the European Union have agreed on a draft reform treaty. The treaty is set to replace the defunct European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters. Portugal, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, hopes to get agreement on the treaty at an EU summit in Lisbon later this month. Possible domestic opposition to the treaty in Poland and Britain mean they may present the biggest hurdles. The treaty aims to streamline the workings of the EU...

THE UNITED NATIONS ... HARD AT WORK Venezuela's Hugo Chavez decided not to show at the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly ... he's probably too busy trying to turn back the clocks one half hour, to ensure that he is not on the same time as the "imperial United States." In the meantime, anti-Bush protestors were arrested on the streets of New York outside of the U.N. building. Business as usual. While the arrests were underway Bush was busy yanking the chains of Cuban delegates to the point where they up and left during his speech. Bush said...

Rubber Stamp?By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. FrontPageMagazine.com | 9/25/2007 Come Thursday, the future of the United States Senate will begin to take shape. On that day, the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee will begin the first of two days of hearings on the ratification of one of the most momentous international agreements in memory: the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). If all goes according to the proponents’ plan, few Senators will have any idea what LOST entails before they are asked to vote for it. The working assumption is that many legislators will be inclined to do...

The justification for U.S. ratification of the Law of the Sea treaty is simple: trillions of dollars of undersea mineral wealth just waiting to be exploited. The United States stands to gain nearly 300,000 square miles of additional ocean holdings, including an estimated 400 billion barrels of untapped undersea oil and gas, experts say. That's because the treaty allows countries to extend their claims beyond the current 200-mile limit, if they can demonstrate the continuity of their continental shelf. The result could make the 1849 Gold Rush and the Texas oil boom seem trivial by comparison. Not surprisingly, U.S. oil...

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples after 22 years of debate. The treaty sets down protections for the human rights of native peoples, and for their land and resources. It passed despite opposition from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. They said it was incompatible with their own laws. There are estimated to be up to 370 million indigenous people in the world. They include the Innu tribe in Canada, the Bushmen of Botswana and Australia's Aborigines. Campaigners say they are under greater pressure than ever, as developers,...

A gray whale died Saturday night, several hours after Makah tribal members harpooned and shot the animal. The men shot the whale without federal permission. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker confirmed the harpooning by five tribal members. The whale was one mile east of Neah Bay, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about a half-mile off shore The Coast Guard detained the five tribal members and questioned them, said Mark Oswell, a National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman. They later were released to the tribe, who placed them into custody at the tribal jail, according to the mother of...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The treaty that will eventually replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change could be a potpourri of legal obligations, nonbinding commitments and aid arrangements for the developing world, but each nation should choose its own course, the U.N.'s top climate official said Thursday. At the outset of a season of climate negotiations, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said countries such as the United States are mistaken if they dismiss the Kyoto process on the grounds it is forcing them into unwanted legal commitments. "Countries themselves are in the best...

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in a key European arms control treaty, the Kremlin said Saturday. The Kremlin said in a statement the need to pull out of Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was linked to "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures." The treaty is seen as a key element in maintaining stability in Europe. It establishes limitations on countries' deployment of tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters and combat aircraft.

Commentary "River Kwai Syndrome" Plays in Law of the Sea Frank J. Gaffney Jr. Proceedings, March 2005 Discuss this article in the eForum. In 1957, Hollywood created the unforgettable image of military men throwing themselves into a construction project, having lost sight of the fact that the result could be used by the enemy to the grave detriment of their comrades and country. Unfortunately, nearly 50 years after The Bridge on the River Kwai entered the public consciousness, the Navy seems afflicted with the same syndrome as it encourages U.S. ratification of the controversial U.N. Convention on the Law of...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders headed for a showdown on Thursday over efforts to reform the bloc's creaking institutions, but chances of agreement appeared to rise after chief critic Poland softened its tone. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, attending his last EU summit, said prospects for a deal to launch negotiations on a new treaty were only "touch and go." Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski put the odds at 50-50. London and Warsaw could yet scupper German Chancellor Angela Merkel's drive to replace the defunct EU constitution after years of wrangling over the division of power between Brussels and...

