US denies visas to ICC judges 3-22-2019

22, March 2019                     US denies visas to ICC judges

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, recently announced that the U.S. will start denying visas to members of the ICC who may be investigating alleged war crimes by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. War hawk, John Bolton went further threatening U.S. sanctions against the judges. The ICC has accused the U.S.  military of brutally torturing at least 61 prisoners in Afghanistan during the ongoing war, The report also leveled charges against the CIA accusing the agency of torture and rape in Afghanistan, and black sites in Poland, Romania, and Lithuania.

The visa restrictions were also issued to deter ICC efforts on investigating Israeli war crimes. Members of the court, particularly European countries, have strongly condemned the Trump administration’s actions. Crimes committed by the US military and the CIA have been well documented by US officials in the “torture memo” which successive US administrations have refused to make public. As further evidence of our increasing disdain for basic human rights, the current administration has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council and has ignored 20 requests by special rapporteurs of the United Nations. In essence, the US is saying “No one has a right to judge what we do abroad.”  This has established a dangerous precedent for other nations guilty of similar violations. Threatening ICC judges from doing their jobs makes a complete mockery of our claim to be a moral authority to the rest of the world.