GOP Rep Calls on DOJ to Investigate International Court for Ties to Terror

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has urged Attorney General William Barr to investigate the International Criminal Court (ICC), alleging the court has ties to terrorist groups months after it launched an investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes.

Biggs, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote a letter to Barr calling for the investigation on Friday. The letter states that "shocking information" reveals ties between terrorist groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in both the investigation of alleged U.S. war crimes and a separate ICC investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes.

"The Netherlands-based ICC has always been a travesty, but its recent cases against the United States and Israel are especially absurd," Biggs said in a statement. "It is outrageous to claim that our brave soldiers have committed 'crimes against humanity' while fighting terrorists in Afghanistan."

"While the ICC has no jurisdiction over our own country, it wields considerable influence over global affairs," he added. "I urge my congressional colleagues to fight the ICC attacks on Israel and the U.S. The Department of Justice should resist the ICC. Americans should realize that the ICC is an enemy to freedom and is morally bankrupt."

In March, ICC prosecutors opened an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The allegations were part of a preliminary examination that was first launched in 2006, but ICC prosecutors had been blocked from starting a full investigation until this year.

The allegations include claims that the U.S. military and the CIA "resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape" while conducting interrogations in Afghanistan. Most of the alleged abuses occurred between 2003 and 2004.