Americans Must Not Be
Tried by Foreign Courts

The centerpiece of persistent plans by the globalists to erase the borders of national sovereignty is the International Criminal Court (ICC). Its mission is to prosecute individuals on charges of war crimes, genocide and other crimes that have not yet been defined. The ICC, which formally came into existence on July 1, is accountable to no one, not even to the United Nations, whose charter recognizes the sovereignty of nation-states and where we have our Security Council veto.

The Clinton Administration was an enthusiastic participant in the writing of the ICC treaty that created the court. One of President Bill Clinton’s last official acts was to sign the ICC treaty on New Year’s Eve, 2000. The treaty never could have been ratified by the U.S. Senate because it would put U.S. troops all over the world at risk of being tried by the ICC on trumped-up political charges without the protection of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

It was a great day for American sovereignty when President George W. Bush unsigned the ICC treaty, sending a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stating that "the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty" and "has no legal obligations arising from its [Clinton’s] signature on Dec. 31, 2000." That should have ended the matter.

But the impudent bureaucrats in the Hague are claiming jurisdiction over countries that never ratified the ICC treaty, including the United States. President Bush then took a strong stand, demanding that U.S. troops be exempted from ICC prosecution or else we would decline to participate in any more peacekeeping functions. Our so-called European friends reacted with undiplomatic tantrums.

The Bush Administration entered into tense negotiations with the U.N. To the great disappointment of conservatives, the Bush Administration backed down and accepted a deal under which U.S. service personnel will be exempt from prosecution for one year.

The Bush Administration is now trying to persuade as many other governments as possible to sign bilateral agreements with us promising that they will not extradite any Americans to the ICC. So far, only Israel and Romania have signed. Switzerland said it will not sign. The Netherlands and Norway have declined to sign. Other nations are stalling, claiming they have to "study the legal implications." The European Union (EU) has warned the 13 nations hoping to join the EU that they should not sign any agreement with the U.S. that would protect Americans from the ICC.

It is absolutely unacceptable to allow this foreign court to try Americans. Traditional U.S. constitutional protections against unfair prosecutions that are violated by the ICC include the right to trial by an impartial jury of one’s peers, the right to a speedy trial within months (not years), the right to confront witnesses, and protection against double jeopardy.

A lot of people in the rest of the world don’t like Americans. Some have openly said that U.S. soldiers have committed war crimes in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. For the protection of all Americans, it is absolutely imperative that we never accept the jurisdiction of the ICC.