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A twisted drama is playing out in England. The Chilcot Inquiry into the legality or illegality of Britain’s entry into the Iraq War grows uglier by the day. The words “War Criminal” and “War Crimes” are being waved about by Members of Parliament, anti-war activists and British journalists, all directed at former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair is scheduled to take the witness stand on Friday. The International Criminal Court (ICC) always waits just across the English Channel in The Netherlands. Members of the Obama administration must certainly be following this Inquiry very closely, especially Attorney General Eric Holder’s Office....

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will consider today whether American courts are bound by the decisions of the International Court of Justice, a tribunal created by the United Nations and based in The Hague. Senator Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, cited today's case as one impetus for the introduction last week of a resolution in the Senate that would instruct federal courts to avoid looking to international and foreign law when interpreting the federal Constitution. Mr. Cornyn filed one of many friend-of-the court briefs in the case, arguing that the Constitution reserves the power of judicial review to federal judges,...

When the International Criminal Court was set up in 2002, the Americans refused to recognise its authority. They explained their reluctance on the basis that to give overarching authority to an international court would not ensure that decisions on vital international issues were made by judges independent of political control. It would simply hand those decisions to another set of politicians with their own political agendas - which might be flatly opposed to the fundamental interests of the United States. Tony Blair passionately endorsed the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that Britain must be subordinated to its...

The US Congress has launched a fresh attack on the international criminal court at The Hague, threatening to cut off development aid to countries who refuse to guarantee immunity from prosecution for Americans at the tribunal. Washington has withheld about $50m (£26m) in military aid to more than 30 countries, such as Benin, Croatia, Ecuador and Mali, which refused to sign exemption deals. But they and more than 40 other countries have resisted US demands on the grounds that immunity deals would clash with their domestic laws and international obligations. The new provision, included in a budget bill due for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is pulling small numbers of troops out of two U.N. peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Africa because they are no longer exempt from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the Pentagon said on Thursday. A seven-member team will be removed from a U.N. mission assigned to keep peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia and two liaison officers will be removed from the world body's mission in Kosovo, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told reporters. "In these two particular cases it was determined ... that the risk was not appropriate to our forces. And so they...

Translation: In the UN security council the arguments are becoming very heated. The US is again threatening to pull all of it's troops from all peacekeeping operatins if US citizens don't receive immunity from International court prosecution. This was verified by several western European diplomats. The argument over this action by the US is beginning to become very heated. Germany, France , Spain and several other nations are planning to veto any attempts by the US government regarding this resolution, where US citizens would be immune to International prosecution.

<p>The court at The Hague is the U.N.'s highest court of justice.</p> <p>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The International Court of Justice in The Hague has ruled that the United States violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.</p>

Did the UK commit war crimes in Iraq? January 21 2004 at 02:12AM By Peter Apps London - Britain's use of cluster bombs in the Iraq invasion could count as a war crime and justifies further investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in the Hague, a group of international lawyers said on Tuesday. Seven academics from Britain, Ireland, France and Canada interviewed eyewitnesses and examined evidence to see if there was a case for referring British conduct to the court, said the pressure group Peacerights, which organised the review. "There is a considerable amount of evidence of disproportionate...

11 Jan 2004 13:53:48 GMT EU seeks Arabs support for int'l war crimes court -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Miral Fahmy SANAA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The European Union is lobbying Arab states to join a U.N.-backed international war crimes tribunal which as been shunned by the United States, an EU parliament member said on Sunday. Emma Bonino, who also heads the non-governmental group that has pushed for the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the EU wanted Arab judges on the tribunal to make it as international as possible. "Arab countries were very active in the process of establishing the...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Last update - 11:32 08/01/2004 The real battle in The Hague By Aluf Benn Israel will be present at the discussion about the separation fence in the International Court of Justice in The Hague mainly in order to lose honorably. Nobody in Jerusalem has any illusions that Israel can come out ahead in the decision by the 15 learned judges who were asked to express their opinion regarding "the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall being built by...

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush (news - web sites) announced agreements with another four countries to exempt Americans from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which it staunchly opposes. The 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court has been ratified by 90 countries, but the court faces opposition from the United States. Bush administration officials fear that Americans, particularly soldiers abroad, could fall victim to politically motivated prosecutions. The Bush administration has signed bilateral treaties with more than three dozen countries that have agreed not to hand over American citizens to the court. The latest, according to a statement...

