Z Magazine Online
Printer Friendly Version
September 2003 Volume 16 Number 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiddity
Mirror, Mirror On The Wall,
Who’s The Biggest Rogue Of All?
By Richard Du Boff
source: http://www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Sept2003/duboffpr0903.html
What follows is a record of the U.S. rogue role in the world—its crimes and imperial designs.
Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996, but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The U.S. is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the U.S. forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Treaty and announced plans to resume nuclear testing of new short-range tactical nuclear weapons.
Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001, the U.S. officially withdrew from the landmark agreement—the first time in the nuclear era that the U.S. renounced a major arms control accord.
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, 1972. Ratified by 144 nations including the U.S. In July 2001 the U.S. walked out of a London conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen the Convention by providing for on-site inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, Undersecretary of State for arms control John Bolton stated, “the protocol is dead,” at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria of violating the Convention, but offering no specific allegations or supporting evidence to substantiate the charges. In May 2002, Bolton accused Cuba of carrying out germ-warfare research, again producing no evidence. The same month, three Pentagon documents revealed proposals, dating from 1994, to develop U.S. offensive bioweapons that destroy materials (“biofouling and biocorrosion”), in violation of the Convention and a 1989 U.S. law that implements the Convention.
UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms, 2001. The U.S. was the only nation in opposition. Undersecretary Bolton said the Agreement was an “important initiative” for the international community, but one that the U.S. “cannot and will not” support, since it could impinge on the constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, 1998. Set up in The Hague to try political leaders and military personnel charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Concluded in Rome in July 1998, the Treaty was signed by 120 countries. Although President Clinton signed the Treaty in December 2000, he announced that the U.S. would oppose it, along with six others (including China, Russia, and Israel). In May 2002, the Bush administration announced it was “unsigning” the Treaty, something the U.S. had never before done, and that it would neither recognize the Court’s jurisdiction nor furnish any information to help the Court bring cases against any individuals. In July 2002, the ICC went into force after being ratified by more than the required number of 60 nations, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—Russia now having signed, but not ratified. Throughout 2002 and 2003, the U.S. worked to scuttle the Treaty by signing bilateral agreements not to send each other’s citizens before the ICC. By mid-2003, the U.S. had signed 37 mutual immunity pacts, mostly with poor, small countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and Eastern Europe. Threatened with the loss of $73 million in U.S. aid, for example, Bosnia signed such a deal. In July 2003, the Bush administration suspended all military assistance to 35 countries that refused to pledge to give U.S. citizens immunity before the ICC.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969. The U.S. signed but did not ratify. In May 2002, as the U.S. was unsigning the ICC Treaty, it simultaneously announced that it would not be bound by the Vienna Convention, which outlines the obligations of nations to obey other treaties. Article 18 requires signatory nations not to take steps to undermine treaties they sign even if they do not ratify them.
The American Servicemen’s [sic] Protection Act, 2002. The Bush administration has been working overtime to nullify the ICC. In November 2002, the president signed this Act, which not only bars cooperation with the ICC and threatens sanctions for countries that ratify it, but authorizes the use of “all means necessary” to free any U.S. national who might be held in The Hague for trial before the ICC.
Land Mine Treaty, 1997. Banning the use, production, or shipment of anti-personnel bombs and mines, the treaty was signed in Ottawa in December 1997 by 123 nations. President Clinton refused to submit it for ratification, claiming the mines were needed to protect South Korea against North Korea’s “overwhelming military advantage,” a proposition denied by the heads of North and South Korea in June 2000. In August 2001, President Bush rejected the treaty.
Kyoto Protocol of 1997, intended to control greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming. Declared “dead” by President Bush in March 2001. No other country has chosen to abandon the treaty completely. In November 2001, the Bush administration shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to revise the accord, mainly by watering it down in an attempt to gain U.S. approval. In February 2002, Bush announced a new plan to limit emissions—by measures that are to be strictly voluntary. The U.S. is the largest single producer of these emissions, generating 20 percent of the world’s total.
International Plan for Cleaner Energy, 2001. The U.S. was the only nation to oppose this Plan, put forth by the G-8 group of industrial nations (U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, UK) in Genoa in July 2001. It would phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase financing for nonpolluting energy sources worldwide.
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 and the 1994 Agreement relating to Implementation of Part IX (Deep Seabed Mining). It establishes a legal framework for management of marine resources and preservation of the marine environment for future generations—including fish stocks, minerals, international navigation, marine scientific research, and marine technologies. President Clinton submitted these treaties to the Senate in 1994, but they have not been ratified, as they have been by 135 and 100 countries respectively. The primary obstacle to applying them remains the absence of U.S. ratification.
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 2000. An international treaty sponsored by 130 nations, it seeks to protect biological diversity from risks posed by genetically modified organisms resulting from biotechnology. To date, it has been ratified by 13 countries and signed by 95 more, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, both Koreas, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, and Mexico. The U.S. has long argued that there is no reason for such a protocol, has not ratified it, and is not expected to.
