Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.Instead of hunting ISIS leaders fleeing in Syria and Iraq to orchestrate a Nuremberg style trial of the Islamic butchers, the Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating US forces alongside the Taliban.
The Public Prosecutor of the Court, Fatou Bensouda, has just started an investigation of Afghanistan. US military personnel, along with the Taliban, could be put on trial for committing "crimes against humanity." This is the first time since 9/11.
Under investigation at The Hague are the Taliban of the Haqqani network, the Afghan security forces, the US Armed Forces and the CIA. The latter will also be held liable for acts committed in secret detention centers located in Lithuania, Poland and Romania, as well as in Afghanistan.
The United States has never ratified the Treaty of Rome, which would have made it a member of the Court, claiming that its soldiers would have to face political proceedings. The US had seen the situation accurately.
But the US will not be immune. The Court's mandate is applied to the territories of all the states that have ratified it, such as Afghanistan. Richard Dicker, Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said that if Bensouda succeeds, it will be potentially the first time that American citizens could be subject to this court.
The former prosecutor, Louis Moreno Ocampo, had already begun to investigate the operation of US forces in Afghanistan. George W. Bush in 2002 was forced to promulgate the American Service Members' Protection Act to shelter US soldiers from the Court's warrants. Meanwhile, the United States had to sign a hundred bilateral agreements in order to protect US officers and soldiers.
Mr. Bolton wrote. "At most, the White House should reply to Ms. Bensouda with a terse note: 'Dear Madame Prosecutor: You are dead to us. Sincerely, the United States'."
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the former United States ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said that for the Court it has become too difficult to resist pursuing Washington (having already investigated Israel, another political scapegoat). "America should welcome the opportunity, as in Churchill’s line about Bolshevism, to strangle the ICC in its cradle", Mr. Bolton wrote. "At most, the White House should reply to Ms. Bensouda with a terse note: 'Dear Madame Prosecutor: You are dead to us. Sincerely, the United States'."
When in 2002 150 countries voted in favor of the Court, jubilee scenes were seen hailing this humanitarian and multilateral event after the horrors of the Holocaust. "The genocideaires will have no escape", it was said. For the first time, in addition to ad hoc cases (former Yugoslavia and Rwanda), a super partes legal organ would act against evil.
Benyamin Ferencz, who contributed to prosecuting the Nazi warlords in Nuremberg, proclaimed that the Court of the Hague is the daughter of the processes of sixty years ago.
Fifteen years after its founding, the genocideaires such as the Sudanese tyrant Bashir are free, while the Court opens an investigation into the US democracy fighting Islamic terrorism.
Not only a useless Court, but also a dangerous one.