Concerned Women for America - Specter Watch: Specter’s Support of Rogue Court Threatens America's Bravest and Finest

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Specter Watch: Specter’s Support of Rogue Court Threatens America's Bravest and Finest 11/11/2004

Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America (CWA) honors America’s bravest and finest military on this Veteran’s Day, and says it’s one more important reason for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) not to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Specter is an avid supporter of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would subject our military personnel to face prosecution for war crimes before hostile international judges, and deny them the protections of our Constitution,” said Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel.

President Clinton signed the U.N.-ICC treaty but it was never submitted to the Senate for ratification, and President Bush announced that he had no intention of sending it to the Senate.

In December 2001, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the American Servicemembers Protection Act that exempted our military from the threat of the ICC. However, Sen. Specter was among the few in the Senate, and the only Republican, who voted against this amendment.

“President Bush ‘thinks the ICC is fundamentally flawed because it puts American servicemen and women at fundamental risk of being tried by an entity that is beyond America's reach, beyond America’s laws, and can subject American civilians and military to arbitrary standards of justice,’ and he’s absolutely right,” LaRue added.

“Furthermore, Sen. Specter opposed President Bush’s decision on May 6, 2002, not to ratify the U.N./ICC. After Specter’s repeated opposition to the president’s policies, he has no right to serve as committee chairman,” LaRue said.

LaRue concluded: “Does it get any worse than having the far-left Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) quote Specter for support? That’s what Leahy did in his floor speech on May 5, 2003, urging President Bush to support the ICC: ‘As the distinguished senior Senator from Pennsylvania, Senator Specter, has said, U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Court should be one of ‘aggressive engagement.’”