Foreign Troops

UN Intrusion at Yellowstone Stirs Anger
Washington Times, February 5, 1996

A United Nations delegation to Yellowstone National Park spurred outrage among Westerners. The UN World Heritage Committee then declared Yellowstone a World Heritage site "in danger." The committee's concern over the reopening of the New World Mine was overshadowed by the uproar over the delegation itself.

In areas of the West where the states' rights movement is flourishing and distrust of centralized government is at an all-time high, the arrival of a U.N. committee has been viewed as nothing less than an attempt to subvert United States sovereignty. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-WY called the international delegation's role "a terrible intrusion and blasted Interior Assistant Secretary George Frampton for inviting the committee to Yellowstone.

"It is astonishing that a group of extreme environmentalists can invite in a few folks from the United Nations to circumvent laws that Americans and Montanan's have worked hard for and lent their voices to, " said Senator Conrad Burns, R-MT. Representative Barbara Cubin, R-Wy noted that Frampton is ultimately responsible for a "fair review of the project, yet he is the very person who requested the United Nations interference within the borders of the United States. Does he want foreigners to determine our environmental requirements?"