meehawl

all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned

Oh the Irony of Unfortunate Timing

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The Bush administration wants the U.N. Security Council to renew on Friday a controversial resolution exempting American peacekeepers from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court … The draft resolution, introduced by the United States on Wednesday, would place U.S. troops and officials serving in U.N.-approved-missions beyond the reach of the court. Specifically, it would exempt “current or former officials” from prosecution or investigation.

The treaty is meant to apply primarily to those countries that are either unwilling or unable to prosecute cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide that are committed by individuals under their control. ICC proponents say that so long as the United States government is willing to investigate and prosecute such crimes, as it is currently doing in the case of the Abu Ghraib abuses, the ICC prosecutor would have no grounds for asserting jurisdiction.

A series of Justice Department memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 were crucial in building a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties on handling prisoners … They also suggested how officials could inoculate themselves from liability by claiming that abused prisoners were in some other nation’s custody … [they] anticipated the possibility that United States officials could be charged with war crimes, defined as grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The document said a way to avoid that is to declare that the conventions do not apply.

Earlier here.

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