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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Pompeo Reups Threats to ICC Over US, Israel War Crimes Probes, Showing White House 'Determined to Prevent' Accountability
"You'll see in the coming days a series of announcements not just from the State Department, from all across the United States government, that attempt to push back against what the ICC is up to," said the secretary of state.
Jun 01, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is continuing the Trump administration's threats against the International Criminal Court, saying in a recent interview that the White House would soon be making "announcements" to show the world "we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC."
"Once again, the Trump administration is taking a page out of a dictator's playbook and threatening to interfere with judicial proceedings," Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and legal representative of victims of U.S. torture at the ICC, said in a statement to Common Dreams.
Pompeo's remarks, first reported by Politico, came in an interview with the right-wing American Enterprise Institute's "What the Hell Is Going On?" podcast released Monday.
The secretary of state was asked if he was concerned about the ICC's probe into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. To the plaudits of human rights advocates, the court advanced that investigation in March despite the White House's moves to bully prosecutors into dropping the attempt to hold the U.S. accountable for its overseas actions, including alleged crimes committed as part of the U.S. torture program at CIA "black sites."
Pompeo responded that he was "very concerned" about the investigation. "You'll see in the coming days a series of announcements not just from the State Department, from all across the United States government, that attempt to push back against what the ICC is up to," he said.
The ICC officially has jurisdiction over crimes committed by actors within countries that are parties to the Rome Statute, but Pompeo suggested the court didn't have the power to follow its investigation of U.S. crimes in Afghanistan, saying, "We never signed up for it."
He also bashed the ICC as "corrupted," claimed the court is wrong to think it can "haul these young men and women in," referring to U.S. forces, and reiterated the administration's rebuke of the ICC probe into alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces in Palestine.
"We will never let that happen," said Pompeo. "We're working along many fronts to prevent it from happening. They're doing this not just to us, but to Israel, where they're beginning to look into what took place in the West Bank."
"Again," he continued, "it's completely inappropriate, it's completely inconsistent with international law, and it puts our young men and women at risk and it's something President Trump and our team aren't going to permit to happen."
"I don't want to get ahead of the announcements we're going to make in the coming days, but I think you'll see, and I think that the ICC and the world will see, that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC," said Pompeo.
CCR's Gallagher, in her statement, stressed that the Trump administration could take steps to avoid ICC probes.
One step is to "ensure that its military and security forces don't commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of the 123 countries that are members of the ICC," she said.
If such crimes are committed, the other choice facing the Trump administration is to "conduct independent investigations up to the top of the chain of command and, if warranted, prosecutions," said Gallagher.
"Threatening to sanction judges, prosecutors, and lawyers who seek justice is not what democracies do," she continued, "and if the U.S. goes further down this path, it is making clear that it is no longer a country committed to the rule of law."
This post has been updated to include comment from Gallagher.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is continuing the Trump administration's threats against the International Criminal Court, saying in a recent interview that the White House would soon be making "announcements" to show the world "we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC."
"Once again, the Trump administration is taking a page out of a dictator's playbook and threatening to interfere with judicial proceedings," Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and legal representative of victims of U.S. torture at the ICC, said in a statement to Common Dreams.
Pompeo's remarks, first reported by Politico, came in an interview with the right-wing American Enterprise Institute's "What the Hell Is Going On?" podcast released Monday.
The secretary of state was asked if he was concerned about the ICC's probe into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. To the plaudits of human rights advocates, the court advanced that investigation in March despite the White House's moves to bully prosecutors into dropping the attempt to hold the U.S. accountable for its overseas actions, including alleged crimes committed as part of the U.S. torture program at CIA "black sites."
Pompeo responded that he was "very concerned" about the investigation. "You'll see in the coming days a series of announcements not just from the State Department, from all across the United States government, that attempt to push back against what the ICC is up to," he said.
The ICC officially has jurisdiction over crimes committed by actors within countries that are parties to the Rome Statute, but Pompeo suggested the court didn't have the power to follow its investigation of U.S. crimes in Afghanistan, saying, "We never signed up for it."
