By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 — The Bush administration, still wary of the new International Criminal Court, is trying to line up nations one by one to pledge not to extradite Americans for trial, administration officials said today.
So far, the administration has signed agreements with Romania and Israel. Both countries have agreed that they will not send American peacekeepers or other personnel to the court, whose purpose is to prosecute individuals for war crimes and genocide when national governments refuse to act.
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<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/07/international/07COUR.html>
Apart from considering as a symptom the ideological sleight of hand - a way of determining the terms of the debate - involved in translating politically motivated immunity into the status of "idle observer," how big of an issue does the ICC itself raise regarding the powers, configuration, strengths and weaknesses of Empire, and the US's place in it? Article 98 seems some kind of political escape hatch, and why Isreal would agree is obvious, but what's Romania's interest apart from NATO inclusion?
Alec
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