Printer Friendly Version
September 2003 Volume 16 Number 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiddity
Mirror, Mirror On The Wall,
Who’s The Biggest Rogue Of All?
By Richard Du Boff
source: http://www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Sept2003/duboffpr0903.html
What follows is a record of the U.S. rogue role in the world—its crimes and imperial designs.
Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996, but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The U.S. is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the U.S. forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Treaty and announced plans to resume nuclear testing of new short-range tactical nuclear weapons.
Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001, the U.S. officially withdrew from the landmark agreement—the first time in the nuclear era that the U.S. renounced a major arms control accord.
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, 1972. Ratified by 144 nations including the U.S. In July 2001 the U.S. walked out of a London conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen the Convention by providing for on-site inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, Undersecretary of State for arms control John Bolton stated, “the protocol is dead,” at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria of violating the Convention, but offering no specific allegations or supporting evidence to substantiate the charges. In May 2002, Bolton accused Cuba of carrying out germ-warfare research, again producing no evidence. The same month, three Pentagon documents revealed proposals, dating from 1994, to develop U.S. offensive bioweapons that destroy materials (“biofouling and biocorrosion”), in violation of the Convention and a 1989 U.S. law that implements the Convention.
UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms, 2001. The U.S. was the only nation in opposition. Undersecretary Bolton said the Agreement was an “important initiative” for the international community, but one that the U.S. “cannot and will not” support, since it could impinge on the constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, 1998. Set up in The Hague to try political leaders and military personnel charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Concluded in Rome in July 1998, the Treaty was signed by 120 countries. Although President Clinton signed the Treaty in December 2000, he announced that the U.S. would oppose it, along with six others (including China, Russia, and Israel). In May 2002, the Bush administration announced it was “unsigning” the Treaty, something the U.S. had never before done, and that it would neither recognize the Court’s jurisdiction nor furnish any information to help the Court bring cases against any individuals. In July 2002, the ICC went into force after being ratified by more than the required number of 60 nations, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—Russia now having signed, but not ratified. Throughout 2002 and 2003, the U.S. worked to scuttle the Treaty by signing bilateral agreements not to send each other’s citizens before the ICC. By mid-2003, the U.S. had signed 37 mutual immunity pacts, mostly with poor, small countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and Eastern Europe. Threatened with the loss of $73 million in U.S. aid, for example, Bosnia signed such a deal. In July 2003, the Bush administration suspended all military assistance to 35 countries that refused to pledge to give U.S. citizens immunity before the ICC.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969. The U.S. signed but did not ratify. In May 2002, as the U.S. was unsigning the ICC Treaty, it simultaneously announced that it would not be bound by the Vienna Convention, which outlines the obligations of nations to obey other treaties. Article 18 requires signatory nations not to take steps to undermine treaties they sign even if they do not ratify them.
The American Servicemen’s [sic] Protection Act, 2002. The Bush administration has been working overtime to nullify the ICC. In November 2002, the president signed this Act, which not only bars cooperation with the ICC and threatens sanctions for countries that ratify it, but authorizes the use of “all means necessary” to free any U.S. national who might be held in The Hague for trial before the ICC.
Land Mine Treaty, 1997. Banning the use, production, or shipment of anti-personnel bombs and mines, the treaty was signed in Ottawa in December 1997 by 123 nations. President Clinton refused to submit it for ratification, claiming the mines were needed to protect South Korea against North Korea’s “overwhelming military advantage,” a proposition denied by the heads of North and South Korea in June 2000. In August 2001, President Bush rejected the treaty.
Kyoto Protocol of 1997, intended to control greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming. Declared “dead” by President Bush in March 2001. No other country has chosen to abandon the treaty completely. In November 2001, the Bush administration shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to revise the accord, mainly by watering it down in an attempt to gain U.S. approval. In February 2002, Bush announced a new plan to limit emissions—by measures that are to be strictly voluntary. The U.S. is the largest single producer of these emissions, generating 20 percent of the world’s total.
International Plan for Cleaner Energy, 2001. The U.S. was the only nation to oppose this Plan, put forth by the G-8 group of industrial nations (U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, UK) in Genoa in July 2001. It would phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase financing for nonpolluting energy sources worldwide.
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 and the 1994 Agreement relating to Implementation of Part IX (Deep Seabed Mining). It establishes a legal framework for management of marine resources and preservation of the marine environment for future generations—including fish stocks, minerals, international navigation, marine scientific research, and marine technologies. President Clinton submitted these treaties to the Senate in 1994, but they have not been ratified, as they have been by 135 and 100 countries respectively. The primary obstacle to applying them remains the absence of U.S. ratification.
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 2000. An international treaty sponsored by 130 nations, it seeks to protect biological diversity from risks posed by genetically modified organisms resulting from biotechnology. To date, it has been ratified by 13 countries and signed by 95 more, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, both Koreas, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, and Mexico. The U.S. has long argued that there is no reason for such a protocol, has not ratified it, and is not expected to.