He also bashed the ICC as "corrupted," claimed the court is wrong to think it can "haul these young men and women in," referring to U.S. forces, and reiterated the administration's rebuke of the ICC probe into alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces in Palestine.
"We will never let that happen," said Pompeo. "We're working along many fronts to prevent it from happening. They're doing this not just to us, but to Israel, where they're beginning to look into what took place in the West Bank."
"Again," he continued, "it's completely inappropriate, it's completely inconsistent with international law, and it puts our young men and women at risk and it's something President Trump and our team aren't going to permit to happen."
"I don't want to get ahead of the announcements we're going to make in the coming days, but I think you'll see, and I think that the ICC and the world will see, that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC," said Pompeo.
CCR's Gallagher, in her statement, stressed that the Trump administration could take steps to avoid ICC probes.
One step is to "ensure that its military and security forces don't commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of the 123 countries that are members of the ICC," she said.
If such crimes are committed, the other choice facing the Trump administration is to "conduct independent investigations up to the top of the chain of command and, if warranted, prosecutions," said Gallagher.
"Threatening to sanction judges, prosecutors, and lawyers who seek justice is not what democracies do," she continued, "and if the U.S. goes further down this path, it is making clear that it is no longer a country committed to the rule of law."
This post has been updated to include comment from Gallagher.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is continuing the Trump administration's threats against the International Criminal Court, saying in a recent interview that the White House would soon be making "announcements" to show the world "we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC."
"Once again, the Trump administration is taking a page out of a dictator's playbook and threatening to interfere with judicial proceedings," Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and legal representative of victims of U.S. torture at the ICC, said in a statement to Common Dreams.
Pompeo's remarks, first reported by Politico, came in an interview with the right-wing American Enterprise Institute's "What the Hell Is Going On?" podcast released Monday.
The secretary of state was asked if he was concerned about the ICC's probe into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. To the plaudits of human rights advocates, the court advanced that investigation in March despite the White House's moves to bully prosecutors into dropping the attempt to hold the U.S. accountable for its overseas actions, including alleged crimes committed as part of the U.S. torture program at CIA "black sites."
Pompeo responded that he was "very concerned" about the investigation. "You'll see in the coming days a series of announcements not just from the State Department, from all across the United States government, that attempt to push back against what the ICC is up to," he said.
The ICC officially has jurisdiction over crimes committed by actors within countries that are parties to the Rome Statute, but Pompeo suggested the court didn't have the power to follow its investigation of U.S. crimes in Afghanistan, saying, "We never signed up for it."
He also bashed the ICC as "corrupted," claimed the court is wrong to think it can "haul these young men and women in," referring to U.S. forces, and reiterated the administration's rebuke of the ICC probe into alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces in Palestine.
"We will never let that happen," said Pompeo. "We're working along many fronts to prevent it from happening. They're doing this not just to us, but to Israel, where they're beginning to look into what took place in the West Bank."
"Again," he continued, "it's completely inappropriate, it's completely inconsistent with international law, and it puts our young men and women at risk and it's something President Trump and our team aren't going to permit to happen."
"I don't want to get ahead of the announcements we're going to make in the coming days, but I think you'll see, and I think that the ICC and the world will see, that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC," said Pompeo.
CCR's Gallagher, in her statement, stressed that the Trump administration could take steps to avoid ICC probes.
One step is to "ensure that its military and security forces don't commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of the 123 countries that are members of the ICC," she said.
If such crimes are committed, the other choice facing the Trump administration is to "conduct independent investigations up to the top of the chain of command and, if warranted, prosecutions," said Gallagher.
"Threatening to sanction judges, prosecutors, and lawyers who seek justice is not what democracies do," she continued, "and if the U.S. goes further down this path, it is making clear that it is no longer a country committed to the rule of law."
This post has been updated to include comment from Gallagher.
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LATEST NEWS
'There Will Be Blood': JPMorgan Hikes Odds of Trump-Triggered Recession to 60%
"The president single-handedly wiped out Americans' retirement savings overnight and subjected businesses to intense whiplash with his increasingly erratic and chaotic policies that continue to drive consumer and business uncertainty."
