Law of the Sea Treaty Senate hearing II

For the earlier posts on the hearing, see here and here.

Acting chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) took issue with Frank Gaffney’s cricitism that the Senate had not provided sufficient opportunity to discuss and hear different views on the treaty. He said that the treaty has been “pending before the Senate for 13 years,” and that this was the fourth hearing on it held over several congresses. He then asked Gaffney why should the Committee take his warnings about LOST seriously, when several of his predictions about the Chemical Weapons Convention had turned out so “inaccurate.”

At the beginning of his response, Frank noted the absence of Chairman Biden and the other members of the committee running for President (Dodd and Obama), which seemed to irritate Sen. Menendez further. “This Committee has not before today heard the opponents’ arguments,” said Gaffney. “If I were running for President, I would want to know if I’m doing damage to the country.”Regarding the Chemical Weapons Convention, he said the “key question” was: “Would it rid the world of chemical weapons?” Indeed, “That treaty did not rid the world of chemical weapons.”

Menendez then asked Gaffney if he thought that all of the treaty’s proponents, including promient political and military leaders, were, as he had put it “under the influence of transnational progressives?” Frank retorted, “I would ask the people you cite, ‘Have you read this treaty?'”