Antony Blinken lifts sanctions on ICC prosecutor targeting troops

by Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter, and the Washington Examiner

[ Editor’s Note: We had been expecting this. Sanctioning the ICC was just the usual reaction by Trump grabbing a quick headline to look tough to his Trumper crowd followers.

But they are now exposed as a scary bunch of folks, some of whom are being ‘sanctioned’ in US criminial courts for blindly following their make believe commander-in-chief.

That said, the US can stiff arm the court via control of what documents and information that will be turned over. The Biden people will probably wait until other headline issues bury this story to deal with it in the shadows.

But there is a bigger story that remains in maximum security, the long, visible, and heavily documented history of US use of proxy terrorism, every bit of it hugely illegal, and because of no competent judicial reviews, it continues on unabated.

Sadly, from what I have seen, it contains war crimes galore, with few here in the US seeming to be concerned about the long term damage to the US military reputation.

But that is no surprise. After years of crowing about progress for women in the military, the chain of command has kept the sordid saga of sexual harrassment and rape in the military pretty much under wraps.

Congress has also shown no stomach for it, as it would not be a vote ‘getter’, and looked upon as a toxic issue, hence the politicians should stay out of it. The military courts should also not have control over it, as their record of compromise is clear to see.

Internal investigations are not worth squat. That whole charade has been set up to assure that those considered ‘protected entities’ are never tagged. As Gordon does so love to say, “Welcome to the nasty world.” … Jim W. Dean ]

Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>

First published … April 04, 2021

President Joe Biden is lifting sanctions on International Criminal Court officials investigating alleged war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, reversing a punishment imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration in a dispute over U.S. sovereignty rights.

“These decisions reflect our assessment that the measures adopted were inappropriate and ineffective,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday. “We continue to disagree strongly with the ICC’s actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situations.”

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda angered Trump administration officials by opening an investigation of U.S. military behavior in Afghanistan, an investigation launched even though the United States and Afghanistan have not agreed to be subject to the authority of the court.

Biden’s team shares that objection, but Blinken implied that the diplomatic costs of blacklisting Bensouda and her team is not worth the benefit.

“We maintain our long-standing objection to the court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-states parties such as the United States and Israel,” Blinken said. “We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed through engagement with all stakeholders in the ICC process rather than through the imposition of sanctions.”

You can view the whole article here.

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

Read Full Complete Bio >>>
Jim W. Dean Archives 2009-2015