Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is closing a decades-old office in the State Department that has helped seek justice for victims of war crimes.
The Office of Global Criminal Justice advises the secretary of state on issues surrounding war crimes and genocide, and helps form policy to address such atrocities. It was established by President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in 1997. Since then, the office has supported the work of criminal courts in countries including Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Cambodia and the Central African Republic, and has pushed for greater U.S. support of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The office has also offered rewards that have resulted in information disclosures about and apprehension of war criminals, and has inveighed against brutal dictators, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (It has not, however, criticized Saudi Arabia or other American allies with dismal human rights records.)
Foreign Policy magazine first reported that a Tillerson representative recently informed the office’s special coordinator Todd Buchwald that he and his staff were being reassigned. Buchwald is a career foreign service officer and has served in the position since December 2015.
The closing drew howls of outrage from human rights experts.
“It just makes official what has been U.S. policy since 9/11, which is that there will be no notice taken of war crimes because so many of them were being committed by our own allies, our military and intelligence officers and our elected officials,” Maj. Todd E. Pierce, a former judge advocate general defense attorney at Guantanamo, told Newsweek. “The war crime of conspiring and waging aggressive war still exists, as torture, denial of fair trial rights, and indefinite detention are war crimes. But how embarrassing and revealing of hypocrisy would it be to charge a foreign official with war crimes such as these? That’s not to defend the closing of this office but to lament that is has been rendered irrelevant.”
Amherst College law professor Lawrence Douglas, a war crimes expert, said the plan “should be a source of deep regret domestically and cause for grave concern abroad. The closing makes a powerful statement—that the Trump administration cares little about the protection of human rights and nothing about the vital work of international criminal courts. Perpetrators of atrocities the world over will, however, be pleased.”
Efraim Zuroff of Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, which tracks Nazi war criminals, told Newsweek the State Department’s decision sends the wrong message to victims and perpetrators around the world. “War crimes are now happening all over the world, as you know. Prosecuting them is not the job only of the United States, but to close this office will not help to bring justice,” he said.
A State Department spokesman would not confirm or deny the report, but emailed Newsweek the following statement: “The State Department is currently undergoing an employee-led re-design initiative, and there are no predetermined outcomes. During this process, we are committed to ensuring the Department is addressing such issues in the most effective and efficient way possible. We are not going to get ahead of any potential outcomes.”
The office was formed following the 1996 passage of the War Crimes Act, which defined a war crime as a “grave breach” of the Geneva Conventions. When the CIA began using torture early in the Iraq War and, later, jailing people indefinitely and without trial in Guantanamo, the U.S. was in open breach of the conventions.
The War Crimes Act is applicable to both foreign and U.S. individuals, including U.S. military and intelligence officials, but civil claims brought by victims against U.S. officials over the last 10 years “for what are undisputed war crimes,” according to former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Maj. Todd Pierce, have routinely been tossed out on the grounds that the accused were “acting within the scope of their employment.” Pierce compared that defense to “the latest version of the Nuremberg defense of ‘I was just following orders.’ Closing this office dispenses with any lingering hypocrisy that we care to hold war criminals accountable for their acts.”
The State Department did not confirm the reports, but if true, downgrading such an office is just one example of a wide-ranging overhaul, including dispensing with special envoys. For example, the State Department recently closed the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. Tillerson has also ordered layoffs and left hundreds of diplomatic posts unfilled. In one anecdotal case shared with Newsweek recently, a high level German official trying to reach his U.S. counterpart to discuss issues related to a major German company in the United States was literally unable to talk to anyone, as his counterpart has not been appointed.
Reports from State Department insiders during the last few months describe “empty, adrift and listless” offices and fewer meetings than in past administrations.
One former diplomat, Chas Freeman, who was ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a foreign service officer in China and Africa, told Newsweek that, despite the pushback, the Trump administration has some good reasons to close the office because it is among many “special interests” that have clogged up the business of the nation’s foreign service agency in recent years.
“One of the reasons that the Department of State has become unmanageable is that it has been festooned with special coordinators and ambassadors-at-large appointed to represent special interests, in this case the humanitarian-industrial complex,” Freeman said. “These offices are intended to serve as the voice of those special interests in the policy process and to push policies in the direction favored by the lobbies that promoted their establishment. The intent is the symbolic elevation of a cause. The result is to gum up the policy process with ideological agendas. In practice, the effect within the bureaucracy, more often than not, is to turn what might have been a policy objective integrated into the normal structure into a bureaucratic turf battle and a subject of resentment by those trying to pursue policies based on the national rather than particular interest.”
