[IsraelTimes] Pompeo says Trump administration ’determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution’.The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who try to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by US forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere, and may do the same with those who seeking action against Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday.
The Hague-based court, the first global tribunal for war crimes, said it would continue to operate "undeterred" by the US action.
Pompeo made good on a threat delivered last September by US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s national security adviser, John Bolton. The US had already moved against some employees of The Hague-based court, Pompeo said, but he declined to say how many or what cases they may have been investigating.
"We are determined to protect the American and allied military and civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation," Pompeo said.
He said any wrongdoing committed by American personnel would be dealt with in US military and criminal courts.
The visa restrictions would apply to any ICC employee who takes or has taken action "to request or further such an investigation," Pompeo said.
"These visa restrictions may also be used to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies’ consent," he said.
The ICC prosecutor has a pending request to look into possible war crimes in Afghanistan that may involve Americans. The Paleostinians have also asked the court to bring cases against Israel.
Speaking directly to ICC employees, Pompeo said: "If you are responsible for the proposed ICC investigation of US personnel in connection with the situation in Afghanistan, you should not assume that you still have or will get a visa or will be permitted to enter the United States."
That comment suggested that action may have already been taken against the ICC prosecutor who asked last year to formally open an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban
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and Haqqani network
krazed killers, as well as US forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003.The United States has never been a member of the ICC. The Clinton administration in 2000 signed the Rome Statute that created the ICC but had reservations about the scope of the court’s jurisdiction and never submitted it for ratification to the Senate, where there was broad bipartisan opposition to what politicians saw as a threat to US illusory sovereignty.
When president George W. Bush took office in 2001, his administration promoted and passed the American Service Members Protection Act, which sought to immunize US troops from potential prosecution by the ICC. In 2002, Bolton, then a State Department official, traveled to New York to ceremonially "unsign" the Rome Statute at the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
The ICC said in a statement it was established by a treaty supported by 123 countries and that it prosecutes cases only when those countries failed to do so or did not do so "genuinely." Afghanistan is a signatory.
The court has been hobbled by refusal of the US, Russia, China and other major nations to join. Others have quit, including Burundi and the Philippines.