In Congress, bad ideas are like zombies — always rising from the dead and finding new ways to cause trouble. The latest example is the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), formally known as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

LOST was first drafted at a U.N. conference way back in the 1970s. After determining that it was hopelessly flawed and contrary to America’s interests, President Reagan refused to sign it. So it sat for more than a decade until, in 1994, President Clinton decided that a new agreement fixed the treaty’s problems. Given Clinton’s penchant for bending the truth, it’s unsurprising that he made this "agreement" appear to be more than it was. In reality, the agreement doesn’t even purport to amend the treaty, let alone fix the numerous flaws that would undermine the United States.

After hyping the new agreement and asserting that the treaty was fixed, Clinton signed it and sent it to the Senate for ratification. Fortunately, Senator Jesse Helms, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, understood the danger that LOST posed and refused even to consider it.

Ten years later, with Senator Helms retired and Senator Richard Lugar the new Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, LOST has once again been resuscitated. In October 2003, Lugar held two days of hearings to consider LOST, but didn’t allow a single opponent of the treaty to testify. Then in early 2004, Lugar pushed the treaty out of his committee without a recorded vote, and he’s been pressing for the full Senate to ratify it ever since.

So, what’s wrong with LOST? There are too many flaws to list them all, but here’s a sampling:

• The treaty gives the U.N. firm control over all of the non-territorial water in the world. That’s about 70% of the earth’s surface.


• LOST creates a new international organization under the U.N. umbrella called the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This new organization has the power to behave like an international court, adjudicating dispute and penalizing transgressors. The United States, of course, will wind up being the primary target.


• In addition, the Authority collects taxes from private companies that are drilling or mining the ocean for oil, natural gas or other resources. So, for the first time, a U.N.-body will have the power to directly tax U.S. companies.


• LOST could force the U.S. government to turn over critical national security information, specifications and intelligence to other countries. In addition, the ISA could force U.S. companies to turn over secret technologies to competitors in Third World nations.


• The ISA also has the authority to set production quotas, regulate research and development, and more.


• The treaty hampers efforts to fight the War on Terror and undermines America’s national security interests. For example, LOST would prohibit at-sea interdictions that are the cornerstone of the U.S.-led proliferation security initiative to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.


• Under the treaty, the U.N. and the ISA would be empowered to review U.S. military activities and decide if they violated the treaty. Among the possible violations: a submarine passing submerged through another nation’s territorial waters. (Of course, that’s precisely what submarines are supposed to do.)


• According to Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, some nations, mostly notably China, are using the treaty as legal cover for dramatically expanding their territorial claims over key strategic waterways.

The bottom line is simple: LOST represents the greatest transfer of sovereignty to the U.N. that the U.S. has ever contemplated. At the same time, LOST could facilitate the largest-ever forced transfer of wealth from America to the Third World while putting our national security interests at risk and potentially crippling the U.S. Navy.

Why would we want to hand any more power or authority to the same U.N. rogues and villains who brought us the Oil for Food scandal and sexual abuse in the Congo and elsewhere?

Today, like a zombie, LOST is back again. The Senate could ratify it any day. That is, unless common sense Americans tell the Senate to reject it. If you want to make your voice heard in opposition to LOST, the Center for Individual Freedom is offering a way for you to send personalized faxes to all 100 members of the U.S. Senate. Click here to take action.

Standing together, we can put a stake through the heart of LOST once and for all.

Click here to take action.