2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDid the Senate just open the U.S. up to ICC prosecution?
Snipped from full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/12/10/did-the-senate-just-open-the-u-s-up-to-icc-prosecution/
Unsurprisingly, U.S. officials arent thrilled with the prospect of an ICC investigation. Stephen Rapp, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, responded to the ICCs report by insisting that, because the United States isnt a member-state, the court has no right to investigate alleged war crimes committed by its citizens. But this is unlikely to resonate with human rights and international justice advocates, many of whom view it as another reiteration of U.S. exceptionalism.
With the release of the torture report, it will become increasingly difficult for the ICC not to press forward. Expectations that the court confront allegations of international crimes by Western states have never been higher and, as Eugene Kontorovich observes, the torture report gives significant impetus and ammunition to the ICCs investigation. With the CIAs dirty laundry now airing in the political winds, it will be nearly impossible for the court to reverse course and avoid confronting U.S. abuses in Afghanistan.
Still, advocates of accountability should not get too far ahead of themselves. The gears of justice at the ICC grind notoriously slowly. Moreover, the courts endgame is not to prosecute U.S. officials. Instead, it is to galvanize domestic accountability for any alleged crimes committed by Western officials. Indeed, it is not within the ICCs institutional interests to pick a fight it cant win with the United States or incur the wrath of Washingtons resultant hostility. The prosecutors report on Afghanistan is thus not so much a threat to the United States as a signal to take justice for alleged torture seriously. Doing so would require going high up the political food chain, to those in the Bush administration most responsible for deploying torture as a means of war. The question is: Will the United States take the opportunity to finally pursue accountability for alleged international crimes committed by its citizens in Afghanistan or not? The world and the ICC is watching.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)mother earth
(6,002 posts)"looking forward and not back".
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)"We tortured some folks" totally against our laws, our treaties and our principles and doing nothing about it except an executive order that can be reversed is totally unacceptable.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)And international arrest warrant would be a good start, let the criminals be confined to domestic soil and face domestic justice.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I am unfamiliar with the ICC process.
I keep hearing that we (the U.S. Government) should arrest and turn bush/cheney and the various CIA actors over to the Hague.
Wouldn't the Hague, first, have to call for them?
MrNJ
(200 posts)Explains why Bush refused to sign it though.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)it May 6, 2002. He knew where his cabal was going to take this country...