Washington Fears ICC May Prosecute US Leaders For War Crimes - Ex-Lawyers Guild Chief

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) The US government opposes the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it fears its own leaders may become defendants in war crimes prosecutions, former National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn told Sputnik.

Wednesday marks the 15-year anniversary of the US military charging six soldiers for abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. Not one single military or political leader from the United States, which is not party to the ICC's Rome Statute, has faced charges or accountability over the torture scandal to date.

"Torture and inhumane treatment constitute war crimes under the ICC's Rome Statute," Cohn, an emerita professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson school of Law, San Diego, California said on Wednesday. "The US government opposes the ICC because it fears its leaders may become defendants in war crimes prosecutions."

Current National Security Adviser John Bolton, then an official under President George W. Bush personally removed the US signature from the Rome Statute in 2002. He stated at the time it was "the happiest moment of my government service," Cohn recalled.

Last year, Bolton threatened the ICC with sanctions after its chief prosecutor found a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed by US personnel in connection to the war in Afghanistan.

Cohen noted that, in 2014, the ICC prosecutor had begun a preliminary examination of the commission of war crimes in Gaza and is also considering crimes committed by Israel during the Great March of Return that began in 2018.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made good on Bolton's threat by announcing last week that the United States would revoke or deny visas to ICC members who investigated US or Israeli crimes, Cohen observed.

"By undercutting the critical work of the ICC, the US government is publicly stating a policy of impunity for the most abominable crimes. This will send a message to world leaders that they can commit war crimes and get away with it," she said.

In 2014, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded a 6,700 page report documenting an outrageous pattern of crimes the US government committed, including torture, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet no leaders under Presidents George W. Bush or Barack Obama have faced accountability.

"Justice has not been done... Abu Ghraib remains emblematic of US impunity for the commission of the most egregious crimes," she said.

That case involved the abuse of about 20 detainees at Abu Ghraib. None was charged with the commission of torture or war crimes under the US Torture Statute or the US War Crimes Act. The soldiers were convicted and served from 10 years to no time in custody, she said.

"Just one officer, a lieutenant colonel, was charged with prisoner abuse. He was convicted only of disobeying a general's command not to discuss abuse at Abu Ghraib. Although he received a reprimand, his convictions were set aside and his record cleared," Cohn said.

Another colonel and lieutenant colonel received reprimands. And Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, commander of Abu Ghraib who was shielded from knowledge of the torture and abuse at the prison, was demoted to colonel for dereliction of duty and shoplifting.

After the US and allied conquest of Iraq in 2003, US Army and CIA personnel committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq including physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape sodomy and murder according to documented accounts.