You might have missed this op-ed in the WaPo on Friday by John B. Bellinger III, an attorney and legal adviser to the State Department during George W. Bush's second term; if so, it's worth a read.
As I alluded to in my March 1 post on the UN Security Council's decision to refer Libya to the ICC, the U.S. has a problem with international justice systems. Bellinger is not the most likely candidate to argue for our participation in such a system -- in this case, the International Court of Justice, which is part of the United Nations -- but he does just that.
That would be the same Vienna Convention that the U.S. is now invoking in demanding Pakistan release CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who currently sits in a Lahore prison awaiting trial on charges of murder.
Ah, the tangled web we weave.
As I alluded to in my March 1 post on the UN Security Council's decision to refer Libya to the ICC, the U.S. has a problem with international justice systems. Bellinger is not the most likely candidate to argue for our participation in such a system -- in this case, the International Court of Justice, which is part of the United Nations -- but he does just that.
Bellinger : "Although many conservatives have criticized the World Court for infringing on American sovereignty, all Americans should want President Obama and the 112th Congress to comply with the court's decision, to help ensure that Americans arrested abroad are given access to State Department officials."The ICJ decision he is referring is a 2009 ruling that the U.S. did not live up to its obligations under the Vienna Convention in convicting and sentencing 51 Mexican nationals to death for crimes committed in the U.S.
That would be the same Vienna Convention that the U.S. is now invoking in demanding Pakistan release CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who currently sits in a Lahore prison awaiting trial on charges of murder.
Ah, the tangled web we weave.
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