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Alarm over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs continues to grow, with stocks plummeting and JPMorgan warning that "the risk of recession in the global economy this year is raised to 60%, up from 40%."
After China announced new 34% tariffs on all American goods beginning next week, The Associated Press reported Friday that "the S&P 500 was down 4.8% in afternoon trading, after earlier dropping more than 5%, following its worst day since Covid wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,719 points, or 4.3%, as of 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.9% lower."
Noting the state of Wall Street this week, Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens declared in a Friday statement that "Trump has officially brought the economy to its knees."
"The president single-handedly wiped out Americans' retirement savings overnight and subjected businesses to intense whiplash with his increasingly erratic and chaotic policies that continue to drive consumer and business uncertainty," she said. "To call this an economic downturn is an understatement; Trump is marching us straight into a depression."
Political and economic observers have been publicly wondering for weeks if Trump is intentionally crashing the economy. Further fueling those fears, he ramped up his trade war on Wednesday by announcing a minimum 10% tariff for imports, with higher levies for dozens of countries. Although he claimed those steeper duties are "reciprocal," his math "horrified" economists and has been called "crazy."
Responding in a Thursday note titled, There Will Be Blood, head of global economic research Bruce Kasman and other experts at JPMorgan wrote that "if sustained, this year's ~22%-point tariff increase would be the largest U.S. tax hike since 1968."
"The effect of this tax hike is likely to be magnified—through retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment, and supply chain disruptions," states the note, which came before China's announcement.
As Bloomberg reported:
Several Wall Street firms on Thursday warned of a U.S. recession, with some making it their base case, after... Trump announced major levies on goods imported from countries around the world. Other economists, including those at JPMorgan, said the hit could be big, though they are taking a wait-and-see approach before revising their projections.
The announcement rocked global financial markets, and the S&P 500 suffered its worst day since 2020. Trump, speaking on Air Force One on Thursday afternoon, said he was open to reducing tariffs if trading partners were able to offer something "phenomenal."
"We are not making immediate changes to our forecasts and want to see the initial implementation and negotiation process that takes hold," the JPMorgan note says. "However, we view the full implementation of announced policies as a substantial macroeconomic shock not currently incorporated in our forecasts. We thus emphasize that these policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and possibly global economy into recession this year."
The team also pointed out that the United States is in potential danger no matter how other countries are ultimately impacted, calling a "scenario where rest of world muddles through a U.S. recession possible but less likely than global downturn."
As Common Dreams reported last week, in anticipation of Trump's tariff announcement, Goldman Sachs published a research note projecting that the odds of a recession in the next year are 35%, up from 20%.
Other financial industry research firms that have recently warned of a possible recession include Barclays, BofA Global Research, Deutsche Bank, RBC Capital Markets, and UBS Global Wealth Management, according to Reuters.
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"[Consumers] are not even going to the grocery store and paying more for vegetables because there's none available from Mexico, or going to Whole Foods, for example, and finding the big sections of fresh fruit are being shut down. They haven't really felt the full impact [yet], and they're already saying something isn't right," Bethune says.
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The actions are the latest warning sign for the Republican Party under Trump, who has allowed Elon Musk to play a core role in his administration, particularly in the administration's efforts to carry out cuts to federal personnel and spending.
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Dozens of unions, watchdogs, and advocacy groups—such as Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Americans for Tax Fairness, and Accountable.US—are supporting the action as partners.
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The environmentalist iIll McKibben wrote on Bluesky on Wednesday: "Expect to see a lot of gray hair at the April 5 Hands Off rallies—we've been organizing like crazy at Third Act," a group that mobilizes Americans over the age of 60.
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"Trump's newest order to revoke union rights is a clear case of retaliation," he added. "But I've got news for him: We are not going anywhere."
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Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), called Trump's order "the most significant assault on collective bargaining rights we have ever seen in the United States" and said it is "clear that this executive order is retaliation for federal unions fighting back against the Trump administration's attempts to dismantle the civil service."
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