Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Paul Handley — US threatens to arrest ICC judges who probe war crimes

"We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system," Bolton said.

"We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans."

This is the perfect example of a dominance-submission model that is characteristic of the instinctual behavior of brutes contrasted starkly with the rationality characteristic of human beings, especially in those that subscribe to Western liberalism and Western values. 

This is a throw-back in term of evolutionary theory, a type of atavism.

Here John Bolton, the national security advisor who is not elected and not accountable to anyone but the president, is speaking for the United States. This suggests the question, who actually is POTUS now anyway?

Yahoo
US threatens to arrest ICC judges who probe war crimes
Paul Handley, AFP

UPDATE:
The Hague-based court said it was an independent and impartial institution with the backing of 123 countries.
“The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law,” it said in a statement.
Reuters
International court says it is undeterred after Bolton threatens U.S. sanctions
"France, with its European partners, supports the International Criminal Court, both in its budgetary contribution and in its cooperation with it," Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement.
"The court must be able to act and exercise its prerogatives without hindrance, independently and impartially, within the legal framework defined by the Rome Statute," it said....
Business Insider
After Trump threats, France stands by International Criminal Court

7 comments:

Matt Franko said...

I think the Trump admin wants to start to target the families of the Terrorists (legally) which probably puts them afoul with the ICC people....

Matt Franko said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Franko said...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/trump-asked-why-cia-drone-avoided-terrorists-family-report.html

Tom Hickey said...

I think the Trump admin wants to start to target the families of the Terrorists (legally) which probably puts them afoul with the ICC people...

Targeting families intentionally is illegal on the face of it.

The administration would have to argue that it was not intentional but "collateral."

Matt Franko said...

Well they may be considering changing that law if there is one....

Tom Hickey said...

Geneva Convention, and the International Court of Justice.

Of course, the US has not signed onto this and defines the law as it sees fit, e.g., torture.

So, for all practical purposes, the US can as it pleases, since there is no one to hold it to account.

But this erodes US soft power and makes the US look hypocritical when it criticizes others for doing what it does.

Matt Franko said...

Well they go after our families so it’s fair... “even”.... “eye for an eye...”