No bad idea is ever completely defeated in this country, perhaps in other nations as well. I have seen bad ideas surfact again and again in this country. When the right is defeated, the right tends to stay defeated. I recall advocating a national right-to-work law when I worked in the Senate in the late 1970's. The member of the leadership to whom I pitched the idea exclaimed, "oh, no. We can't do that. It was defeated in 1958"! I meerely was suggesting that we try to get a vote......

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to let a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia expire in 2009 and replace it with a less formal agreement that eliminates strict verification requirements and weapons limits, a senior U.S. official says. This would continue President George W. Bush's practice of repudiating arms control as a means of curbing nuclear weapons while relying more on countermeasures like export controls, interdiction and sanctions. This approach makes many arms control experts uneasy, but the Democratic-led U.S. Congress has shown little interest in the START treaty's fate. Some congressional aides say whatever Bush does,...

The U.S. Senate will soon exercise one of the fundamental responsibilities granted to it by the U.S. Constitution and vote whether to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Bush administration supports ratification and is joined in that position by a leading member of the U.S. Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee, which I chair, voted 19-0 to recommend to the Senate that the United States join 145 other parties to enter the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). That Senate decision is pending as this publication goes to press. The Senate Foreign Relations...

WASHINGTON – In a move that has already angered some of his most ardent supporters, President Bush has asked the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate to revive a proposal for ratification of the United Nation's Law of the Sea Treaty, an international agreement defeated two years ago by Republican leadership in the upper house. Critics say ratification would compromise U.S. sovereignty and place 70 percent of the Earth's surface under the control of the U.N. – even providing for a "tax" that would be paid directly to the international body by companies mining in the world's oceans. The battle...

Iran to pull out of nuclear treaty 'if further pressure' 13 minutes ago Iran will be obliged to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if it is subjected to further international pressure over its atomic programme, chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani warned on Monday. "If they pressure us further we will have no choice but to reconsider our membership of the NPT as parliament has ruled," Larijani said, referring to a law agreed by parliament last year allowing the government to reduce cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

France is one of three EU countries to sign an extradition text with China France has signed an extradition treaty with China despite concerns expressed by human rights groups over Beijing's use of the death penalty. France's justice minister said a suspect would be extradited in cases punishable by death only if China guaranteed they would not be executed. Pascal Clement also said the treaty excluded offences judged to be political or military. France is the third EU country after Spain and Portugal to sign such a pact. "This treaty explicitly anticipates the rejection of extradition requests based on...

!-- E IBYL --> The European Union claims it has secured peace among historical enemies, spread democracy to its neighbours and created a new model of international co-operation. But none of that was pre-ordained. The milestones of the past 50 years tell a story of bitter national rivalries, personality clashes and tortured compromises which have threatened the project's survival more than once and may do so again in the coming years. Churchill saw European unity as a means of breaking the cycle of conflict Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime leader, called postwar Europe "a rubble heap, a charnel-house, a breeding-ground...

Japan and Australia say the treaty benefits the region as a whole The prime ministers of Japan and Australia have signed a security pact designed to enhance military co-operation between the two nations. Japan's PM Shinzo Abe said the pact would help to stabilise the region. The defence deal - Japan's first with a country other than the US - includes co-operation on border security, counter-terrorism and disaster relief. It is the result of closer co-operation on security matters in Asia that Japan and Australia have been pursuing. The four part agreement Mr Abe signed with Australian PM John...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States on Thursday it might pull out of a Cold War nuclear arms reduction treaty because of plans by Washington to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe. General Yuri Baluyevsky, head of the Russian general staff, said Russia could unilaterally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), Russian news agencies reported...

Members of the Organization of American States (OAS) begin work this week on a treaty that would make sexual orientation "an inalienable right" worthy of human-rights protection. "The document before the OAS this week mentions sexual orientation 15 times," according to Thomas Jacobson, Focus on the Family Action's representative to the United Nations. "In addition, it contains terms like 'hate crimes' and veiled pro-abortion language." He said the nation behind the proposed language -- Brazil -- first tried to get the U.N. to go along in 2003. "They failed in that attempt," Jacobson said. "They pushed again in 2004, and...

