Does McCain Support the ICC?

No, that’s not a snarky question. He has consistently made comments that seem to indicate far more openness to the Court than the typical Republican.  In 2002, he voted against the appalling American Service-Members Protection Act (aka “The Hague Invasion Act”).  In 2005, he said “I want us in the ICC, but I’m not satisfied that there are enough safeguards.” In 2006, he publicly reminded the Sudanese government “that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes in Darfur and that Sudanese leaders will be held personally accountable for attacks on civilians.” And just yesterday he expressed a willingness to consider prosecuting Osama bin Laden in an international forum instead of in a U.S. court:

We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don’t think we’d have any difficulty in devising an international — internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There’s no problem there.

The ICC is obviously the legal heir to Nuremberg, an international mechanism that is supported by more than half of the world’s States (107, with Suriname’s recent acesssion).  And although 9/11 would not be within the Court’s temporal jurisdiction, all of al-Qaida’s attacks committed after 1 July 2002 would be. So would John McCain want the ICC to prosecute bin Laden, should he ever be captured? Inquiring minds want to know…