The Obama administration also reportedly considered downgrading the office and combining it with another office within the agency. The closure of the office, while significant in a symbolic sense, might not affect the ongoing work of the lawyers who are being reassigned to other offices.
dave thompson on Mon, 24th Jul 2017 8:28 pm
Off course who needs a war crime office. Everybody knows that there are no war crimes in the world unless it is some other country or despot that is doing the war crimes. The US has always had legitimate reason behind every single action, be it covert or otherwise. Remember the Main!!!!!!!!
Anonymouse on Mon, 24th Jul 2017 9:42 pm
I see from this JewsWeek propanda piece that amerikan ‘Office of War Crimes’, routinely tossed out war cases of crimes committed by amerikans. Since you know, they were in part of the job description, then, not a war-crime, no problem.
Sounds like this office was working as intended.
No irony at all, that the undisputed king of war crimes culpability, the uS and Isreal of course, would even have an office like this in the first place (why?). Unless of course, its real purpose is to offer up dubious war-crimes prosecutions against countries and individuals that just happen to be in the amerikans cross-hairs….
Makati1 on Mon, 24th Jul 2017 9:49 pm
Anon, you got it in one. Americans never look in the mirror. They are too busy pointing accusing fingers at others. Blow-back is going to be a nasty, junkyard dog sized, bitch!
Cloggie on Mon, 24th Jul 2017 10:27 pm
The US wants new sanctions against Russia. EU suspects that the US wants to replace cheap Russian oil and gas with American and revolts.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-24/eu-retaliate-within-days-if-us-imposes-new-sanctions-russia
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/usa-wollen-neue-russland-sanktionen-eu-zeigt-sich-alarmiert-a-1159287.html
boat on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 1:18 am
clog,
In the interests of peace and self preservation the Russians should give up on computers.
Cloggie on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 4:01 am
boat,
In the interests of peace and self preservation the Americans should give up on global empire aspirations.
But as long as your deep state has not been destroyed, this is not going to happen of course.
#DrainTheSwamp
Anonymouse on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 5:02 am
boatard, in the interests of improving the quality of comments here, you should give up on computers.
deadlykillerbeaz on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 5:24 am
All is fair in love and war.
No such thing as a war crime.
Davy on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 5:38 am
“In the interests of peace and self preservation the Americans should give up on global empire aspirations.”
Hypocrite, Europeans are complicit in all the crimes Americans have committed. You Europeans are an accomplice to the rape and pillage of the world and acting innocent. What a friggen joke, Europe is the reason the world is self-destructing. European civilization is the sickness that will destroy the planet and you are talking about golden decade and American crimes as if you have little to do with them. Makatism at its best.
Cloggie on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 6:56 am
Hypocrite, Europeans are complicit in all the crimes Americans have committed.
That’s long history. We are living in 2017.
You Europeans are an accomplice to the rape and pillage of the world and acting innocent.
Perhaps. But en passant we lifted these folks from the stone age into the modern era. And apparently colonialism was not that bad, considering that all these young African men attempt to get to Europe, back to their former white masters.
The American empire however is an empire that exists today. It is an empire where a former European colony has been hijacked by a kosher dominated deep state that seeks to destroy European men, both in Europe and America. That includes you and should give you reason to pause, but it doesn’t because of your low level of ethnic pride. You accept your own destruction as long as you can carry on with the illusion that you own the world.
The last thing the European Mother Civilization needs is being colonized by a former colony, just because that former colony happened to be hijacked by its kosher deep state and teamed up with that other kosher hijacked entity, the USSR in the thirties.
Europe is the reason the world is self-destructing.
Europe (and its offshoot America) created an industrial civilization that everybody wants to live in, certainly Americans, or at least have such a civilization for itself (China/Japan). That there are environmentally destructive elements in that industrial civilization is mostly identified by Europe itself, that is most serious involved in trying to combat these negative consequences, not so much America.
#ClubOfRome
#ParisAccords
#EnergyPolicyEuropeanUnion
America was the prime reason for the dismantling of the European empires. Now payback time has arrived and Yankee ass is going to be kicked out of Eurasia, if necessary the hard way. And boy it is going to feel good.