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School The Barbary Treaties : Tripoli 1796 Hunter Miller's Notes The two dates and places given for the signature of the treaty (Tripoli, November 4, 1796, and Algiers, January 3, 1797) are explained by the fact that the provisions of the agreement with the Pasha of Tripoli were deemed to be to some extent at least under the protection or guaranty of the Dey of Algiers and made with his approval. So after the completion of the negotiations at Tripoli by Capt. Richard O'Brien, the agreement was taken to Algiers for the signature and...

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch said Monday he has had a change of heart on climate change and now believes global action is needed -- although not in the form of the Kyoto Protocol which the US opposes. Murdoch -- whose powerful News Corp. empire includes Britain's The Sun tabloid newspaper and The Times -- called for a new treaty that is acceptable to all countries and brings in emerging economies. "I have to admit that, until recently, I was somewhat wary of the warming debate. I believe it is now our responsibility to take the lead on this issue,"...

Trashing privacy By Bob Barr August 20, 2006 Thanks to the U.S. Senate's remarkable but well-known lack of backbone, nations such as Albania, Croatia, Uganda and many others now will be able to call up the U.S. Justice Department and find out as much as they would like about anything you do with your computer. At this point, you probably wonder why you haven't read about this. Frankly, there's not much reason you would have, unless you read some relatively obscure publications that focus mostly on technology issues. Another reason you wouldn't likely have heard of it is, of course,...

EU's Solana in surprise visit to Beirut 16 Jul 2006 14:52:54 GMT (Adds detail from Brussels) BEIRUT, July 16 (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Beirut on Sunday, the fifth day of the worst fighting between Lebanon-based guerrillas and Israel since 1982. Lebanese officials said Solana was set to meet Prime Minister Fouad Siniora shortly. Solana, who will hold a news conference after the meeting, may also talk with the head of Lebanon's parliament, an EU official said in Brussels. The EU has called Israel's attacks in Lebanon, prompted by the kidnap of two Israeli...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted Monday that Iran was considering withdrawing from the worldwide Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and said he did not think the UN Security Council would impose sanctions on Iran. "Those who speak about sanctions would be damaged more (than Iran)," he told a press conference. "But no particular event will happen, don't worry." Ahmadinejad said that Iran would reconsider its compliance with NPT and membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency if they continued to be of no benefit to the country. "What has more than 30 years of membership in the agency given us?" he asked....

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted Monday that Iran was considering withdrawing from the worldwide Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and said he did not think the U.N. Security Council would impose sanctions on Iran. "Those who speak about sanctions would be damaged more" than Iran, he told a news conference. "But no particular event will happen, don't worry." He also renewed his criticism of Israel, calling it a "fake regime" that cannot continue to exist. Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest threat, and these concerns have grown amid repeated calls by Ahmadinejad for Israel's destruction. "Some 60 years...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear arms control treaty Sunday and urged a peaceful solution to the international crisis over concerns it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a day after its hard-line president issued a veiled threat to withdraw from the pact. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, began a mission to Iran to learn just what controls remain on nuclear sites and equipment after Tehran ended all but minimum cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. In Vienna, Austria, a diplomat told The Associated Press Saturday that some International Atomic Energy Agency...

Reuters - BUSH, SOUTH KOREA'S ROH AGREE TALKS ON A KOREAN WAR PEACE TREATY MORE...

U.N. Experts to Train N. Korean Lawyers By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago Two U.N. legal experts are heading to North Korea next week to conduct a training session for lawyers to help improve their understanding of U.N. treaties, refugees and stateless people. "It's the first time that a legal delegation has been invited purely to talk law," Palitha Kohona, chief of the Treaty Section in the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs, said in an interview Friday. Kohona and Christoph Bierwith from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees are leaving for Beijing on...