February 13, 2001
Dear friend of liberty,
House Concurrent Resolution 23 (H.C.R. 23) was submitted Thursday, February 8, 2001 by Representatives Ron Paul (Texas), Virgil Goode (Virginia), Walter Jones (North Carolina), Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), and John Duncan (Tennessee). H.C.R. 23 expresses "the sense of Congress that President George W. Bush should declare to all nations
that the United States does not intend to assent to or ratify the International Criminal Court Treaty...and the signature of former President Clinton to that treaty should not be construed otherwise."
H.C.R. 23 was referred to the House International Relations Committee of which Representative Paul is a member.
Representative Henry Hyde (Illinois), the new chairman of the House International Relations Committee, recently stated to Insight magazine (01/26/01), "I think that the defense of our sovereignty is one of the big issues currently before the International Relations Committee. This International Criminal Court [ICC agreement] that the president just signed is an assault on our sovereignty. We would yield jurisdiction for criminal prosecutions for our citizens in foreign courts. I think that would be a serious mistake." Mr. Hyde continued, "Surely there's a
principle at stake, and the principle is whether we yield jurisdiction, hence part of our sovereignty, to a foreign entity constituted not by American citizens under the U.S. Constitution, which protects society and citizens, but to a foreign entity over which we have no sovereign
control."
Opposition to the United States subjugating itself to the International Criminal Court is mounting. President Bush, members of Congress, former secretaries of the departments of State and Defense, the current Department of Defense, public policy foundations, newspaper editorial boards, and columnists are opposed to us yielding our national sovereignty; yielding our judicial system; yielding our constitution to an international tribunal based in the Netherlands.
Opposition to the International Criminal Court is mounting among the American public. Since launching our nationwide petition drive just a few weeks ago, 19,782 people have signed our petition addressed to President Bush. However, it's not just the American public. People from Canada, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Namibia, Brazil, Israel, and
Belgium have signed our petition. One gentleman from United Kingdom wrote, "You can help save the sovereignty of all countries."
Our petition drive to President Bush has already started. If you have not signed our petition, please do so now. Today, our drive to get H.C.R. 23 passed begins. Therefore, please urge your U.S. representative to cosponsor H.C.R. 23 today. You can sign our petition and write to your U.S. representative by going to
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org and clicking "International Criminal Court." The text of H.C.R. 23 is posted there along with numerous items about the International Criminal Court.
Kent Snyder
The Liberty Committee
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org
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