"We'd by happy to try him. Just bring him by."

ARTICLE: Sudan president expected to face war crime charges, By JOHN HEILPRIN, AP, July 11, 2008

All good and another important precedent re-/affirmed.

But as I like to note: facing charges in the Gap ain't the same as facing trial in the ICC, which can indict all it wants. It just can't arrest anybody. For that, you at least need the SysAdmin and sometimes the actual Leviathan.

(Thanks: Dan Hare)

Comments

[Michael]

Would make life interesting for a while, though, especially if they get enough evidence to try him in absentia.

[Michael]

""We condemn it in the strongest of terms. It will have far-reaching, bad implications for the entire country, and all options are open for our reactions," he told The Associated Press."

Just occurred to me: What CAN he do in response that wouldn't get him into even deeper trouble?

[felixdzerzhinsky]

"What CAN he do in response that wouldn't get him into even deeper trouble?"

Bashir can arrange to have a lot of UN people killed. He can inflame the Islamist street to take action against UN targets and ICC targets. The Islamist world already considers the ICC and the UN as well as other NGO's to be pawns of "American and Zionists" . After all the UN is responsible for delivering East Timor to the Crusaders and stood by and watched Mulims killed in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Kashmir. This is not new. It is documented in the book "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism" by Simon Reeve that their original target of Yousef was to be the UN Headquarter but he found there was too much security in place so they went for the World Trade Centre back in 1993. Now we will soon see every extremist in North Africa who could not afford the plane ticket to Iraq coming by bus to Sudan. And Bashir will have what Americans call 'plausible deniability'.

If you are going to take down Bashir you need Leviathan. And he is busy in Iraqistan and getting ready for Iran.

[Jarrod Myrick]

Dovetailed w/G8's '50% by '50' this development not only mocks internationalists but endangers countless numbers of civilians. It's nearly comparable in stupidity to Congress' Armenian massacre "resolution": What exactly can be accomplished by this indictment? Minus Leviathan, SysAdmin, 17k Russians, Chinese, Indians, Italians (give or take), and you have an arrest warrant for Pablo Escobar from the mayor of Newport, Maine. 10 million Christians in North Africa; 90 million in West Africa: Will the UN have a responsibility to protect them if it starts?

[Mark in Texas]

Most of the consequences outlined by Iron Felix are likely to happen as a result of the indictment. However, that is unlikely to deter the folks at the Hague who will probably not face those consequences themselves.

As the FBI agent replied in "Dumb & Dumber" when Loyd Christmas asked what if Harry had been shot in the head instead of the bullet proof vest, "That is a risk we are willing to take."

[Michael]

Bashir goes after UN peacekeepers, his relations with the parent countries of those peacekeepers goes into the toilet. Depending on how many of them are client states of China (Pakistan, one of the largest contributors, is one), Beijing also gets angry with him. As it is, seeing him threaten the organization the CCP has spent so much effort gaining power in and keeping Taiwan out of won't make the Chinese happy either. He could TRY inflaming the Islamic street, but how far will that get him when the Darfuris- and maybe some of the peacekeepers- being massacred are also Muslims?

Remember, too, that the Darfuri rebels were strong enough to launch an attack on Khartoum in spite of further conflict in Chad and no other conflict in Sudan. No matter how many volunteers Bashir gets, he'll only be able to ramp up the conflict so much without triggering a war with Chad or reigniting the civil war with the South. The latter, especially, could alienate his defenders in the AU (such as are left after he's attacked the peacekeepers, some of whom may be African)--they wouldn't want to be seen taking sides on that for fear of starting a larger Muslim-Christian conflict across Africa.

To make a long story short, he's boxed in. Getting out of this with any power will mean diplomacy and compromise, not fighting.

[felixdzerzhinsky]

I share the view of Mark in Texas. And I am not saying it is wrong to indict him.

He doesn't have to target Africans or Chinese. He or his surogates can specifically target Westerners in UNMIS or UNAMID especially in Khartoum. They all eat in the same Western Style restaurants and Hotels.

Bashir has Chinese money and weapons as has been well documented on the BBC recently. He cares for Western opinion about as much as Mugabe.

The safest thing given the indictment is to pull UN Peacekeepers out. Without peace to keep anyway all they are doing is indirectly providing funds through the spending of their per diem on renting houses and eating in restaurants owned by government supporters. This in turn helps the government and allows the wars to continue.

Most of the Arab world is strangely silent regarding the murder of Muslims in Darfur.

Bashir is far from boxed in.