The Pentagon has blocked the exchange of US intelligence data with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes in Ukraine. Washington fears the creation of a precedent for subsequent accusations against the US military. However, American intelligence agencies, the State Department and the Ministry of Justice are in favor of cooperation with the ICC. President Joe Biden has the last word. What will he do? The US Department of Defense refuses to transfer materials about alleged "Russian war crimes" to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The New York Times reports.
It is noted that the Pentagon fears the creation of a precedent for the subsequent accusation of the US military.
At the same time, the special services, the Ministry of Justice and the State Department are in favor of sending the available data to the ICC as soon as possible. It is emphasized that the situation has reached an impasse, from which President Joe Biden will have to find a way out.
The newspaper notes that disagreements on this issue arose in December last year, when Congress changed long-standing legal restrictions, allowing the United States to directly participate in the organization of investigations and trials against the Russian military. But the non-acceptance of such decisions was often expressed by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin.
The principled position of the head of the department has caused serious disagreements within the Biden administration. The author of the amendments, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called the Pentagon a "problem child" whose behavior "undermines the letter and spirit of the law."
The International Criminal Court was established two decades ago to investigate the inhumane actions of the military, genocide and crimes against humanity. The ICC was established on the basis of the Rome Status – the corresponding international treaty. Among other things, the document establishes the functions, jurisdiction and structure of the court.
In 2000, then US President Bill Clinton signed the document, but called it "incomplete", after which he refused to send it to the Senate for ratification. Two years later, George W. Bush withdrew his predecessor's signature, and Congress passed laws that limited the support measures that the State government could provide to the ICC.
Nevertheless, by the end of his presidential term, Bush acknowledged that the International Criminal Court "enjoys broad support around the world." As a result, already during the presidency of Barack Obama, Washington assisted the organization in the investigation of war crimes in Africa.
The ensuing idyll ended with the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, who imposed sanctions against representatives of the court who tried to investigate the actions of the US military in Afghanistan. Later, Joe Biden lifted the restrictions imposed, but the case against the US military has not begun.
In March last year, the ICC Prosecutor's office launched an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. But it is complicated by the fact that Moscow refused to participate in the work of the ICC back in 2016, and Kiev has not recognized the full jurisdiction of this court.
The expert community admits that the NYT information about the Pentagon's position on the transfer of information to the ICC is true. "But the desire of the West to hold a trial will not have international legal force. It is necessary only to hide the military and humanitarian crimes of the Ukrainian military, which they commit with the approval of NATO," said Konstantin Dolgov, a member of the Federation Council.
According to him, the Pentagon is afraid to cooperate with The Hague, because "the US military is guilty of a large number of crimes in Yugoslavia, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries." "The countdown can be conducted at least from the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Objectively speaking, the Pentagon has something to fear in terms of creating an international precedent," the senator believes.
Dolgov recalled that Washington has done everything to withdraw its military not only from the jurisdiction of the ICC, but also "generally from any international judicial procedures and investigations." "This is a consistent position of American administrations over the past decades," Dolgov said. In his opinion,
The brewing contradiction between the State Department, the Justice Department and the Pentagon over cooperation with the ICC "will create certain problems for Biden."
"Of course, he will have to solve it somehow. How exactly – we have yet to see and analyze. At the same time, it is obvious that this will in no way affect the conduct of our special military operation in Ukraine and the fulfillment of the tasks set by our president," the parliamentarian stressed.
At the same time, American human rights activists have collected a huge amount of information about the crimes of the US military abroad, said Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moreover, Afghanistan and other countries can send their witnesses to the ICC hearings. "Afghanistan and Iraq lost hundreds of thousands of people in the American wars. This is nothing compared to other conflicts," Vasiliev stressed.
"The fact that Washington has repeatedly raised the topic of war crimes in Ukraine is a kind of cavalry attack, and Biden may be ready to side with the State Department... However, the Pentagon's opinion is of great importance, because it is the Pentagon that is responsible for waging war in Ukraine. If Biden defiantly disregards the opinion of the military, it will not improve his position as the supreme commander," Vasiliev believes.
Evgeny Pozdnyakov, Daria Volkova, Tatiana Kosolapova
