Posts tagged UN
Obama Supports UN Gun Treaty That Hobbles 2nd Amendment
Apr 2nd
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday signed off on a sweeping, first-of-its-kind treaty to regulate the international arms trade, brushing aside worries from U.S. gun rights advocates that the pact could lead to a national firearms registry and disrupt the American gun market.
The long-debated U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires countries to regulate and control the export of weaponry such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft and attack helicopters, as well as parts and ammunition for such weapons. It also provides that signatories will not violate arms embargoes, international treaties regarding illicit trafficking, or sell weaponry to countries for genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.
With the Obama administration supporting the final treaty draft, the General Assembly vote was 154 to 3, with 23 abstentions. Iran, Syria and North Korea voted against it.
American gun rights activists, though, insist the treaty is riddled with loopholes and is unworkable in part because it includes “small arms and light weapons” in its list of weaponry subject to international regulations. They do not trust U.N. assertions that the pact is meant to regulate only cross-border trade and would have no impact on domestic U.S. laws and markets.
Critics of the treaty were heartened by the U.S. Senate’s resistance to ratifying the document, assuming President Obama sent it to the chamber for ratification. In its budget debate late last month, the Senate approved a non-binding amendment opposing the treaty offered by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, with eight Democrats joining all 45 Republicans backing the amendment.
“The U.S. Senate is united in strong opposition to a treaty that puts us on level ground with dictatorships who abuse human rights and arm terrorists, but there is real concern that the Administration feels pressured to sign a treaty that violates our Constitutional rights,” Mr. Moran said. “Given the apparent support of the Obama Administration for the ATT, members of the U.S. Senate must continue to make clear that any treaty that violates our Second Amendment freedoms will be an absolute nonstarter for ratification.”
Mr. Inhofe likewise said Mr. Obama should take the Senate vote seriously.
source – Washington Times
GAME CHANGER! UN Approves Palestinian Statehood Recognition Upgrade
Nov 30th
UN General Assembly Approves Palestinian Statehood Recognition Bid
“I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” Joel 3:2
From NBC News: The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution on Thursday giving implicit recognition to Palestinian statehood despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding funds for the West Bank government.
A Palestinian man shouts slogans during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday. The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s observer status at the United Nations from “entity” to “non-member state.” Marko Djurica / Reuters
The resolution, which lifts the Palestinian Authority’s U.N. observer status from “entity” to “non-member state,” like the Vatican possesses, easily passed the 193-nation General Assembly with 138 nations voting in favor, and nine opposed, including the United States. Forty-one countries abstained, including the United Kingdom.
Israel, the United States and the other members who opposed the resolution see it as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians. The vote took place on the 65th anniversary of the assembly’s adoption of resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Israel, the United States and the other members who opposed the resolution see it as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians. The vote took place on the 65th anniversary of the assembly’s adoption of resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has led the campaign to win support for the resolution, which follows an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel’s destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.
The U.S. State Department made a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider, but the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, held firm.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, said the U.S. believes the resolution will “do nothing to advance the peace and the two-state solution we all want to see.”
She noted that while the U.S. plans to vote “no,” but played down differences with key diplomatic partners in Europe, including France, which were expected to vote in favor of the resolution.
“We and our European partners agree on the most fundamental issues and share a common objective — two states living side-by-side living in peace and security,” Clinton said.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement after the vote that “the only way to establish such a Palestinian state and resolve all permanent-status issues is through the crucial, if painful, work of direct negotiations between the parties.”
“The United States therefore calls upon both the parties to resume direct talks without preconditions on all the issues that divide them,” Rice said.
The U.K. had committed to voting for the resolution if Abbas had shown commitment to resuming peace negotiations without preconditions. Lacking that assurance, Britain abstained from the vote.
Following the vote at the UN General Assembly the Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “We continue to believe that the prospects for a swift return to negotiations on a two state solution — the only way to create a Palestinian state on the ground — would be greater today if President Abbas had been able to give the assurances we suggested, and without which we were unable to vote in favor of the resolution.
“In particular, we called on President Abbas to set out a willingness to return to negotiations without preconditions, and to signal that the Palestinians would not immediately seek action in the International Criminal Court, which would be likely to make a return to negotiations impossible.
“Nonetheless, we will redouble our efforts to restart the peace process, and will continue our strong support for President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and a two state solution,” he said.
Despite its fierce opposition, Israel made efforts that appeared designed to prevent diplomatic isolation. In recent days, it toned down threats of retaliation in the face of wide international support for the initiative, notably among its European allies.
“The decision at the United Nations will change nothing on the ground,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem. “It will not advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. It will delay it further.”
But U.N. diplomats say that Israel’s reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.
Granting Palestinians the title of “non-member observer state” falls short of full U.N. membership — something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it does allow them access to the International Criminal Court and other international bodies, should they choose to join them.
Speaking at an annual U.N. event in support of the Palestinians, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki appealed to U.N. member states to support Thursday’s U.N. resolution. He also repeated his support for peace with Israel.
