The Hague wants Qaddafi

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court this week sought the arrest of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Sanousi for crimes against humanity. The Hague court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he had direct evidence, some of it supplied by Libyans who had fled the fighting, that Qad­dafi and the other accused had ordered the mass killings of civilians and the torture of dissidents. If authorized by the judges, arrest warrants would likely limit the number of countries in which Qaddafi could seek exile. But the court’s action might also give NATO additional justification to target bombing raids directly against the increasingly isolated Libyan strongman.

Moreno-Ocampo’s announcement couldn’t have been better timed for President Obama, said the New York Post in an editorial. He faces a looming deadline to obtain Congress’s authorization to extend the U.S. mission in Libya beyond the 60 days allowed under the War Powers Act. Congress should be easy to convince once the ICC has branded Qaddafi a war criminal. Now the ball is in Obama’s court. “Tick-tock, Mr. President.”

It’s pointless to worry that the threat of prosecution will discourage Qaddafi from seeking amnesty, said James A. Goldston in ForeignPolicy.com. This is a man who clearly intends to fight to the death. In fact, the proposed indictments have already persuaded some of Qaddafi’s inner circle, most recently his oil minister, to “abandon ship,” and they will “bolster the credibility” of the international community the next time a war criminal threatens the peace.

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“The opportunities for NATO might make the warrant more than a piece of paper,” said Spencer Ackerman in Wired.com. Just when the fighting in Libya had devolved into a stalemate, NATO now has the international community’s tacit permission to “escalate the war” and go directly after Qaddafi’s likely hideouts. And judging from their recent statements, alliance commanders are eager to do just that and “end the Libyan war as quickly as possible.”