I hate to break it to you, but that is, in fact, irrelevant under Protocol I. Though, of course, the US didn’t ratify protocol I. But the fact that the other side violated the Convention doesn’t free anyone from their obligations under the convention.
The US did not just use the latest in smart bomb technology, they also used cluster bombs, including in such a fashion that bomblets hit villages.
Looting DID threaten the lives of the citizenry, when hospitals were looted.
This is precisely the asinine type of argument that leads to Americans being considered in prejudice as simple-minded and ignorant. There is a difference between someone bringing a complaint to a court and the court accepting it. There is also a difference between a court accepting a complaint and convicting someone on it. But given that you call the ICC the ‘World Court’, I guess it was not to be expected of you to be familiar with such unimportant details.
The USA has very much done that. Foreign companies are routinely sued in US courts when people a)believe they get more money there or b)it is the only court willing to accept the suit. People go to quite some lengths to come up with reasons as to why a US court should hear the case. Not the least, the RIAA is trying to apply US copyright laws internationally, regardless of potentially more liberal fair use legislation in other countries.
Its is standard for corporate law to take effect on any company doing business on your land. This is just the way it is. You can always stop doing business and not go to court.
The thing is the only national law code that I’ve every heard of (in recent times) to claim supernational juristriction for at least one of it’s laws, was the US.
Just to make sure I understand you correctly, you’re attributing every death in Baghdad over the past two months to US negligence? And you expect to be taken seriously?
And many more might point out that Iraq is a much safer place than it has been. Some people to bear witness to this fact – and to dispute the doctor quoted in your article that said that normally, 1 person is shot per day in Baghdad – arethese 15,000 poor souls found in a mass grave 55 miles south of Baghdad, or the individuals in this story:
I’m baffled by those who say the US’s efforts at restoring order are less than satisfactory. Since you’ve apparently missed this fact, a war was just fought and a fascist regime was just displaced. It’s ridiculous to expect the US to just come in, sprinkle some fairy pixie dust, and instantaneously restore order to a society that spent the last few decades under the thumb of a tyrant, and which now (by necessity) has no government.
Well you have probably heard of the Russian programmer who was arrested in whilst in the US attending a conference (I believe he’s still in prison). The crime he was arrested for was cracking a computer programme (I think it was one of Microsofts). This he did while he was in Russia where it is not illegal, but the law he was arrested under claims universal juristriction.
I can’t rember his name, but as the case was quite big news I’m sure someone will come along with a cite soon.
Found a cite, though it doesn’t mention the crime was committed in Russia, not in the US.
I believe the legal section of the Manchester Guardian did a little article on it a few months back, in which they pointed out that this law effectively claims universal juristriction.
If you’re talking about the folks currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, those people weren’t “arrested,” and nobody’s accused them of committing “crimes” (except maybe war crimes). They are POWs and unlawful enemy combatants. Under the Geneva Conventions, the US is forbidden from charging them with any crimes.
I thought that the position of the US was that the Geneva Conventions DID NOT apply to the people detained at Guantanamo.
They cannot possibly simaltaneously be “POWs” and “unlawful enemy combatants”. If they are POWs then the Geneva convention would apply. If they are “unlawful combatants” then there must be some law that they have broken (hence “unlawful”) that they should be charged under.
First, the US’s position is that some of the people at Gitmo are unlawful enemy combatants, and some are POWs. I believe it’s true that you can’t be both at once (at least, I’m unaware of how it could be true).
However, you seem to misunderstand the nature of “unlawful enemy combatants.” That term refers to people that don’t fall under the Geneva Conventions. Thus, they are “unlawful” both in the sense that they didn’t follow the Geneva Conventions, and that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to them.
The US can’t charge any of the detainees with violating the Geneva Conventions because it doesn’t have the authority to do so. It also can’t charge the POWs with violating American laws, because the Geneva Conventions say you can’t charge POWs with crimes. Nor can the US charge the unlawful enemy combatants with violating US laws because US courts would lack jurisdiction over such crimes.
The term “unlawful enemy combatants” seems to have been invented by the US Administration so it could say, “Well shit, the Geneva convention doesn’t apply to these people because we can call them something else.”
Sort of the same bullshit in Iraq where, when the US forces were enjoined by Annan to fulfil their role as an occupying power, the response was that “We’re a liberating power, not an occupying power” so we don’t have any obligations. Fortunately some honorable person made Bush’s Republican Guard 'fess up that they were in fact an occupying force and would play by the rules.
It’s sad when the Administration of a great country like the US plays stupid word games so as to avoid the responsibilities that come with power.
The US adminstration is defintely acting illegally by refusing the prisoners at GB full POW status, the term “unlawful enemy combatant” is a complete non-sequitor, as they did not break any international laws by fighting for the Taliban
If they are not POW’s, and the US are unable to try them under International Law or National law, could they be charged with Kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment?
from CNN: “Three booby-trapped cars exploded in front of the Belgian consulate, according to MAP, and another bomb exploded near Casa D’Espangne, a Spanish social club and restaurant. Both Belgium and Spain were allies of the United States and Britain in the war against Iraq.”