“Despite diminishing hopes and the decline of the situation on the ground due to Israel violations, we remain committed to the two-state solution and our hand remains extended in peace,” he said at U.N. headquarters in New York.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated U.S. warnings that the move could cause a reduction of U.S. economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might take significant deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians’ behalf.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as calling on Washington and Israel to avoid “any hasty and destructive decisions.”
“Supporting the Palestinian authorities is not only in the interest of the Palestinian side, but also of Israel and the whole international community that is longing for a peaceful political settlement,” he said. source – NBC News
DENIED! Germany Says They Will NOT Back Palestinian State Request At UN
Nov 28th
Germany will say no to Palestinian upgrade request at UN
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will not back a Palestinian bid for a diplomatic upgrade at the United Nations, the government spokesman said on Wednesday.
The United Nations is due to hold a vote on Thursday on an upgrade of Palestinian status at the 193-member body to an observer state from an observer entity.
“We are assessing the situation and want as much agreement as possible with our European partners… But it is certain that Germany will not vote for such a resolution,” spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference. source – Yahoo News
United Nations Plan To Seize Control Of The Internet
Nov 26th
They will not stop till they do it
Next week the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports.
“Next week the ITU holds a negotiating conference in Dubai, and past months have brought many leaks of proposals for a new treaty. U.S. congressional resolutions and much of the commentary, including in this column, have focused on proposals by authoritarian governments to censor the Internet. Just as objectionable are proposals that ignore how the Internet works, threatening its smooth and open operations,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“Having the Internet rewired by bureaucrats would be like handing a Stradivarius to a gorilla. The Internet is made up of 40,000 networks that interconnect among 425,000 global routes, cheaply and efficiently delivering messages and other digital content among more than two billion people around the world, with some 500,000 new users a day. …
”Proposals for the new ITU treaty run to more than 200 pages. One idea is to apply the ITU’s long-distance telephone rules to the Internet by creating a ‘sender-party-pays’ rule. International phone calls include a fee from the originating country to the local phone company at the receiving end. Under a sender-pays approach, U.S.-based websites would pay a local network for each visitor from overseas, effectively taxing firms such as Google and Facebook. The idea is technically impractical because unlike phone networks, the Internet doesn’t recognize national borders. But authoritarians are pushing the tax, hoping their citizens will be cut off from U.S. websites that decide foreign visitors are too expensive to serve.”
Even Google has already come out against the ITU
“The ITU is the wrong place to make decisions about the future of the Internet,” says Google. “Only governments have a voice at the ITU. This includes governments that do not support a free and open Internet. Engineers, companies, and people that build and use the web have no vote.”
“The ITU is also secretive. The treaty conference and proposals are confidential,” adds Google. source – Weekly Standard
United Nations To Begin Planning International Drone Surveillance
Nov 24th
The coming One World Government
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Revelation 13:1
The U.N. wants to use drones, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reports. “The United Nations wants to use drones for the first time to monitor fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda has been accused of aiding rebels,” says the report, quoting U.N. officials.
An unnamed diplomat says, “The UN has approached a number of countries, including the United States and France, about providing drones which could clearly play a valuable role monitoring the frontier. … Clearly there will be political considerations though.”
The international body “is considering a range of ways to strengthen the capabilities of MONUSCO to protect civilians from the threat of armed groups in the vast area of eastern DR Congo,” a U.N. spokesman says.
“Unarmed aerial vehicles, drones for monitoring the movements of armed groups, are one tool we are considering.”
The spokesman, Kieran Dwyer, insists the U.N.’s use of drones would be done carefully.
“Of course, we would do this carefully, in full cooperation with the government of the DR Congo, and trialing their most effective uses for information gathering to help implement our mandate to protect civilians,” says the spokesman.
“Ultimately, to introduce these, we would need the support of member states to equip the mission.”
An unnamed diplomat says, “The UN has approached a number of countries, including the United States and France, about providing drones which could clearly play a valuable role monitoring the frontier. … Clearly there will be political considerations though.”
It is not clear whether any of the countries have agreed to work with the U.N. on the budding drone program. According to AFP, this recommendation could be coming to the Security Council soon. “UN leader Ban Ki-moon is to recommend options to the UN Security Council soon,” reports AFP. source – Weekly Standard
Within HOURS Of Winning Re-election Obama Approves UN Gun Ban Talks
Nov 8th
Barack Obama, just a short time before the elections, dropped a bid to approve a gun ban proposed by the United Nations. He knew that if America got wise to him taking action to take away American’s rights to legally protect themselves by purchasing firearms it would doom his bid for a second term. So in typical Antichrist fashion, he hid his true motives and intent and went into ‘stealth mode’. But the temptation to begin the process of wiping out the 2nd amendment proved to be too great, as within mere hours after winning re-election, his very first order of business was to restart the path to the gun ban.
From Yahoo News: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, the United States backed a U.N. committee’s call on Wednesday to renew debate over a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.
