[sci.military] territorial sea

budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (06/07/89)

From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)
>
>I believe that in December 1988 as one of his last acts Ronald Regan
>extended the Territorial seas of the USA to 12 miles.

Yes, you are correct.  The message announcing that within the service
immediately followed the announcement by saying that it has no effect
on our operating laws [!!].  Once the lawyers get it sorted out,
we're due for some amplifying policy statement, but in the meantime,
I'm as much in the dark as the rest of you.

For that reason, I deliberately omitted it from the narrative -- we
just don't know enough to comment.

More to the pratical, jurisdiction, or lack of it, is not one of our
problems in the law enforcement business.  Detection (similar to ASW),
classification (similar to low intensity conflicts) and sheer lack of
investment resource are the enforcement problems.  Once we catch the
bad guys, we get a 97% conviction rate.

Rex Buddenberg