Major Left-wing Foundation with $6.4 billion in Assets Announces Campaign to Force U.S. Acceptance of the International Criminal Court; Could Prosecute “Hate Speech” in US

The $6.4 billion left-wing MacArthur Foundation has indicated that it will spend tens or perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars in a campaign to force U.S. acceptance of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and “raise the profile of international justice issues during 2008.”

MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton

In a speech entitled, ”The Case for an International System of Justice,” MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton declared that the ICC has jurisdiction over “hate speech,” a comment suggesting that this U.N.-backed tribunal could even be given the go-ahead to prosecute talk-radio hosts like Michael Savage for being critical of radical Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been trying to force Savage off the air by threatening his advertisers.  

It just so happens that the main author of the ICC is a Muslim associated with CAIR by the name of M. Cherif Bassiouni, a Professor of Law at DePaul University. 

The $6.4 billion John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which gives away about $260 million a year to many U.N.-associated non-governmental organizations, as well as the U.N. itself, has declared that it wants to use 2008 to promote an “International System of Justice,” including the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC could prosecute Americans without giving them Bill of Rights protections. At the same time, the foundation gave former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan its first “MacArthur Award for International Justice” because of his role in promoting the ICC and supporting the so-called “Responsibility to Protect,” a U.N. doctrine giving the world body the right to intervene in the internal affairs of member states. The award provides Annan with $100,000 personally and an additional $500,000 to support an eligible non-profit “working on international justice issues.”

ICC author Bassiouni

On August 31, 2007, the pressure intensified when the Harvard International Review published an article, "The End of Exceptionalism in War Crimes: The International Criminal Court and America's Credibility in the World," noting with pleasure that:

"No senior Bush administration official has been on the warpath against the ICC since John Bolton lost his ambassadorial post at the United Nations in late 2006."

The authors were David Scheffer, who served as the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues in the Clinton Administration, and Richard Cooper and Juliette Voinov Kohler. After noting that recent developments in the United States "have opened the door for a more balanced and constructive understanding of the ICC ," the authors predicted that:

"One key event should compel Washington to act decisively over the next two years, perhaps even leading to its embrace of the Rome Statute in spring 2009. The Rome Statute requires the convening of a review conference seven years after the establishment of the ICC—that date arrives on July 1, 2009. The Assembly of States Parties of the ICC is already well into the planning for a 2009 or 2010 review conference, which will open up the Rome Statute for possible amendment. If the United States is a state party to the ICC by the time the conference convenes, then it can exert considerable influence on the outcome of the conference with its own proposals and exercise of diplomatic power in the negotiations."

The date of spring 2009 lies, of course, in the next administration. But the authors do not suggest that acceptance of the ICC is dependent on a liberal Democrat occupying the White House. Regardless of who occupies the White House, they urge Senate action, saying that:

"The Senate will need to debate the issue in the spring of 2009 with a timely vote."

The authors say changes in

David Scheffer

U.S. policy toward the ICC were reflected in a 2006 report by the Henry L. Stimson Center examining U.S. military attitudes toward the Court. They described the Stimson project as "a path-breaking effort" that produced a "rough consensus" that "the United States needed to move from a studied distance [from the ICC] to constructive engagement, and that Washington should consider cooperation on a case by case basis." This report, "On Trial: The US Military and the International Criminal Court," was clearly an attempt to soften U.S. military opposition to the ICC. It was funded by the aforementioned John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. A search of the foundation's website disclosed $125,000 to the Stimson Center in support of this project, entitled, "U.S. Military Perspectives on the International Criminal Court: Identifying Key Issues and Actors," in 2004.

Overall, the foundation has declared its "support for a strong International Criminal Court" and says that it has "provided more than $216 million and more than 700 grants" in the area of international justice, including support for the ICC. As noted, that will accelerate in 2008.

In addition to the Stimson project, the MacArthur Foundation has put millions of dollars into other organizations and campaigns in support of the ICC. They include:

• World Federalist Movement. $1,350,000 in support of general operations (over two years).  (2003). $1,500,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2005). $150,000 in support of the Responsibility to Protect-Engaging Civil Society project to disseminate and exchange information on the Responsibility to Protect. (2007).
• International Center for Transnational Justice. $2,000,000 in support of the Prosecutions Program: Building a Global System of Justice on the Foundations of the ICC (over three years). (2006). $250,000 to support and develop objective radio reporting on the International Criminal Court in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (2006) $440,000 in support of activities to strengthen the work of the International Criminal Court (over two years). (2005).

In terms of addition resources for the pro-ICC campaign, the World Federalist Movement is the base of operations for the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), which itself reports "major financial contributions" from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the European Commission. It identifies additional funding from the George Soros-funded Open Society Institute, Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, Planethood Foundation, Reebok Foundation, Third Millennium Foundation and the governments of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 

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For more on the MacArthur Foundation, please read Cliff Kincaid’s report on how the foundation promoted plans for a global IRS.