Conservatives unite to oppose LOST

Today, an array of organizations and individuals representing virtually the entire conservative movement joined a press conference at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to announce their opposition to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST).

Featured speakers included:

• Senator James Inhofe, Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
• Amb. Jeanne Kirkpatrick
• David Keene, Chairman of the American Conservative Union
• Patrick Buchanan, Author and commentator
• Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform
• Fred Smith, President, The Competitive Enterprise Institute
• Frank Gaffney, President, Center for Security Policy

The participants warned that LOST would adversely affect U.S. sovereignty, economic, military and judicial interests. These concerns – it was noted – prompted President Reagan to reject this treaty in 1982. It remains defective as the treaty has yet to be amended and its central feature remains – the establishment of a supranational agency to govern three quarters of the world’s surface and the oceans and airspace above them.

The participants called on the United States Senate to engage in the most rigorous and careful consideration of this accord in a joint letter signed by twenty-seven groups. The signers urged both the Foreign Relations Committee and others whose jurisdiction will be affected by the Law of the Sea Treaty to hold extensive hearings at which the accord’s many undesirable provisions and implications can be fully explored.

Copies of this letter may be obtained by clicking here.