The American Service-Members' Protection Act (ASPA) is a United States federal law introduced by US Senator Jesse Helms and signed into Law by George W. Bush as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act and passed in August 2002 by Congress. The stated purpose of the amendment was "to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party".
It authorizes the President to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court”. This has led to the nickname The Hague Invasion Act,[1][2] since such freeing of US citizens by force might only be possible through an invasion of The Hague, Netherlands, the seat of several international criminal courts and the seat of the Dutch government.
The Act prohibits federal, state and local governments and agencies (including courts and law enforcement agencies) from assisting the Court. For example, it prohibits the extradition of any person from the United States to the Court; it prohibits the transfer of classified national security information and law enforcement information to the Court; and it prohibits agents of the Court from conducting investigations in the United States.
The Act also prohibits U.S. military aid to countries that are party to the Court. However, exceptions are allowed for aid to NATO members, major non-NATO allies, Taiwan, and countries which have entered into “Article 98 agreements”, agreeing not to hand over U.S. nationals to the Court. Furthermore, the President may waive this prohibition where he determines that to do so is “important to the national interest of the United States”.
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Pieter Nouwen wrote a book called De Pias van het Pentagon (English: The Clown of the Pentagon) about the possible consequences for the Netherlands which might happen if the ICC would actually indict Americans and incarcerate them.
The Dutch government reacted mildly to this legislation which entitled the American president to violate Dutch sovereignty by force without congressional approval. The Dutch MEP Wim van de Camp suggested in July 2009 as one of the few that if the Netherlands should accept previous inmates of Guantanamo Bay the The Hague Invasion Act should be taken into account in the negotiations.[3]
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