SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE: National Security

[Napoleon]

Will the Department be taking steps to ensure future intelligence is more secure?

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Will the Department be taking steps to ensure future intelligence is more secure?

Senator, that would suggest that this was actually an issue with intelligence. We are not in any way confirming or denying that this is intelligence-linked.

I will not make any comments on our intelligence operations, but the fact is, our intelligence officials and operators are amongst the best in the world, we will consider investigations if and when it is clear that we are in a position to require it. I personally do not see that coming from this situation.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I think that the Senate needs to be made aware of all of the details of this case - in private, if necessary. We need to know that the Atlasian intelligence community is in the clear.

I'm prepared to provide a confidential briefing for the Senate.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I'm prepared to provide a confidential briefing for the Senate.

Yes, please.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This committee is unacceptably innactive, Mr. Chairman.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Mr. Secretary, what measures would you propose to increase embassy security?

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Mr. Secretary, what measures would you propose to increase embassy security?

Senators, as you'd no doubt be aware, Atlasian embassies already have some of the most sophisticated security measures available. Nothing can entirely prevent the risk posed in volatile and dangerous postings. It is a tribute to our foreign service employees, both posted and locally engaged.

We will be proposing further re-enforcement of outer walls of existing buildings, look into options for creating even greater space between public areas and embassy staff. Each location will require an individual assessment, and I have instructed security policy teams to inspect a number of facilities where improvements look to be needed.

Those findings, which I expect by 21 June 2013, will form the basis of a new memorandum outlining the security requirements of Atlasian foreign missions. I intend that to be issued by Monday 1 July 2013.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

We regularly assess the situation in all areas where we have staff posted that are at risk. We will be analysing the security situation in Kabul, especially, in the coming days. If our security estimate suggests an unreasonable risk, taking into account the nature of the posting being of elevated risk normally, we will put our people's security first.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Damn it Ben, Five days?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

My god, there is no hope left anymore!


YOU AINT RETIRED YET VIRGINIA BOY!!!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Yank, there's nothing happening.  No legislation as far as I can tell, and no major events.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Ben if the committee can't find enough to do between driving the debate on and reviewing legislation, as well as oversight of the Administration's military, foreign policy, thne there is no purpose for this committee as I see it. Am I wrong?

Plus as far as I can see, it is not true. Has this been reviewed?
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=39557.msg3696210#msg3696210

What about implementation of past bills? The Iranian elections and its impact on the foreign policy? Or any number of stories generated by the SoEA. How about the SoEA himself, his processes, what he is doing and is he doing enough.

And I feel the same way about all of these committees. The problem is there is a lack of an apetite here to drive the discussion and get things done. You put a fing AR-15 into the hands of you people and you refuse to pull the damn trigger, that is basically what has happened to these committees.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Dear God, Yank, a bill introduced in April and not passed yet?  Holy Moly.

Senators, let's talk about this bill.  Yank, defend it.

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Introduced for Sjoycefla. It is my hope that leaving these combined will help expedite the process and reduce the content of the queue. However, I do have concerns that the concerns of one, may scuttle the many if they remain so.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Wouldn't it be better to get Sjoyce in to defend it first? I introduced it via request and I am not familiar with the effects that passage would have in greate detail.

Also, we have passed a large number of bills, the problem is that the queue is rather large and has been for some time.

[Donerail]

What this legislation would do is bring Atlasia in line with international standards on a variety of environmental issues.

-The Basel Convention controls international movement of hazardous wastes - basically prohibiting transfer of hazardous wastes from here to less-developed countries. 179 nations have signed and ratified it - Haiti and us have signed it but have not yet ratified. It basically promises that we'll clean up our own messes and won't dump all our hazardous waste in Mozambique or Chad or Zimbabwe or whatever.

-The Rotterdam Convention deals with international trade of hazardous chemicals. It basically says that if we ban a chemical we have to tell other nations that we did so, and if we plan to export one of those chemicals we have to notify the nation it's being exported to. We also need to label our hazardous chemicals and, when exporting chemicals, attach guidelines on how to safely handle them.

-The Stockholm Convention restricts the production and use of certain chemicals that can remain in the environment for long periods of time, accumulate in fatty tissues, and have adverse effects on human health/wildlife - cancers, birth defects, immunodeficiencies, etc.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

They all sound like reasonable measures on the surface.

I do wonder what downsides are present if any that have prevented these from being adopted in the past?

[Donerail]

I do wonder what downsides are present if any that have prevented these from being adopted in the past?

Perhaps objections to some of the things listed in the conventions by industry groups - for instance Canada objected to chrysotile asbestos fibers being listed in the Rotterdam Convention because of the asbestos industry.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Should we be anticiptating any adverse economic effects of a significant scale from adopting these?

[Donerail]

Should we be anticiptating any adverse economic effects of a significant scale from adopting these?

I haven't seen any significant adverse effects on the other nations who have adopted them.