← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · madrussian
Thread ID: 7748 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2003-07-01
2003-07-01 16:45 | User Profile
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday suspended military assistance to almost 50 countries, including Colombia and six nations seeking NATO membership, because they have supported the International Criminal Court and failed to exempt Americans from possible prosecution.
As the deadline passed for governments to sign exemption agreements or face the suspension of military aid, President Bush issued waivers for 22 countries.
But the 22 countries did not include Colombia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Other major countries liable to the suspension of military aid are Brazil, Cambodia, Serbia and South Africa.
Colombia, where the government is fighting leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers, has been one of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in the world.
Washington has spent about $2 billion in aid to Colombia in recent years but the U.S. ambassador said last month that Colombia will have to shoulder more of the burden.
It was not immediately clear how long the suspension for Colombia would last. President Bush could reverse it at any moment by issuing another list of waivers.
A U.S. official said that if countries had ratified the treaty setting up the international court and had not received a waiver, the ban on military aid would come into effect.
But the threat, enshrined in the American Service Members Protection Act of 2002, does not apply to the 19 NATO members and to nine "major non-NATO allies."
The suspension covers international military education and training (IMET) funds, which mainly pay the cost of educating foreign officers at U.S. institutions, and foreign military funding, which pays for U.S. weapons and other aid.
WAR CRIMES
IMET funds usually amount to less than $1 million per country a year, but foreign military funding can run into the hundreds of millions. The Bush administration had asked Congress for $98 million for Colombia in 2003.
Congress passed the law out of disapproval of the International Criminal Court, set up to try war crimes and acts of genocide. The United States says it feared politically motivated prosecutions of civilian or military leaders.
The United States had hoped that the threat to withdraw aid would lead to a last-minute rush to sign Article 98 agreements exempting U.S. personnel from transfer to the court.
Altogether 44 governments have publicly acknowledged signing the agreement and at least seven others have signed secret agreements, U.S. officials say.
The pace of signatures does appear to have picked up a little. About 25 governments have signed in the last four months, about half of those in the last three weeks.
Based on the information initially available to Reuters, the countries subject to the suspension of military aid are:
Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia.
The countries which received presidential waivers are:
Albania, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, East Timor (news - web sites), Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Honduras, Macedonia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nigeria, Panama, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan and Uganda.
2003-07-01 21:06 | User Profile
I don't like the countries that were suspended, but I surely don't like the countries that receive the aid. When are those countries going to shoulder their own military and not request aid from the US anyway? I even read that there is talk of an "active" support of the US for Liberia. I say we do not need to take that role. Let the Liberians 'actively' seek former descendants of the slaves for military roles. Get them to help fight for their freedom.
2003-07-01 21:33 | User Profile
Uncle Shmuel: "Hey! If you won't give our stormtroopers and politicians an exempt-from-court pass, we'll just have to stop the military bribes that we shouldn't have been giving you in the first place, to teach you a lesson!"
Ireland: "Wait, what were we doing on the aid list to begin with?"
Sweden: "Us too. Seriously, who would attack Sweden?"
The 20 African countries who received waivers: "click clikclk clickity click pop clik" (thank you for giving us the guns to continue fighting white devils)
Sweden: "Oh."
2003-07-02 03:21 | User Profile
**Based on the information initially available to Reuters, the countries subject to the suspension of military aid are:
Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia. **
That sure frees up a lot of manpower & materiel for a long-term commitment to The War Foe Eretz Yis'roel now, don't it?
2003-07-02 03:34 | User Profile
**Ireland: "Wait, what were we doing on the aid list to begin with?"
Sweden: "Us too. Seriously, who would attack Sweden?"**
I just reread Drakmals post and for some odd reason my eyes didn't catch the above countries nor Switzerland. I guess my eyes were so focused in picking up Asian and African countries that my own eyes lied to me. What is the business of giving military aid to those western countries? Did we promise something to them, like we were buying Turkey during the Iraqi War?
2003-07-02 10:14 | User Profile
The Imperial compilers seemed to have developed a taste for meaningless lists, first the Coalition of the Willing and now this:
Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia.
Liechtehnstein!? Liechtehnstein, population 33,000, doesnââ¬â¢t even have a military.
Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland are on the list because they are not members, or official allies, of NATO. They belong the Western European group of UN loving neutral nations. The 'military aid' referred to in this context amounts to little more than access to US training and I'm willing to bet big bucks that said training is under the auspices of the UN to begin with.
2003-07-02 15:27 | User Profile
Finland and Austria are especially galling. They have a higher standard of living than the US. Why would we have been sending aid to them anyway?
2003-07-06 00:50 | User Profile
Or should I say in another way? US bribed these countries by military aid so it can be exampted from being prosecuted war crime.
Bush & Blair Face War Crimes Lawsuit
06/19/03: (Sky News http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1094629,00.html) War crimes lawsuits have been filed in Belgium against US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Belgian authorities said Bush and Blair are among eight top officials implicated in the lawsuits.
But the Belgian government has refused to handle the cases, referring them to the defendants' governments, reducing their chances of reaching a court. Belgium has come under harsh criticism especially from the United States for the law, which empowers its courts to try foreigners for serious war and human rights crimes no matter where they were committed.
[url=http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3839.htm]http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/a...article3839.htm[/url]
2003-07-06 03:42 | User Profile
Lady_America: > I don't like the countries that were suspended
Why?
When are those countries going to shoulder their own military and not request aid from the US anyway?
You mean, when are they going to stop trying to milk a cash cow for everything it has to give? I personally don't blame other countries for asking the USA for aid: I think the USA is stupid to hand it out. Nobody is, after all, forcing the USA to do anything it doesn't want to do.
Shouldn't the question really be, when is the USA going to choose stop giving aid to foreign nations when it should really be spending this money on itself?
Drakmal: too funny. :th: :lol:
2005-10-04 03:39 | User Profile
with the aid comes request from USA to those countrys to buy US military hardware when it is time to upgrade its military
2005-10-04 04:06 | User Profile
Paul,
I would think there is little, if anything Sweden would need from the US. Their own arms industry is more than adequate for their needs.
2005-10-04 12:13 | User Profile
sertarius................... that is truth for sweden but i think former warsawacountrys that is very likely scenario
2005-10-04 12:57 | User Profile
This should get some of your Republicrats thinking. Suspended military aid to FIFTY countries, with a lot of countries still getting military aid (22 plus those that agreed to make the US King of the world). This doesn't include economic aid, which is also given to roughly half the countries in the world. It doesn't include other gross transfers of wealth. You know, like those little pacific island nations that receive billions of US dollars as compensation for US testing nukes in WWII.
2005-10-04 16:20 | User Profile
Drakmal
The neo-cons are such morons. Finland, Ireland and Austria are friendly, non-aligned, neutral nations.
What the hell kind of a foreign policy is this? :bag:
Greg
"'He is a prodigy,' he said at last. 'He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want,' he began to declaim suddenly, 'for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.'" - Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
2005-10-07 05:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=kathaksung]Or should I say in another way? US bribed these countries by military aid so it can be exampted from being prosecuted war crime. [/QUOTE] You take the alleged war crime red herring hook, line and sinker. You need to borrow a nickel and buy a clue. This crap has been going on since long before the Iraq mess started. The initial aim was to make money off of imperfections in action by various troops deployed to places like Bosnia, Sarajevo, Africa, the usual suspects of beggar nations.
The ICC attempt to over ride SOFA's between various allies and nations, and particularly to use non accountable courts to politically attack the soldiers of wealthy nations (including the US) is a scheme of obvious extortion, even when conducting difficult peace keeping operations for the UN beggars. This blatantly Euro Bureaucrat agenda is a step toward the anti American world government by the "financiers and lawyers behind the scenes" who tend to be the very people that much of this board wants to string up.
Don't let your disgust for GW Bush blind you to the crap that the self-appointed puppet masters who want to impose world government under Euro Socialist principles are trying to pull. There is more than one set of rascals in this world pursuing an agenda injurious to freedom of the common man.
AE
2005-10-09 01:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE] ...to places like Bosnia, Sarajevo, Africa, the usual suspects of beggar nations. [/QUOTE] Um, Sarajevo is in Bosnia. In fact, it's the capital.:wink:
2005-10-10 19:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE=John Graziano]Um, Sarajevo is in Bosnia. In fact, it's the capital.:wink:[/QUOTE] Whoops, Bosnia, Somalia . . man, where is my proofreading? blushes furiously
2005-10-16 04:09 | User Profile
hells bells suspend all furren aid.