Got the message?
Inverse Monroe doctrine: Eurasia for the Eurasians.
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/imagenes_sociopol/globalmilitarism58_14.jpg
Makati1 on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 7:13 am
Cloggie, I think the Missouri Mule sees what is ahead for the U$ and he is denying it for the most part because it will be the end of his way of life, and that of his kids and theirs, if they ever have any. Facing and admitting that his country is a pile of shit and is killing all over the world to keep the profits flowing to TPTB is beyond his ability to accept, it seems. He writes long comments that few read, and thinks it changes things.
He never truly experienced the U$’ best years. I did and you too have that extra 20+ years to put today’s world into perspective. While I may not agree with you on all points, we do have a similar view of the U$ and it’s future and the possibilities for the rest of the world when the U$ is not able do anything but to try to survive inside its borders.
Davy on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 7:16 am
“America was the prime reason for the dismantling of the European empires. Now payback time has arrived and Yankee ass is going to be kicked out of Eurasia, if necessary the hard way. And boy it is going to feel good. Got the message?”
Europeans are the primary reason the European empires failed. Europeans are failure plain and simple they are a violent and overly proud people that routinely turn on themselves in the worst violence. They have rape and pillage the entire earth and all the worst of the “isms” are European. Good luck with your overpopulated dangerous Eurasia. Have fun with your Paris, Berlin, Moscow nonsense. Russia will have you by your nuts before long. Good riddance, I will be happy when the US withdraws back to its borders. I will laugh as your so called civilized people, who in reality are savages, turn on yourselves in violent upheaval. How about that message?
Davy on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 7:30 am
Makati, this is fun deflating two old men who follow makatism. It is so easy to shoot you pussies down because both of you are hazer/praise’ers. You self-righteously act as if your shit don’t stink and cut others down as if they are beneath you like classic bigots. Both of you are history revisionists according to the narrow makatism agenda of haze/praise. Both of you live in a fantasy future that is not yet and likely never will be.
Makati, you are an old man living on a small social security stipend with your boyfriend in wealthy Makati. You want your cake and eat it of talking down the west but that is what you live in. Makati is a developed Asian city within a 3rd world urban mega sprawl of 20MIL. You talk down westerners but that is who you are. You act like a robin hood but really you are a joke because you live among the rich. You talk about the fantasy farm and being this knowledgeable farmer but you are never there. What are you going to do when your Filipino boyfriend gets tired of your dumbass attitude of always being right and everyone else is wrong BS? What are you going to do on the streets? Your small stipend will not support your lifestyle in Makati.
Makati1 on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 8:43 am
Davy, you do not debate. you pontificate* the greatness of your dying country. At least Cloggie and I share a much longer viewpoint than you do, and can judge today’s events using that experience. All you can do is point out irrelevant things like the population of Manila city or our long experience of living in this world. You will never see your 70s so who is the luckier? I probably have another 15-20 years to enjoy my life. Do you?
Again you conger up some fairy-tale life for me with absolutely ZERO facts to support it. You have no idea of my resources, skills, education, or my life here other than what I write in my comments. I could be an intelligent teenager living in Florida for all you actually know. I would be a fool to broadcast my life or resources on the internet wouldn’t I? I am quite well set up here and that is all you will ever hear about it.
I did not come from a 1%er family, thank any god that might be. It must be difficult to kiss ass and try to not be disinherited all of your life and still be an individual. Frustrating when you cannot get someone else to come down to your level, isn’t it? LMAO
*PONTIFICATE : to speak or express your opinion about something in a way that shows that you think you are always right. M/W.
Davy on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 9:37 am
Blah, blah, blah, you are a worn out old man spitting out hate and discontent daily. Your type are the reason the world is so fucked up. You take it a step further than the normal pathetic balme and complain game. You add the added dimension of narcissism and fantasy. No wonder you left your previous life. I imagine no one could stand being around you.
I am a doomer and prepped for a reason. I know hard times are coming to my world. The difference between us is you dismiss your risk. If you do mention your risk it is cavalierly and strategically to mask your extreme narcissism of being safe and above the coming chaos. You manufacture a past and speculate on a future that makes you appear to be the blessed one. You are a fake and a liar. You preach hate and you do it in a vulgar manner. Your days are numbered approaching 80 with no healthcare and family to take care of you. No wonder you live in a fantasy world.
