Bald-Faced Lies About The U.N.
By Cliff Kincaid
October 9, 2007
Do you think our "adversary press" is on the lookout for government lies? Consider the false testimony (web site) before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on behalf of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This is a treaty that our media want passed by the Senate. So they are letting his lies go completely unchallenged.
One of the most audacious lies was that, despite the fact that the treaty carries the name "United Nations" in its title, it is not a U.N. treaty.
Negroponte's testimony included several "myths" that he said were prevalent about the treaty. One was that "The Convention [UNCLOS] is a 'UN' treaty and therefore does not serve our interests." The "reality," he said, was that, "The Convention is not the United Nations - it was merely negotiated there, as are many agreements, and negotiated by States, not by UN bureaucrats."
There was a time when the State Department didn't lie in such an audacious way about the treaty. A 1995 speech by the then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Ocean Affairs, David A. Colson, openly refers to the entities created by the treaty as "U.N. institutions." He didn't try to confuse or mislead the American people about the U.N. connection. But Negroponte went out of his way to tell us - in official testimony before a Senate committee - that it is not a U.N. treaty. How can he get away with it? Simple. Our major media let him. They should be insisting on an official investigation. Federal law prohibits making false statements to Congress.
The U.N. is much more open about its role. Its Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea declares (web site) that "Throughout the years, beginning with the work of the Seabed Committee in 1968 and later during the nine-year duration of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations has been actively engaged in encouraging and guiding the development and eventual adoption of the Law of the Sea Convention. Today, it continues to be engaged in this process, by monitoring developments as they relate to the Convention and providing assistance to States, when called for, in either the ratification or the implementation process."
It goes on to say that "The United Nations also gives assistance to the two newly created institutions - the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea."
But there's more. "The United Nations will continue to play a major role in the monitoring of, collection of information on and reporting on State practice in the implementation of the new legal regime," the website declares. "It will also have a significant role to play in reporting on activities of States and relevant international organizations in marine affairs and on major trends and developments. This information will be of great assistance to States in the acceptance and ratification of the Convention, as well as its early entry into force and implementation."
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