USers SHOW THEIR JANUS FACE

Hazardous Wastes

The United States is the only developed nation that has not signed the Basel Convention, a 1989 United Nations treaty intended to limit the export of hazardous waste. Basel Action Network is an international watchdog group that is trying to enforce the Convention.

Environmental Accords

The U.S. is the only developed nation that has not signed the Kyoto Global Warming Accord. Previous U.S. administrations argued in favor of the Accord.

Geneva Convention

In declaring that the Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay were "detainees" and not prisoners of war, the U.S. sought to circumvent compliance with the Geneva Convention, which, among other things, does not allow interrogation.

Nuclear Power

No permits to build a U.S. nuclear plants have granted since 1975. The 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear incident put a long-term chill on the industry. Yet Dick Cheney has been calling for more nuclear power. "If you're really serious about greenhouse gases, one of the solutions to that problem is to go back and let's take another look at nuclear power, use that to generate electricity without having any adverse consequences," Cheney said. No adverse consequences?! Chernobyl? Yucca Mountain? Mobile Chernobyl? (March 21, 2001, MSNBC's Hardball)

Small Arms

The U.S. undermined international efforts at U.N. Conference on Arms Trade. Said Newsday, " ... the Bush administration should not have used its predictable opposition to the draft accord to pander to the gun lobby. It was absurd for the U.S. representative at the conference, John Bolton, to invoke the Second Amendment to justify the administration's objections to the proposed treaty. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said the United States `has a cultural tradition' of using firearms responsibly and objects to restrictions on their trade on constitutional grounds. That's arrogant nonsense - a gratuitous and blatant appeal to the National Rifle Association." ("U.S. Panders to Gun Lobby on Small-Arms Treaty", July 11, 2001)

Nuclear Weapons

John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, announced Friday that the US has officially dropped its pledge not to use a nuclear weapon against a non-nuclear state ("US Drops Pledge on Nukes", The Washington Times, 2/22/02).

Weapons Treaty

Junking the chemical and biological weapons treaty? An international conference on the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was suspended on its last day, December 7, 2001, after the United States caused an uproar by proposing the termination of the existing diplomatic process to strengthen compliance with the treaty.

Whaling

Has not sought to enforce the international ban on whaling.

Ballistic Missiles

Has abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (May 26, 1972).

Weapons Testing

Now the Bush administration wants to end the moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and junk the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, according to which nations were prohibited from carrying out any nuclear weapon test explosions.

Racism

The U.S. refused to send a high level delegation to the Durban conference on racism in 2001.

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