United States No Longer Conditioning Foreign Aid on ICC Non-Participation
Mark Goldberg brings us some very welcome news from the recently signed omnibus appropriations bill, the odious Nethercutt Amendment policy has been reversed. What’s the Nethercut Amendment? Well of course as is well known the Bush administration didn’t much care for the International Criminal Court. It wasn’t initially obvious, however, exactly how opposed to it they were. But not only did they refuse to participate in the ICC, they backed an amendment by Rep George Nethercutt that made it so that a country could only get foreign aid if it agreed to sign an agreement immunizing Americans against ICC prosecution. This was back in 2004, before it was clear that the key policymakers were so committed to this because they were actually in the midst of committing war crimes.
At any rate, this put a lot of countries in a tough spot. As Mark says:
A number of America’s allies declined to enter into these side agreements because they believed their obligations to the ICC prevented them from doing so. They were punished accordingly. Meanwhile, the administration, too, had chose between its opposition to the court and other — arguably more important — diplomatic and foreign policy priorities.
And now the policy is dead. And I, for one, won’t be missing it.
24 Responses to “United States No Longer Conditioning Foreign Aid on ICC Non-Participation”
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March 13th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Sunshine.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:33 am
This is OT but does Mr. Yglesias have the balls to comment on the oped by Congressman Frank Wolf in todays’ Washington Post?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031301856.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
I am not a great fan of Congressman Wolf and would not vote for him if I lived in his district. However, he has been a forthright defender of human rights and critic of abuses thereof, and, just for the information of the anti-semites who comment on this blog is not Jewish.
A few excerpts from the article follow.
After Freeman abruptly withdrew from consideration Tuesday evening, he and some in the media pointed to the so-called Israel lobby to explain the congressional uproar over his appointment. Freeman’s charges of an elaborate conspiracy to derail his nomination are disingenuous. The “Israel lobby” never contacted me. For me, the warning flags about Charles Freeman went up when I learned of his questionable associations and inflammatory statements about China and Tibet.
Equally disturbing to me was Freeman’s take on the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, as he wrote in an e-mail that has been reported by the media. While the Obama administration claimed that Freeman’s comments were taken out of context, I had the opportunity to read the entire conversation, and I strongly disagree.
Freeman said, “I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government. . . . Such folk, whether they represent a veterans’ ‘Bonus Army’ or a ’student uprising’ on behalf of ‘the goddess of democracy’ should expect to be displaced.” I was in China in 1991 and visited Beijing Prison No. 1, where Tiananmen protesters were enslaved, forced to make socks for export to the West, simply for seeking their freedom.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Somebody’s still has a guilty conscience.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Moderately more on topic, George Nethercutt’s subsequent history may be of interest — he ran against Patty Murray for Senate, got walloped, and formed a lobbying firm named Lundquist, Nethercutt, and Griles, which had to rename itself because Griles was a crook. One of Daschle’s top aides is now a partner so it’s all a happy bipartisan lobbyfest.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Fantastic! It sucked to be the damn devil, demanding people sign away their consciences in return for money.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Perhaps the next step will be actually joining the ICC.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
The ICC is a joke. The way the system works is that cases have to be referred by the security council at the UN. If we did join the ICC the only way we would ever have to answer to it is if we voted to prosecute ourselves. The domestic opposition to it is theatrics.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
The way the system works is that cases have to be referred by the security council at the UN.
Poppycock. The first trial is taking place regarding the use of child soldiers in the DRC and Thomas Lubanga, a rebel leader is on trial for this. The investigation was iknitiated at the request of the DRC government.
Of course if you merely gone to the ICC webpage you could have found this out at the FAQ page:
As for being a “joke”, the bashir inditment is far more than any other government has done.
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