Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

NATO is an outlaw, the ICC is its accomplice

NATO is an outlaw, the ICC is its accomplice. 44771.jpegThe International Criminal Court at The Hague is a pariah in the world of Justice and International Law; those who work for it are traitors to their cause, the Institution itself is an insult to every fibre of civilisation and a knife in the back of the notion that the law prevails and is applied without bias.

It is patently clear nowadays that the ICC is a tool in the hands of NATO - a cynical tool which bases itself on the pseudo-precept that it follows the law, a manipulative organism which twists legal principles and applies them with two weights and measures. What is amazing, is that those behind the ICC and NATO think that the public will believe them.

 NATO has committed war crimes in Kosovo, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. NATO has committed terrorist attacks occasioning murder in all three theatres of war. Nothing happened, the ICC remained silent. Arrest warrants have been served for David Cameron and Barack Obama in police stations near their places of work and residence for the murder of Colonel Gaddafi's three grandchildren and other civilians in Libya. Monitoring the situation, we see that nothing has yet happened.

NATO's violation of the law

NATO's remit in Libya were UNSC Resolutions 1970 and 1973 (2011) which, summarised, concentrated on no boots on the ground in Libya among NATO forces and this is not the case - violation 1; the enforcement of a no-fly zone, which does not include strafing civilian structures  - violation 2; measures to protect civilians from being attacked does not mean attacking government forces fighting hundreds of heavily armed terrorists - violation 3.

Under the UN Charter it is illegal to take sides in an internal conflict - violation 4; it is illegal to murder or attempt to murder government officials - violation 5; with no formal declaration of war, with no remit from the Military Committee of the UNSC, any action occasioning murder is illegal - violation 6; ditto attempted murder - violation 7; ditto actions occasioning grievous bodily hard - violation 8; ditto actual bodily harm - violation 9; ditto criminal damage - violation 10.

Under the Geneva Conventions it is illegal to attack civilian structures with military hardware - violation 11; it is also illegal to deploy in theatres of conflict munitions and weaponry which will have an affect after such conflict. The alleged use of cluster bombs by NATO and of Depleted Uranium (there are several precedents) could provide violation 12.

At least eleven, possibly 12, violations of international law in Libya, countless others in other operations, and the ICC says nothing. The judges of the ICC receive their instructions and insult their academic area, the fundamental principles of law and their professional class with barefaced arrogance. I challenge Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo to investigate the above charges and to pronounce himself.

The joke which is the ICC

Two international lawyers have exposed the joke which the ICC is. Within just a few hours, lawyers Themba Langa (South Africa - Counsel to Muammar al-Qathafi, Saif al-Islam al-Qathafi and Abdullah al-Senussi) and Fabio Maria Galiani (Italy - Legal advisor and member of the defence team) uncovered no less than eight points of law proving that the ICC is a kangaroo court without one iota of legal validity, yet again proved in this case. Their points are summarised as follows, my observations in brackets.

They point out that for a start the Court has no jurisdiction in Libya because it was never ratified there, that anyway notwithstanding this, under international customary law a Head of State has immunity (did they take Saddam Hussein to The Hague?. Indeed the ICC has no jurisdiction in the USA, so why should it have any in Libya?)

Secondly they point out that the referral to the ICC by the UN Security Council is a violation of jurisdiction, independence and impartiality because it instructs the Court to exclude prosecution for certain persons and in following this directive, the ICC itself is in violation of its own constituent Statutes; thirdly the UNSC does not have the power to dictate terms over Libya to the ICC and anyway under international customary law, the ruling yesterday by the ICC is invalid in countries not signatories to the Rome Treaty which set up the Court.

Fourthly, if in the following instances, the Prosecutor has still not decided whether to open a case on Georgia (because the evidence is being considered) since 2008 (three years); on Guinea since 2009 (two years), on Colombia since 2006 (five years) why then was all the evidence on Libya read, digested and treated legally within just three days when the investigation was opened? (Where is the case against Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi? Where are the cases against the Islamist terrorists who massacred Black Libyans and children? Where is the case against NATO, against Obama, against Cameron, against Sarkozy, against Berlusconi?)

Fifthly the ICC did not even notice that the referral by the UNSC violated the Court's Statute; sixthly, if NATO respects the Court and its deliberation, (why is it continuing to perpetrate 100 terrorist attacks a day protecting terrorists?) then the defendants should have the right to defence themselves. Seventh, NATO is accountable for murder, destruction of property and injury to civilians (acts of terrorism) and eighth, the entire campaign has been based on manipulation through the media (rendering the legal tenets void under any normal court of law. But then again, the ICC is no court of law, is it?)

Next, on the impartiality of this "Court", the lawyers mentioned above claim in their statement:

"One of the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber I, Mr. Cuno Tarfusser, recently made statements to the Italian media on the situation in Libya which indicated that the ICC is not impartial".

One last question, why do the USA, UK and France prohibit the delivery of baby food to Libyan children? Isn't it enough for Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy to murder them by bombing? If them enjoy murdering children, why don't they start at home? When they look at their children, do they hear the screams of Colonel Gaddafi's grandchildren as they fried in their own blood?

So, Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, what, as a judge and a lawyer, do you have to say to THAT? Nothing, of course, because we know who and what you are.


Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey