Is the ICC attacking American sovereignty and hegemony?

 

Is this part of a plan to establish a one-world government? Or does the prosecutor simply have a God-complex?

ICC says criticism of the ICC could be

a criminal offense

MAY 31, 2024 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Authoritarian leftist foes of free inquiry control the international organizations.

ICC prosecutor threatens US senators

by Elliott Abrams, JNS, May 29, 2024 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Many critics thought the International Criminal Court had gone too far when its prosecutor asked for arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

But as the saying goes, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Now, the prosecutor’s office has threatened to prosecute criticism of…himself. Those who seek to defend Israel and stop the malicious, deeply antisemitic action against its leaders and against the Jewish state are now being told that their words and actions may also be a crime.

This may sound like something out of “Alice in Wonderland,” but it is an effort not only to limit freedom of speech, but to limit the constitutional powers of the U.S. Congress.

After the prosecutor called for the arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, 12 U.S. senators wrote to the ICC. The full text of the letter is below. The final paragraphs read:

“If you issue a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli leadership, we will interpret this not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.

“The United States will not tolerate politicized attacks by the ICC on our allies. Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”

The reaction of the prosecutor’s office came in a tweet, the key language of which is this:

“When individuals threaten to retaliate against the Court or Court personnel…such threats, even when not acted upon, may also constitute an offence against the administration of justice under Art. 70 of the Rome Statute.”

Wow.

The 12 senators are already criminals, according to the ICC prosecutor, for writing their letter—even if absolutely nothing else happens. Note that the prosecutor writes of “individuals” who may threaten the ICC, whereas the senators write as U.S. government officials about possible official U.S. government actions. In plain language, the prosecutor is arguing that he and the ICC are above criticism. Forget freedom of speech or national sovereignty. To say that the United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, might react to punish the ICC for illegal and immoral actions it and its employees may take is not permitted….

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Venezuela's Precipitous Descent into Autocracy

2 political figures killed as Venezuela holds

unpopular vote for new assembly

President Nicolas Maduro vows to go after political foes

after election with aim to rewrite constitution

The Associated Press 

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro greets supporters in Caracas on Saturday.

(Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters)

Gunfire has killed a candidate in Venezuela's controversial election for a new assembly tasked with rewriting the country's constitution, as well as an opposition activist, officials said Sunday.

Jose Felix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer described as a popular candidate for the Constituent Assembly, was shot in his home in Bolivar City on Saturday night, a tweet from the country's public ministry said.

A group of people broke into his residence and "fired several shots," it said.

Ricardo Campos, a youth secretary for the opposition Democratic Action party, was shot and killed during a street protest in the same city early Sunday, said Henry Ramos Allup, a deputy in the National Assembly and the party's national secretary general.

Two other men were shot and killed during a protest on Saturday night in the town of Chiguara in Merida State in the country's northwest, Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reported.

The violence came before voting began in an election held after four months of political upheaval, which has left about 100 people dead and thousands injured and detained.

President casts pre-dawn vote

President Nicolas Maduro asked for global acceptance on Sunday as he cast an unusual pre-dawn vote for an all-powerful constitutional assembly that his opponents fear he'll use to replace his country's democracy with a single-party authoritarian system.

Accompanied by close advisers and state media, Maduro voted at 6:05 a.m. local time — far earlier and less publicly than in previous elections.

In one of the latest clashes between protesters and the government, a 61-year-old nurse was shot and killed by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries during a protest at a church, close to the school where Maduro voted.

Maduro and his socialist administration deny links to violent paramilitaries and say the political opposition is responsible for the violence that has left at least 113 dead and nearly 2000 wounded in four months of protests.

"We've stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence," Maduro said. "Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country."

Venezuelans living in Bogota, Colombia, demonstrate against the constitutional assembly promoted by President Nicolas Maduro's government. The sign reads, 'Out with Maduro, no more dictatorship.' (Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters )

The opposition is boycotting Sunday's vote, contending the election has been structured to ensure Maduro's socialist party continues to dominate; all 5,500 candidates for the 545 seats in the constituent assembly are his supporters and the vote's success is being measured by turnout.

The government is encouraging participation with tactics that include offering social benefits like subsidized food to the poor and threatening state workers' jobs if they don't vote.

'Hoping for housing'

Opinion polls say more than 70 per cent of the country is opposed to Sunday's vote and by mid-morning, turnout appeared light in a dozen sites visited by The Associated Press, with dozens or hundreds of voters lining up at polling sites that saw thousands by the same time in previous elections. Some were frank about their motivations for voting: staying in the government's good graces to receive aid.

"I'm here because I'm hoping for housing," said Luisa Marquez, a 46-year-old hairdresser.

Others said they were there out of conviction that the constitutional assembly would help the government fend off what they called an international capitalist conspiracy to undermine Venezuela's socialist system with the help of the domestic opposition.