U.N. delegates and gun control activists have complained that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from Republican rival Mitt Romney if his administration was seen as supporting the pact, a charge Washington denies.
The month-long talks at U.N. headquarters broke off after the United States - along with Russia and other major arms producers – said it had problems with the draft treaty and asked for more time.
But the U.N. General Assembly’s disarmament committee moved quickly after Obama’s win to approve a resolution calling for a new round of talks March 18-28. It passed with 157 votes in favor, none against and 18 abstentions.
U.N. diplomats said the vote had been expected before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election but was delayed due to Superstorm Sandy, which caused a three-day closure of the United Nations last week.
An official at the U.S. mission said Washington’s objectives have not changed.
“We seek a treaty that contributes to international security by fighting illicit arms trafficking and proliferation, protects the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade, and meets the concerns that we have been articulating throughout,” the official said.
“We will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms,” he said. U.S. officials have acknowledged privately that the treaty under discussion would have no effect on domestic gun sales and ownership because it would apply only to exports.
The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States – the world’s biggest arms trader accounting for more than 40 percent of global conventional arms transfers – reversed U.S. policy on the issue after Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.
‘MONTHS AWAY’ FROM DEAL?
Countries that abstained included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Belarus, Cuba and Iran. China, a major arms producer that has traditionally abstained, voted in favor.
Among the top six arms-exporting nations, Russia cast the only abstention. Britain, France and Germany joined China and the United States in support of the resolution.
The measure now goes to the 193-nation General Assembly for a formal vote. It is expected to pass. The resolution said countries are “determined to build on the progress made to date towards the adoption of a strong, balanced and effective Arms Trade Treaty.”
Jeff Abramson, director of Control Arms, a coalition of advocacy groups, urged states to agree on stringent provisions.
“In Syria, we have seen the death toll rise well over 30,000, with weapons and ammunition pouring in the country for months now,” he said. “We need a treaty that will set tough rules to control the arms trade, that will save lives and truly make the world a better place.”
Brian Wood of Amnesty International said: “After today’s resounding vote, if the larger arms trading countries show real political will in the negotiations, we’re only months away from securing a new global deal that has the potential to stop weapons reaching those who seriously abuse human rights.”
The treaty would require states to make respecting human rights a criterion for allowing arms exports.
Britain’s U.N. mission said on its Twitter feed it hoped that the March negotiations would yield the final text of a treaty. Such a pact would then need to be ratified by the individual signatories before it could enter into force.
The National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. interest group, strongly opposes the arms treaty and had endorsed Romney. The United States has denied it sought to delay negotiations for political reasons, saying it had genuine problems with the draft as written. source – Yahoo News
United Nations Calls For BOYCOTT Of US Companies Friendly To ISRAEL
Oct 26th
U.N.’s war on Israel puts American economy in crosshairs
“Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.” Psalm 129:5
The Washington Free Beacon has obtained a report soon to be released by the United Nations that calls for an international campaign of legal attacks and economic warfare on a group of American companies that do business in Israel, including Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar Inc., and Motorola Solutions Inc.
The Human Rights Council (HRC), a body dominated by Islamic countries and known for its hostility to, and heavy focus on, the Jewish State, issued the report. The George W. Bush administration refused to participate in the HRC, but President Barack Obama joined it soon after taking office. Members of the HRC include infamous human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Libya, China, and Cuba.
The Obama-approved body maintains a “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories [sic].” The current rapporteur is American college professor Richard Falk, a 9/11 “truther” who once posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his personal blog.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman blasted the report and the HRC’s special rapporteur: “We believe you should have prevented the Secretariat from being a party to Mr. Falk’s anti-Israel agenda. Mr. Falk’s entire tenure as Special Rapporteur has served to undermine the credibility of the institution of the United Nations.”
The report attempts to instigate a campaign of boycott, divestment, sanctions, and legal action against a litany of international companies doing business in Israel. In addition to American companies, the U.N. targets include major European firms such as Veolia Environnement, Group 4 Security, the Dexia Group, the Volvo Group.
“The costs to companies and businesses of failing to respect international humanitarian law are considerable,” the report warns, “including damage to a company’s public image, impact on shareholder decisions and share price and could result in employees being criminally responsible for rights abuses.”
The report warns American employees of targeted companies that they face legal risks.
“Employees of companies can face investigation and prosecution for human rights violations committed irrespective of where the violation was committed.”
In addition to legal action against American employees of targeted companies, the Special Rapporteur “concludes that all companies that operate in or otherwise have dealings with Israeli settlements should be boycotted.” The companies should ”be prepared to accept any consequences—reputation, financial, or legal—of continuing operations.”
Should the companies continue doing business in Israel, the Human Rights Council “calls on civil society to actively pursue legal and political redress against non-complying business” and “to vigorously pursue initiatives to boycott, divest and sanction the businesses highlighted in this report” and “calls on the international community to consider requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice” to punish the businesses.
When the Obama administration joined the Human Rights Council in 2009, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice pledged, “Working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights.” source – Free Beacon
