Roberts Set Out Doubts On Genocide Treaty

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202370_pf.html


washingtonpost.com

Roberts Set Out Doubts On Genocide Treaty
As Reagan Aide, He Advised President to Sign It

By Amy Argetsinger and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 3, 2005; A03


Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. once expressed some agreement with conservatives who opposed entering an international anti-genocide treaty, saying that foreign governments might try to use it to prosecute the United States for its military actions overseas.

But Roberts, then a young White House lawyer, ultimately urged President Ronald Reagan to sign it, arguing that to do otherwise would be a public-relations embarrassment on the world stage.

His arguments -- which could provide fodder for Democrats pressing for more clarity on the nominee's views on U.S. obligations toward international law -- were outlined in a memo that was among 18,000 pages of White House records released yesterday by the National Archives.

The documents, which come on top of tens of thousands of pages already released from Roberts's files, are probably the last that will be made public before the start of his confirmation hearings Tuesday.

..more..

[goforit]

1. And with possession of tremendous power, what will he really do?

[wli]

2. He'll beef up the "eliminationist rhetoric," of course. n/t