Posted on 08/04/2007 4:51:51 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The sensational headlines say, “Russian Arctic Team Reaches North Pole.” But the U.S. was there first―back in the early 1900s. America, not Russia, has a valid claim to the North Pole. ...
Yet, the U.S. State Department wants to turn the whole matter over to the United Nations.
State Department officials, led by Condoleezza Rice’s top lawyer, John B. Bellinger III, are telling the press that the U.S. should immediately ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in order to contest Russia’s claim to the seabed under the North Pole. They seem to have forgotten that the U.S. Navy’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, passed under the North Pole on August 3, 1958, and its second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, claimed the region “For the world, our country, and the Navy.” He wrote the book, First Under the North Pole, about the secret mission called “Operation Sunshine.” President Eisenhower sent the message, “Congratulations on a magnificent achievement. Well done.”
While the Russians are claiming to have traveled to the Arctic Ocean floor at the North Pole in a submarine and planted their flag on August 2, the Nautilus reached the geographic North Pole almost 50 years ago. A second submarine, the Skate, actually surfaced at the Pole.
Before the Nautilus, of course, two American explorers, Dr. Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary, a U.S. Navy commander, led missions that reportedly reached the Pole in 1908 and 1909. ...The website of the Cook Society features a quotation from Dr. V.S. Koryakin, Polar historian of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying in 1993, “There is no ground to question the validity of Dr. Cook’s assertion that he reached the North Pole.”
So the Russians have conceded that an American was there first!
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
EVERYONE knows it belongs to Santa.
Whaddya gonna do? Go back to the 15th Century to stake claims like colonists (per Peter McKay - Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs)? Ratify the damn treaty.
There is a clause in the international agreement which relates to your specific continental shelf. Russia is claiming the shelf which encompasses their continent indeed encompasses the North Pole. It will be interesting to watch this.
All North Pole belong to Santa and Polar bear perhaps Looter guy
LOST. Is there a worse unratified treaty out there?
Putin must be smokin’ rope....they lost all rights when they sold off Alaska.
Yes. The Kyoto Voluntary Economic Implosion Treaty is the worst.
The U.N., they'll handle it. They will probably give it to Uganda or something brilliant."Yes, they need the ice, it is very hot in Uganda"
HOW CUTEEE Monk you disappoint me where is Santa LOL!
NO Vlady where is Santa that main hood the North Pole I hope Looter guy get some Christmas gift this year
That’s what I was thinking, as if the US could ever get a fair hearing in that pit of vipers called the UN. What a joke.
Nothing is yours save that which you take and hold by force.
Yep, and if I were Putin, I wouldn't go messing with the guy...
Any treaty that gives the UN any permanent funding source is a very, very bad idea. The UN must be kept completely dependent on donations by member states. As soon as it cuts the tether to the member states, you will start seeing standing UN armies (in fact, the UN recently proposed that it have a standing army).
For example, the UN managed to convert it's role in the Oil-For-Food money transfers into huge sums of money for the UN. It will do the same for Law of the Sea.
The UN was a bad idea in the first place, advanced in the US by communist agents (Alger Hiss) in the State Dept. If I had my way, it would be disbanded today. But in the absence of that, I oppose any augmentation of its power in any manner.
“Yet, the U.S. State Department wants to turn the whole matter over to the United Nations.”
Of course we do — it’s the dumbest possible move, so that’s what the State Dept. wants to do. Makes perfect sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.