Arlen Specter: “the debate this afternoon has covered a good many issues of real importance and concern to the United States and to the…”

“the debate this afternoon has covered a good many issues of real importance and concern to the United States and to the world. However, I suggest that the preferable approach would be for the United States to participate, to try to make the rules of the International Criminal Court satisfactory to the national interests of the United States, and to establish a framework for the rule of law in the world. There is no doubt that the United States is going to act in what is in the United States' national interests. That is a fundamental rule of how nations behave and should behave. There are real problems which could be posed by an international criminal court and which are now present, for example, in the War Crimes Tribunal on Yugoslavia. It is not well-known that Carla del Ponte, the prosecutor at The Hague, considered a criminal prosecution against General Wesley Clark for targeting civilians and for being careless in the targeting of military installations which threaten civilians. That consideration was undertaken by the prosecutor at The Hague, the War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia, on the initiation of Yugoslavia, backed by Russia.”