In an argument on his "Restoring Liberty" blog, Miller claims President Obama's opposition to oil development is so deep he's refusing to reclaim several islands from Russia and the oil-rich seabed around them.
Some of the islands off the Kamchatka Peninsula and Russia's northern coast are hundreds of miles from Alaska, so they wouldn't be easy to maintain. They include Wrangel Island, where American naturalist John Muir once landed as part of an expedition that claimed the island for the U.S.
Miller, who lost to Sen. Lisa Murkowski's write-in campaign in Alaska's 2010 Senate election, says on his blog:
Part of Obama’s apparent war against U.S. energy independence includes a foreign-aid program that directly threatens my state’s sovereign territory. Obama’s State Department is giving away seven strategic, resource-laden Alaskan islands to the Russians. Yes, to the Putin regime in the Kremlin.Miller concedes that past presidents have also balked at the chance to reclaim the islands lying off Russia's coasts. The deal was struck in 1990 under the first George Bush. His son, G.W., and Bill Clinton are culpable, too.
According to Miller's argument, the islands were given to Russia in a 1990 maritime agreement approved by the U.S. State Department. But it was not ratified by treaty, he claims. Thus, Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can take those islands back with "the stroke of a pen." But they're not doing so, even though a group called State Department Watch has asked, according to Miller.
The idea that the U.S. can reclaim the islands is an old one in Alaska. The State Department has apparently said the U.S. has no legal claim to the islands. » | Alex DeMarban | Wednesday, February 22, 2012
