Tim Bishop Quotes
Our government should do everything it can to ensure the successful prosecution of those responsible for the murders of U.S. citizens abroad. It should provide resources as needed, and it should make it clear to the authorities in Belgrade that inaction does have repercussions on bilateral relations.
United States, Congress, House. Representative Bishop speaking on Justice for the Bytyqi Brothers. Congressional Record, Government Printing Office, 2013.
There was reluctance throughout the government to avoid using “the G word.” See {41333}
The speech is traditionally written by the government.
The United States Senate must ratify all treaties before they can become effective. The Senate has been very reluctant to ratify treaties where the U. S. government or any of its citizens could come under the jurisdiction of any legal entity which did not abide by all the rights citizens are guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. As a result, we do not recognize the World Court and the Treaty of Rome for example. The latter is the one that gives the World Court jurisdiction over a high level official who commits war crimes even in his own country. The result is that many dictators who do not want to be constrained by international law, do not sign the treaty fending off any pressure to do so by pointing to the United States. But Rothkopf and others who agree with him have not yet been able to come up with a mechanism that will assure American Constitutional rights to Americans who might be involved with the World Court and allow the court to punish the dictators who abuse their own population. The French would like their laws and constitution to control. The Russians, theirs. The Chinese, theirs. Every American public official takes an oath to defend The Constitution. That is their primary duty. Foreign policy and punishing international war criminals must take a lower priority.
The improved access comes from the rapid technological and economic development of open source information available to the public. Governments will also benefit although governments will not be able to maintain as much secrecy,
Timothy Howard Bishop is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative for New York's 1st congressional district from 2003 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
