Patrick Kennedy: “It is an honor for me to have this opportunity to talk with the gentleman from California and with my colleagues about…”

“It is an honor for me to have this opportunity to talk with the gentleman from California and with my colleagues about the International Criminal Court. As a survivor of the Holocaust, he is a steadfast reminder to all of us that these kinds of war crimes are right in front of us every single day. It is amazing to me that we would be standing in the well of this House talking about this issue, the amendment of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Delay), when we have Rwanda, Burundi, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, East Timor, Saddam Hussein, all of these places that need international criminal courts that do not have them. We are the leaders in the world in terms of human rights. We ought to be the leaders when it comes to the International Criminal Court. This amendment is a farce. I wish I could say as gently as the gentleman from California that the gentleman was well intentioned. This amendment is a lie, because this amendment makes you think that you are going to keep American servicemembers from being prosecuted when that is a lie. Right now if a servicemember under the American flag commits a war crime, they are tried by our own military court. If the DeLay amendment passes, they are going to be tried by the country in which they commit that crime. Who do we want trying our servicemember? Do we want some Saddam Hussein trying our servicemember if we do not sign this treaty? Do we want them to be the ones to try our servicemember? I do not.”