A LAST MINUTE "GIFT" FROM BILL CLINTON

By The Conservative Leadership PAC
July 19, 2001

Minutes before midnight on December 31, 2000, then-President Bill Clinton signed America onto a United Nations treaty establishing an International Criminal Court (ICC). This treaty could obliterate our Bill of Rights.

The treaty must be ratified by the U.S. Senate before it becomes binding. When Republicans controlled the Senate, we could count on Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms to keep the treaty from even being voted on, much less passed.

Not anymore, though. Now that Democrats control the process, this treaty has a very real chance of being ratified.

If this treaty becomes law, though, it could:

• Make all of us criminals -- the police arm of the ICC would have the power to arrest (without warrant or due process) any citizen for any violation they name. Charges of "crimes against the environment" could be levied against land developers, or even just someone building their "dream home."
• Our military actions would have to be first approved by the U.N., or our soldiers could be prosecuted for war crimes and "crimes of aggression. "Our military actions in Granada or Panama, for instance, could be deemed criminal.
• Our Bill of Right protections, like the requirements for a search warrant, trial by jury, and a speedy trial, would be gone when charged by the ICC.
• The protection against "double jeopardy," being tried for the same crime twice, would be gone. The ICC can try someone over and over until they get the result they want. And there is no appeal.