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[Previous entry: "Mohammed Said al-Sahaf"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Where you stand depends on where you sit"] 17 April 2003: "'Politicization' of the ICC"
In COINTELPRO Tool, Bill Herbert reassesses his opinion of the International Criminal Court on the basis of an article in the Canadian newspaper, the National Post ("War crimes case planned against U.S.") I hope I can convince him to re-reassess. "We wouldn't be wasting our time if we didn't think this was credible," Mr. Shiner said.I don't think so. The nascent ICC does not yet have a Prosecutor; since there is no Prosecutor, there will be nobody to examine and—inevitably—reject this submission. This is central to the CCR/PIL plan, because it allows them to make some capital off the fact that the ICC won't consign this waste of paper to the recycling bin at the earliest opportunity. Hopefully, by the time the new Prosecutor gets round to doing so, nobody will remember, let alone be paying attention; or failing that, they can always claim that the UK, Australia and various other "lapdogs" of the Americans (i.e. any country which is a State Party to the Rome Statute and also listed as supporting Operation "Iraqi Freedom") fixed the selection of the Prosecutor, ensuring that only a candidate who would reject this complaint got the job. Wait and observe. And is this complaint indeed a pile of fetid dingoes' kidneys? Let's ask Mr. Shiner (a prophetic "speaking name" if ever I heard one): Mr. Shiner said the activists' case will probe the coalition's use, or suspected use, of cluster bombs, depleted uranium ammunition and fuel-air explosives.A bayonet cannot tell whether the body it is shoved into belongs to a combatant or a non-combatant. A 7.62x51mm NATO round can pass through the body of the combatant it was fired at, and the brick wall behind him, and inflict death or injury on the civilian sheltering behind that wall. There is no weapon that can make the distinction between combatants and non-combatants; as Bill Herbert rightly comments, "I thought that's why we had civilized users." It seems members of the CCR and the PIL have never heard of the concept of mens rea. Or if they have, they just choose to ignore it as inconvenient. But what gets me most incensed about this infantile stunt is that it only serves to provide the Republicans with more ammunition to use against the ICC. "It appears they are trying to manufacture a case against the United States," said a senior official with the Bush administration. "So this clearly would be an example of the type of politicization that we're concerned with."Of course, this is total bollocks, to the same extent as the complaint itself; the ICC has not, and will not, initiate an investigation on the basis of this load of codswallop. Well, I hope the CCR and the PIL are happy; their publicity stunt isn't going to have any result except to damage the ICC's prospects, and of course to inflate the smug, self-important, self-satisfied little egos of Michael Ratner, Phil Shiner, Roger Normand and their ilk. Nice one, guys, way to go. I suppose there's only one thing for it; according to the National Post article: People who had volunteered as Saddam's "human shields" will be among those contributing testimony.As I argued in this post, volunteering to be human shield is a war crime. I'm going to start preparing my own submission to the Prosecutor; if anyone wants to help, e-mail me. * - the National Post article says "the Committee on Economic and Social Rights"; however, this is a UN body, of which Roger Normand is not a member. † - Carla del Ponte, before she became The Prosecutor (that capital "T" is not a typo, by the way), was a criminal prosecutor in her native Switzerland; she specialised in nailing organised criminals, mainly those depositing their ill-gotten gains in Swiss bank accounts. She has an extensive security detail, primarily because certain "gentlemen" in the Russian mob badly want her dead. She was a good friend of the late Giovanni Falcone, an Italian judge murdered by the Sicilian mafia; that she has not only persevered in her choice of career, but redoubled her efforts, as a result of his murder should tell you she's as hard as nails. A redoubtable woman, and one for whom I have the utmost respect. Justin Raimondo thinks she's Spanish, which says everything about his research skills. |
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