Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2012, says the U.S. should arrest Omar Hassan al-Bashir, president of Sudan, when he comes to New York to the United Nations in September. After all, there's a warrant out from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the guy for mass killings in Darfur.
Yeah, and pigs should fly.
Under Clinton, the U.S. signed the treaty creating the ICC -- but that treaty never went to Senate for ratification. George W. Bush said no way we were going to submit to the jurisdiction of a court currently recognized by 123 nations. We're exceptional ... then he proved it.
We have company in our stance. When we withdrew our ratification, we joined two other countries that had signed the treaty but then pulled out: Sudan and Israel.
George W., Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and their underlings should watch where they travel, as I am sure that they do.
the United Nations is not a group I support as it stands, but the idea behind it is important. I think the leaders who come to it must have safety to do it. That does not mean going running around for social pleasures or outside meetings, but the travel to it, the places they stay while there should have safety for them. It's the only way real discourse can happen. If someone is really wanted for criminal charges, there are other places for the US to get hold of them-- better than to use the forum intended to bring the world together with all ideas being given the freedom to be expressed-- even the ones we don't like. Idealized hope, of course.
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