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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There will be no World Labor Hour broadcast for the foreseeable future. We are working on arranging a remote streaming technique where Bill, Gus and I can do the program remotely from each of our homes, yet in the air at the same time taling with each other and call in guests, just like being in the WRFU studio. We will keep you posted on this development.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>David Johnson</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/20/us-threatens-families-international-criminal-court/"><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><u><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue'><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/20/us-threatens-families-international-criminal-court/"><span style='color:blue'>US government threatens families of Int’l Criminal Court staff if they try Americans for war crimes</span><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></u></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthegrayzone.com%2F2020%2F03%2F20%2Fus-threatens-families-international-criminal-court%2F" target="_top"><span style='color:blue'>Share</span></a><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=US%20government%20threatens%20families%20of%20Int%E2%80%99l%20Criminal%20Court%20staff%20if%20they%20try%20Americans%20for%20war%20crimes&url=https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/20/us-threatens-families-international-criminal-court/&via=TheGrayzoneNews" target="_top"><span style='color:blue'>Tweet</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The International Criminal Court approved an investigation into US war crimes in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by threatening to punish family members of ICC staff.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By Ben Norton<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/17/us-sanctions-venezuelas-health-sector-coronavirus/"><span style='color:blue'>undermining the countries’ attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In March 2019, the Pompeo State Department threatened to <a href="https://apnews.com/08e538e370914f6e8243e237dbde50b5"><span style='color:blue'>revoke or deny visas</span></a> to any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel investigating crimes committed by American forces.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A year later, on March 5, 2020, the ICC took a defiant step forward, officially approving an investigation into allegations of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/812547513/international-criminal-court-allows-investigation-of-u-s-actions-in-afghanistan"><span style='color:blue'>war crimes and crimes against humanity</span></a> committed by the US military and CIA in Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pompeo responded by angrily condemning the court and its proceedings. His broadside was an apparent attempt at discrediting the institution, which the US government is not a party to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In a subsequent <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-remarks-to-the-press-6/"><span style='color:blue'>State Department press briefing</span></a> on March 17, Pompeo launched another tirade against the ICC, belittling it as a “so-called court,” a “nakedly political body,” and an “embarrassment.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pompeo, who previously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPt-zXn05ac"><span style='color:blue'>served as director of the CIA</span></a>, took the denunciations a step further, threatening the family members of ICC staff.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“We want to identify those responsible for this partisan investigation and their family members who may want to travel to the United States or engage in activity that’s inconsistent with making sure we protect Americans,” Pompeo said, according to the US State Department’s official transcript.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sarah Leah Whitson, the managing director for research and policy at the <a href="https://quincyinst.org/"><span style='color:blue'>Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft</span></a>, drew attention to the “shocking attack” on Twitter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“This isn’t just unlawful collective punishment against family members; it’s not just a disturbing attack on staff of a judiciary — where the US has voted to refer other nations for prosecution; it’s abuse of federal authority to use sanctions against actual wrongdoers,” said Whitson, who previously directed the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Whitson called on Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to “condemn this US State Department assault on the staff and FAMILIES of ICC – abuse of sanctions authority in flagrant attack on judicial independence, unlawful collective punishment.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Long history of US threatening multilateral institutions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This blatant US threat against the family members of International Criminal Court prosecutors is part of a longer historical pattern of Washington attacking multilateral institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>At the beginning of the George W. Bush administration’s so-called war on terror, in 2002, the US Congress passed a bill called the American Service-Members’ Protection Act — more commonly known as the “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law"><span style='color:blue'>Hague Invasion Act</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This unprecedented piece of legislation, which has no precedent anywhere else in the world, declares that the US government unilaterally grants itself the right to militarily invade the Hague if a citizen of the United States or any allied country is tried at the court.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Nor are Secretary of State Pompeo’s threats the first time US government officials have targeted the family members of international organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>José Bustani, the former director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (<a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/11/new-leaks-shatter-opcws-attacks-douma-whistleblowers/"><span style='color:blue'>OPCW</span></a>), said hardline neoconservative John Bolton, a former under secretary of state for George W. Bush and national security adviser for Donald Trump, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/29/john-bolton-trump-bush-bustani-kids-opcw/"><span style='color:blue'>threatened him and his family</span></a> when Bustani negotiated with the Iraqi government to allow in OPCW weapons inspectors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don’t comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you,” Bolton reportedly told Bustani, according to his recollection. “We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US State Department imposes new sanctions on Iran and Syria as deadly coronavirus spreads<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Denigrating the Iranian government as “terrorists” in his State Department press briefing, Mike Pompeo declared new sanctions on the social security investment company of Iran’s military, along with five Iranian nuclear scientists.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Moreover, Pompeo announced State Department sanctions on nine more entities, in South Africa, Hong Kong, and China, for doing business with Iran.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>He also unveiled new sanctions on Syria’s minister of defense, citing the Syrian army’s <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/05/syria-war-updateturkeys-erdogan-seeks-to-reestablish-ottoman-empire/"><span style='color:blue'>battle to retake Idlib</span></a>, the last remaining insurgent-held territory in the country, which is <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/21/turkey-us-protect-al-qaeda-in-idlib-and-worsen-syrias-suffering/"><span style='color:blue'>occupied by a rebranded al-Qaeda affiliate</span></a> and other extremist Salafi-jihadists, backed by NATO member Turkey.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>US sanctions on Iran have <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/17/italy-uk-help-cuba-china-venezuela-coronavirus-us-sanctions/"><span style='color:blue'>devastated the country’s health infrastructure</span></a>, greatly exacerbating the <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/12/us-learn-chinas-response-coronavirus/"><span style='color:blue'>coronavirus pandemic</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A new study by researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran warned that millions of people could die due to Covid-19 — which Pompeo repeatedly referred to as the “Wuhan virus” in his press briefing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>An article by German state broadcaster <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/iran-faces-catastrophic-death-toll-from-coronavirus/a-52811895"><span style='color:blue'>DW concisely explained how US sanctions have set the stage for mass death in Iran:</span></a> “Iran’s government applied for a $5 billion (€4.6 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight the epidemic — the first time it has asked the IMF for assistance in over 50 years. Yet, even if it gets the loan, the administration won’t be able to shop for much-needed medical supplies: US sanctions make the banking transactions required to secure even medical supplies and humanitarian goods virtually impossible.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>