UN ambassador choice is critical to US sovereignty
By Tom DeWeese
web
posted January 15, 2001
While national attention is focused on embattled choices for the Bush Cabinet, the issue of national sovereignty will be on the line when the new Bush administration selects the individual to be its ambassador to the United Nations.
Right now, it appears to be leaning toward people known more for their support of United Nation's objectives than someone dedicated to protecting the sovereignty of this nation.
The American Policy Center has joined a coalition called The Committee for American Leadership to oppose the appointment of either former Congressman Lee Hamilton or former diplomat, John Whitehead, both mentioned as top choices for the job. Both Hamilton and Whitehead are associated with the United Nations Association (UNA-USA), the premier pro-United Nations lobbying organization in the US. The Association favors granting the UN the ever-widening powers of a world government.
The United States is at a critical moment. Able finally to assert the most fundamental right of all governments, its national sovereignty, if it wavers, giving this position to anyone favoring the current trend in the UN, it will lose an historical opportunity.
The Committee for American Leadership is supporting the appointment of former Ambassador Frank Ruddy, an international lawyer who has expressed concerns about the direction of the UN in the past. Ambassador Ruddy was a Deputy Chairman of a UN Peacekeeping Referendum for the Western Sahara in 1994 and has testified regarding the flaws of UN operations worldwide. Ambassador Ruddy represents an independent view of the UN and has addressed UN corruption and comparable issues before Congress. He has served as general counsel to the US Department of Energy, US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, and as an assistant administrator at the US Agency for International Development.
By contrast, former Congressman Hamilton is a Democrat and served on the board of the UNA-USA in 1999 while Mr. Whitehead has served as vice chairman of the organization. Neither would serve the interest of the US to remain an independent nation, free of the ever-growing intrusion of the UN into the internal affairs of the US.
The choice of US Ambassador to the United Nations will send a signal
that American sovereignty is a priority of the new administration. 
Tom DeWeese is president of the American Policy Center, an activist think tank headquartered in the suburbs of Washington, DC. It maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.
Other related articles: (open in a new window)
- A new era of U.N.-U.S. relations? by Henry Lamb (December 18, 2000)
- Helms vs. Albright at the United Nations by Charles Bloomer (January 31, 2000)
- United States or United Nations? Who controls America's treasures? by Elizabeth McGeehan (July 5, 1999)