Communist paranoia, apparently, stems from socialist paranoia.

"The crisis, the shortages of food and medicine, that isn't the government's fault," said Luis Osuna, a 42-year-old private bodyguard. "Those who are attacking us to kill us with hunger and blame the government are the same enemies the government's always had."

Once one of Latin America's wealthiest nations, Venezuela has spiraled into a devastating crisis during Maduro's four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The special assembly being selected Sunday will have powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution but will also have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Opponents have 'prison cell waiting' 

While opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation, describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other. It's the super power!"

He said he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and indicated he is eager to prosecute many more members of the opposition parties that control a handful of state governments along with the National Assembly, providing one of the few remaining checks on the power of the socialist party that has ruled this OPEC nation for nearly two decades.

A demonstrator looks on during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas on July 28, 2017. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

"The right wing already has its prison cell waiting," the president said. "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."

And the number one crime in Maduro's eyes is, not supporting Maduro.

Saying the assembly will begin to govern within a week, Maduro said its first task in rewriting the constitution will be "a total transformation" of the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor, a former government loyalist who has become the highest-ranking official to publicly split from the president.

There is no room in Maduro's Venezuela for an honest bureaucrat.

The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama.

Vice-President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the U.S. would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead. He didn't say whether the U.S. would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here

Maduro's supporters on the Supreme Court set off the protests and clashes between police and demonstrator when they tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers in April.

The opposition has organized a series of work stoppages, as well as a July 16 protest vote that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly. It called Saturday for roadblocks to start before dawn Sunday and a mass march on Caracas' main highway.

"A new stage in the democratic struggle starts tomorrow," Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, said at a news conference called by Democratic Unity, a coalition of some 20 opposition groups. "This new stage will need more courage ... street protests will get stronger."

This deplorable situation will certainly get much worse before it gets better; if it ever gets better.

‘Convert to Islam or Face Murder Conviction’ – Pakistani Prosecutor Tells Christians

Does this mean that murder is not a crime if you are Muslim in Pakistan?

Members of the Christian community take part in a protest following the 2015 bombings of the churches in Lahore.

© Khuram Parvez / Reuters

At least 42 Christians accused of murder in Pakistan were reportedly told they’d be acquitted if they embraced Islam. The accused face the charges after the lynching of two men following twin suicide blasts at churches during Sunday mass.

Prosecutor Syed Anees Shah initially denied telling the accused he could guarantee their acquittal if they converted. However, he later admitted he did, when told by Pakistan’s Express Tribune that the accused had a video recording of what he said.

“He asks them if they embrace Islam, he can guarantee them their acquittal in this case,” rights activist Jospeh Franci, who is involved in the legal proceedings, told the Tribune. Franci claims all of the accused remained silent following the offer, except one who appeared to say he would rather be hanged than embrace Islam.

The trial of the accused is taking place in an anti-terrorism court in Youhanabad, Lahore following the lynching of two men on March 15, 2015. The men were suspected of being involved in the planning of two suicide blasts at churches in Youhanabad on the same day, which left at least 14 people dead.

Counsel for the accused, Naseeb Anjum Advocate, told the Tribune that the prosecution’s offer was not new, saying it was offered around six months ago.

“The government should get rid of such elements that bring [a] bad name to the state by such acts,” he said, claiming the prosecution was “blackmailing” the accused.

As if the state doesn't already have a 'bad name'.

Islam is the state religion of Pakistan, with Christians the second largest minority, accounting for about 1.6 percent of the population.

Youhanabad, Pakistan

Mexico - Who's in Control - Top Prosecutor Assassinated

Top prosecutor, state officials assassinated

in Mexican border town

By Stephen Feller UPI

A top Mexican prosecutor and two others officials were assassinated late Wednesday, and another government official was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, during a street ambush in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, authorities said Thursday. File Photo by Miki Sarabiez/Shutterstock

NUEVO LAREDO , Mexico, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A top Mexican prosecutor and two state officials were assassinated Wednesday night, and another government official was wounded by gunfire, during what officials say was an ambush in the street.

Ricardo Martinez Chavez, regional coordinator for the attorney general's office, and the two others were shot and killed in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo.

"I regret and condemn the cowardly murders in Nuevo Laredo of the elements of the PGJ," Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, governor of Tamaulipas state, tweeted after the killings. "I express my condolences to their families."

Chavez and the other two victims were leaving a meeting at a government office Wednesday night when they were attacked by gunmen in the intersection, police said. A third official was hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Nuevo Laredo has a history of drug cartel-related violence, as several police chiefs have been targeted by criminals over the past decade. The fighting had cooled for a few years, but flared back up last year as shootouts occurred regularly between law enforcement and drug runners.

40% of all truck traffic flows from Mexico to the USA through Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas. It has long been a target for various drug cartels and home to numerous murders and massacres in pursuit of control of the city. One thing is obvious; it isn't the government that is in control.

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico