{"id":100307,"date":"2020-03-24T16:52:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T23:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100307"},"modified":"2020-03-24T16:52:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T23:52:44","slug":"us-threatens-families-of-intl-criminal-court-staff-if-they-try-americans-for-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/24\/us-threatens-families-of-intl-criminal-court-staff-if-they-try-americans-for-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"US Threatens Families Of Int’l Criminal Court Staff If They Try Americans For War Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span> Courtesy zerohedge.com<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Authored by Ben Norton via TheGrayZone.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff<\/strong>, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are\u00a0undermining the countries\u2019 attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2019, the Pompeo State Department threatened to revoke or deny visas<\/a> to any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel investigating crimes committed by American forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, on March 5, 2020, the ICC took a defiant step forward, officially approving an investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity<\/a> committed by the US military and CIA in Afghanistan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pompeo responded by angrily condemning the court and its proceedings. His broadside was an apparent attempt at discrediting the institution, which the US government is not a party to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a subsequent\u00a0State Department press briefing<\/a>\u00a0on March 17, Pompeo launched another tirade against the ICC, belittling it as a so-called court,\u201d a nakedly political body,\u201d and an embarrassment.\u201d Pompeo, who previously\u00a0served as director of the CIA<\/a>,\u00a0took the denunciations a step further, threatening the family members of ICC staff<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to identify those responsible for this partisan investigation and their family members<\/strong> who may want to travel to the United States or engage in activity that\u2019s inconsistent with making sure we protect Americans,\u201d Pompeo said, according to the US State Department\u2019s official transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Leah Whitson, the managing director for research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft<\/a>, drew attention to the shocking attack\u201d on Twitter. This isn\u2019t just unlawful collective punishment against family members<\/strong>; it\u2019s not just a disturbing attack on staff of a judiciary \u2014 where the US has voted to refer other nations for prosecution; it\u2019s abuse of federal authority to use sanctions against actual wrongdoers,\u201d said Whitson, who previously directed the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitson called on Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to condemn this US State Department assault on the staff and FAMILIES of ICC \u2013 abuse of sanctions authority in flagrant attack on judicial independence, unlawful collective punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blatant US threat against the family members of International Criminal Court prosecutors is part of a longer historical pattern of Washington attacking multilateral institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of the George W. Bush administration\u2019s so-called war on terror, in 2002, the US Congress passed a bill called the American Service-Members\u2019 Protection Act \u2014 more commonly known as the Hague Invasion Act<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unprecedented piece of legislation, which has no precedent anywhere else in the world, declares that the US government unilaterally grants itself the right to militarily invade the Hague if a citizen of the United States or any allied country is tried at the court<\/strong>. Nor are Secretary of State Pompeo\u2019s threats the first time US government officials have targeted the family members of international organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Bustani, the former director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW<\/a>), said hardline neoconservative John Bolton, a former under secretary of state for George W. Bush and national security adviser for Donald Trump, threatened him and his family<\/a> when Bustani negotiated with the Iraqi government to allow in OPCW weapons inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don\u2019t comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you,\u201d<\/strong> Bolton reportedly told Bustani, according to his recollection.We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.\u201d<\/strong>ICC, image via Reuters<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denigrating the Iranian government as terrorists\u201d in his State Department press briefing, Mike Pompeo declared new sanctions on the social security investment company of Iran\u2019s military, along with five Iranian nuclear scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Pompeo announced State Department sanctions on nine more entities, in South Africa, Hong Kong, and China, for doing business with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also unveiled new sanctions on Syria\u2019s minister of defense, citing the Syrian army\u2019s battle to retake Idlib<\/a>, the last remaining insurgent-held territory in the country, which is occupied by a rebranded al-Qaeda affiliate<\/a> and other extremist Salafi-jihadists, backed by NATO member Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US sanctions on Iran have devastated the country\u2019s health infrastructure<\/a>, greatly exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic<\/a>. A new study by researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran warned that millions of people could die due to Covid-19 \u2014 which Pompeo repeatedly referred to as the Wuhan virus\u201d in his press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article by German state broadcaster DW concisely explained how US sanctions have set the stage for mass death in Iran:<\/a> Iran\u2019s government applied for a $5 billion (\u20ac4.6 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight the epidemic \u2014 the first time it has asked the IMF for assistance in over 50 years.<\/strong> Yet, even if it gets the loan, the administration won\u2019t be able to shop for much-needed medical supplies: US sanctions make the banking transactions required to secure even medical supplies and humanitarian goods virtually impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Tyler Durden Courtesy zerohedge.com Authored by Ben Norton via TheGrayZone.com, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes. Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}