RUTH WEDGWOOD: The Strange Case of Florence Hartmann.

A striking consensus is emerging in Washington for a closer relationship with the International Criminal Court. Even some staunch conservatives have backed the idea of lending logistical, political, and diplomatic assistance to the ICC on a case-by-case basis – to act against the most shocking outrages of genocide, crimes against humanity, and systematic war crimes.

Yet, with notoriously bad timing, the path to this cooperation may be washed away, due to a troublesome and unnecessary fight brewing at a sister criminal tribunal in The Hague. . . . It does not advance the cause of international criminal justice to threaten a person who described the boggled procedure with criminal contempt.

It’s a clown show that the clowns want kept secret. Why should that undermine confidence in international institutions, when that already describes pretty much all of ’em?