Apneaman on Tue, 25th Jul 2017 11:38 am
Health Kare in Amerika
“This is how the poor in America get their health care now: once a year, in a cattle barn. This is the Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise, Virginia, as covered by a British newspaper.”
“These are not Haitians, or Yemenis, or Venezuelans, not denizens of some failed state in some poverty-ravaged, storm-lashed, drought-stricken country. These are citizens of the United States of America, which claims to be the richest (on average) country in the world (actually, the US is number 13, well behind Ireland, for example) and to have the world’s finest health care system (No again, that would be Denmark).
As they congregated in Wise, Virginia (tucked into the farthest southwest corner of the state) last weekend, the United States Senate and the Trump Administration was laboring mightily to drop them from Medicaid, the only coverage any of them has, which in any case does not provide dental care, eyeglasses or hearing aids. (With one notable exception: US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia was working as a volunteer in the registration tent, something he has done every year this clinic has been held.)
The charity behind this annual free clinic (and many others around the world), Remote Area Medical, was founded by Stan Brock. He’s British. “This organisation was designed to parachute into the most God-awful places, he said. “I expected to see stuff like this in South Sudan and Haiti, but it’s right here in the United States of America.” What further “drives me up the wall,” he told The Telegraph, is that most of these people blame former President Obama for their troubles and believe President Trump is coming to save them. Obama, who got tens of millions of them covered by Medicaid, and Trump, who seeks to expel them.
If you want to read details or see pictures of this horrid event, you will find them in British or Australian publications, or in the hyper-local press. There were no CNN cameras present, no world weary anchor babes to pretend empathy.
I have been a professional writer my whole life, and I have no idea what words to use to describe a country that has deliberately turned over the misery and illness and diseases and injuries of its people to be profit centers for voracious and amoral industrialists. To say such a country has descended to Third World status would be to offer a mortal insult to the entire Third World.”
http://www.dailyimpact.net/2017/07/25/health-kare-in-amerika/
Makati1 on Wed, 26th Jul 2017 7:10 pm
U$ M$M lies… “Covering the recent battle for the city of Marawi on Mindanao Island in the Southern Philippines, the Western media has been grossly exaggerating unconfirmed reports and rumors. It has been spreading twisted information and ‘facts’.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/philippines-western-media-is-distorting-reality-people-and-army-unite-to-battle-isis/5600985
The U$, Number One in war crimes and lies.
Makati1 on Wed, 26th Jul 2017 7:12 pm
Ap, America is ALL about $$$$$. Fuck the serfs. The 1%ers rule. That is why I cheer it’s fall and hope it is soon. I hope you are prepared. It is coming.
joe on Fri, 28th Jul 2017 4:17 am
Guys. Remember the allegory of the cave. You guys think it’s somehow ‘european’ that the global empire of oil (we call capitalism) has stalled and parts of it are starting to crumble. Frankly when it suits some of you guys you say the British are evil and cause the problems, or America or Germany or Russia, so times you guys blame China or whatever suits at the moment.
ALL FIAT CURRENCIES FAIL IN THE LONG TERM. As Kissanger once stated, the US has no allies, only interests. What this acknowledges is a truth that Empire works on interests, and these interests are served from many sources by many means. The system isn’t in trouble because it began as ‘european’, in fact such a statement absolves Europe because european states no longer lead, therefore the system today is not their fault. This of course is waffle Europe heavily influences the globe and many european interests in the world are served in many ways.
The truth is that all empires eventually fail, and the greater height from which they fall the greater the damage.
AM on Fri, 28th Jul 2017 7:44 am
maktard, you sounds like a marxist. how can you say the money man has all the powa? he doesn’t. it’s a symbiotic relationship but your tardbrain can’t get it.
i’m going to say it once and final time. if you’re a farmer in the midwest with thousands of acres, do not attempt bartering. it’s a sure way to fail.
the “serfs” work for the money because without it, they’d be in a cave.
money is nothing without “serfs” and serfs are nothing without money. One explanation is that they can’t get along.
you said I speak as if i’m removed from reality. i think you are indoctrinated to hate money. but you wait every month for the check to come from America
I think we can require pensioners to appear every 6 months in person. then you’ll stop your baseless criticism of the US.