I. INTRODUCTION When President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush greeted Mexican President Vicente Fox and his wife Martha Sahagun de Fox at the administration's first State Dinner at the White House on Sept. 5, 2001, the intent of the administration to prioritize U.S.-Latin America relations seemed both strong and clear. Indeed, the newly elected President Bush was very focused on U.S.-Mexico ...

For the past four years, the Bush Administration has systematically set out to exempt the United States from the purview of the International Criminal Court. Using bullying tactics, it has often gotten its way. But at a cost. President Bush's disdain for the International Criminal Court has been clear all along. His Administration did everything in its power to sabotage its creation. ...

On Friday, November 11, 2005 the United States Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2006 (FY 2006) Foreign Operations spending bill, which had been approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the month. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature. While much analysis will be paid to the bottom line of the legislation ($20.9 billion), equal attention should be given to ...

October 25, 2006 – In a move that demonstrated a re-evaluation of the U.S.’ anti-ICC Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) policy, Congress amended the American Servicemembers Protection Act (ASPA) in the Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill on September 29, 2006. The amendment, introduced in July by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), exempts one category of military aid, namely Intern...

What do Kenya, Mexico, Yemen, and Bolivia all have in common? Each of these countries, representing key geo-strategic regions, are facing imminent cuts in millions of dollars of U.S. military (IMET, FMF) and economic support funds (ESF) under U.S. legislation if they do not comply with U.S. demands to execute a Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA). The Bush administration currently boasts of ...

This week, the Jordanian Parliament’s Lower House bowed to U.S. political and economic pressure and approved a Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) with the U.S. Under this BIA, Jordan has agreed to refrain from surrendering any U.S. personnel accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The U.S. is staunchly opposed to the ICC ...

While this is a significant step forward for the African country, it is significantly marred by the fact that Mr. Venetiaan’s government is considering signing a Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) with the U.S. A BIA would require Suriname to exempt all U.S. nationals, including non-national contractors, from the jurisdiction of the ICC for grave offenses such as war crimes, crimes aga...

Jordanian Parliament Urged to Reject Bilateral Immunity Agreement December 8 -- Leading human rights organizations have called for Jordan's lower house of parliament to refuse ratification of a Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) that had been signed by King Abdullah last December. Jordan's upper house of parliament had endorsed the measure, but calls have been made for that body to r...

September 19, 2005 – Despite signaling that it would not enter into a Bilateral Immunity Agreement (BIA) with the United States, Benin has reportedly signed a BIA. Prior to signing the agreement, the country risked losing up to $250,000 International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds for fiscal 2005 and up to $50,000 IMET funds for fiscal 2006. The Bush administration officially...

In June  the House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (H.R. 3057), containing a new version of the FY05 Nethercutt amendment. The Nethercutt amendment prohibits the U.S. government from granting Economic Support Funds (ESF) to countries that have not agreed to a bilateral immunity agreement (BIA) with the United States. BIAs are desi...