December19 ,2003 Send Saddam to The Hague ! By: Uri Avnery*The spectacle was disgusting. “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it, and it displeaseth Him, and He turn away His wrath from him!” Thus commandeth the ancient Jewish moral code (Proverbs,24 ,16 ). The writer of this warning knew, of course, that every person tends to gloat when his enemy falls. But he wanted to point out that this is an ugly human trait and one should try to overcome it. And now a mighty world-power...

TEHRAN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Iran's government said on Monday it was preparing a criminal complaint to present at any international court that may try Saddam Hussein over the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. "The Foreign Ministry has taken some measures on this issue and has collected the necessary documents. I hope we can defend Iranians' rightful demands at a proper place," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told a news conference. Around 300,000 Iranians were killed in the eight-year war, including thousands in chemical weapons attacks by the Iraqi army. U.S.-led troops ousted Saddam, the Iraqi dictator, in April and captured him on...

International Criminal Court Will Hear its First Case Next Year Despite International Controversy, Says Crimes of War Project 12/9/03 3:19:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and International desks Contact: Elisa Munoz, 202-494-3834 or elisa@crimesofwar.org; Anthony Dworkin, 44-2-0-78133631, or anthony@crimesofwar.org; both of the Crimes of War Project; http://www.crimesofwar.org WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The International Criminal Court inaugurated on July 1, 2002, will hear its first case next year. The court has been hailed by some as a milestone in international justice and damned by others, notably the United States, as an intolerable attack on sovereignty. However, according to the...

<p>Deputy Secretary of State John R. Bolton yesterday accused the European Union of using pressure to make it difficult for countries to exempt American personnel from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.</p> <p>Mr. Bolton said the European group is imposing an unfair choice on U.S. friends and allies that want to join the 15-nation political and economic union and in that effort are urged to reconsider cooperating with the United States.</p>

The United States aims to secure agreements "with every country in the world" guaranteeing immunity for its citizens from any prosecution from the new International Criminal Court (ICC), and will cut off military aid to countries which do not comply. In an uncompromising defence of Washington's decision to shun the court, Under Secretary of State John Bolton announced yesterday that the US has already reached so-called Article 98 exemption agreements, under the Rome statutes setting up the ICC, with 70 countries; 50 of them among the ICC's 90 signatories. Speaking at the conservative thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute, Mr Bolton...

SKOPJE, Oct 16 (AFP) - The Macedonian parliament on Thursday ratified an agreement with the United States to protect US citizens here from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), officials said. Seventy eight of the 80 deputies present in the 120-seat parliament voted in favour of the agreement which was signed in Washington in June this year. Deputy Foreign Minister Fuad Hasanovic told parliament the agreement, which would prevent Macedonia extraditing US citizens to the ICC, would not affect Skopje's relations with the European Union. Brussels is a strong supporter of the court and has voiced its opposition to...

<p>NEW YORK &#8212; The Bush administration has negotiated agreements protecting Americans from prosecution by the International Criminal Court with more than five dozen nations, knitting together a partial shield to protect U.S. citizens from politically motivated prosecutions.</p> <p>As of this week, 68 governments have signed treaties with the United States promising not to surrender American soldiers, lawmakers or civilians to the court's jurisdiction. About half of these countries are parties to the ICC.</p>

   http://writ.findlaw.com/commentary/20030908_cohn.html ----How the Bush Administration's Opposition to the International Criminal Court Has Put Peacekeepers and Others in DangerBy MARJORIE COHN ---- Monday, Sep. 08, 2003 Even after the recent, tragic attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the U.S. was not willing to unreservedly support a U.N. Security Council resolution to help protect U.N. and other humanitarian workers. Instead, the U.S. greenlighted the resolution only when its reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was deleted. It's not the first time that the U.S. has put its pigheaded opposition to the ICC before other important goals: Last year,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "Sentence first, verdict afterwards!" the Queen decrees in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," a miscarriage of justice to which poor Alice attempts to object. "Hold your tongue!" the queen retorts, before adding, "Off with her head!" That may be amusing in a children's book. It is far less so when it describes the judicial philosophy of the United Nation's misbegotten International Criminal Court (ICC). Created by the so-called Statute of Rome in 1998, the ICC was ratified by fewer than one-third of the world's nations, representing only 17 percent of the world's population. In the closing moments...