Credit: U.S. Department of State / Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Trump administration continues to cross swords with  the  International Criminal Court for daring to investigate American war crimes in Afghanistan.  As of today,  the U.S. will deny visas to ICC members investigating alleged war crimes committed by American troops in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced at a press conference Friday.

“Thus today, persistent to existing legal authority to post visa restrictions on any alien, quote, “whose entry or proposed activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” end of quote, I’m announcing a policy of U.S. visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of U.S. personnel. This includes persons who take or have taken action to request or further such an investigation. These visa restrictions may also be used to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies’ consent. Implementation of this policy has already begun. 

Secretary of State  Pompeo Mar. 15, 2019  Press Conference

Source:  US Department of State 

Pompeo said the ICC is “attacking America’s rule of law” by targeting American troops in a war crimes investigation. 

Credit: ICC /   Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of The International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands

Last September 2018, the Trump Administration unleashed one of the most scathing public attacks on an global judicial institution in recent memory, In an unprecedented, vitriolic attack on the ICC, US National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened sanctions on The Hague-based war tribunal if the court dares investigate alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan. Bolton made the  remarks in a speech at the ultra-conservative Federalist Society in Washington D.C.

Bolton damned the ICC as “ineffective, unaccountable,” “outright dangerous” and “contrary to American principles,” and said the US “would respond against the ICC and its personnel to the extent permitted by US law.” Bolton vowed that the US would not sit by idly if the ICC follows through on an investigation into alleged American war crimes:

“We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will certainly not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,”

National Security adviser Bolton.

Bolton, a known war hawk, is a longtime opponent of the International Criminal Court

Credit: CNBC.com/ getty / US National Security Adviser John Bolton

ICC seeks an unprecedented investigation of alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan 

Source: Wikipedia Commons / US troops in Afghanistan

In November 2017, the prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda,  requested judges to authorize an unprecedented investigation in Afghanistan into allegations including rape and torture by the U.S. military and CIA, crimes against humanity by the Taliban and war crimes by Afghan security forces.  Bensouda’s request sent the US into  a frenzy, with the Trump administration pretty much promising to destroy the ICC. 

Bensouda’s request is remarkable because it is the first time the ICC has gone after Americans for alleged war crimes.

The probe would focus solely upon war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed since May 1, 2003 on the territory of Afghanistan as well as war crimes closely linked to the situation in Afghanistan allegedly committed since July 1 July 2002 on the territory of other States Parties to the Rome Statute. The Court, established in 2002, has no jurisdiction respecting crimes alleged to have been committed before those cut-off dates. Bensouda, stated in a report last year, that the U.S. military and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2014. Members of U.S. armed forces and the CIA could be held responsible for acts committed at secret detention centers located in Lithuania, Poland and Romania as well as on Afghan territory. According to Bensouda’s report, U.S. personnel have inflicted “torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape” upon dozens of detainees.

U.S. has refused to sign the 2002 International Treaty that established the ICC

The United States has never signed the 2002 international treaty, called the Rome Treaty, that established the court

“Since 1998, the United States has declined to join the ICC because of its broad, unaccountable prosecutorial powers and the threat it poses to American national sovereignty. 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. We feared that the court could eventually pursue politically motivated prosecutions of Americans, and our fears were warranted.”

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo

On the one hand, the United States has feverishly championed the ICC when it investigates African warlords and dictators for prosecution for war crimes. But  now, when the  US is the focus of an ICC probe for alleged war crimes, it is seeking to destroy the  war crimes tribunal. What does the US fear?   Why the double standard?