Law of the Sea Treaty on hold--for now.(Insider Report)

In late February, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee quietly approved the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (also called the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST), which surrenders control over the world's oceans and the wealth therein to UN control. Ratification of the treaty is supported by the supposedly anti-UN Bush administration. "This administration continues to believe there are compelling reasons for the United States to become a party to this [treaty]," declared Assistant Secretary of State John E Turner, insisting that "the United States stands to benefit more than may other nation from the convention."

In fact, the United States has the most to lose if LOST is ratified by the Senate. According to Aaron Danzig, former chairman of the World Peace Through Law Center (which supports the pact), creation of the treaty "was prompted in part by the discovery that vast riches of manganese, cobalt, nickel and copper lie in the seabed. It was thought that the profit from mining these resources could be used to improve the lot of underdeveloped countries."

In other words, the treaty would designate the riches of the sea as a "common heritage of mankind" and inaugurate an immense exercise in Marxist wealth redistribution. The plunder would be supervised by a UN-connected entity called the "Enterprise," which would issue permits to, and ...