Trump administration to take tough stance against International Criminal Court

The United States on Monday will adopt an aggressive posture against the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, threatening sanctions against its judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, is to make the announcement in a midday speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington. It will be his first major address since joining the Trump White House.

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton will say, according to a draft of his speech seen by Reuters.

Bolton will also say that the State Department will announce the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington out of concern about Palestinian attempts to prompt an ICC investigation of Israel.

The PLO office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel," says Bolton's draft text.

iamwhoiamamiwhoami on September 10th, 2018 at 09:03 UTC »

Let's not forget that the US had a man placed into a CIA black site and tortured for years, and his only crime was having a name too similar to that of a suspected terrorist. When the US finally got around to releasing this guy, the Supreme Court ruled he could not file a lawsuit against the US government, and the man in question has been in and out of mental institutions ever since being released from US custody.

Now they don't even want people to investigate these atrocities.

Cpt_Whiskers on September 10th, 2018 at 06:31 UTC »

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court" Bolton will say, according to a draft of his speech seen by Reuters

Bolton refers to it as an illegitimate court and according to the article the Bush administration did not recognize the ICC. What was the reasoning behind this?

autotldr on September 10th, 2018 at 06:01 UTC »

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 74%. (I'm a bot)

The United States on Monday will adopt an aggressive posture against the International Criminal Court in The Hague, threatening sanctions against its judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan.

"We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will 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," says Bolton's draft text.

The United States did not ratify the Rome treaty that established the International Criminal Court in 2002, with then-President George W. Bush opposed to the court.

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