Posted on 10/16/2007 10:09:34 AM PDT by duckln
Observing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic House imperil a U.S.-Turkish alliance of 60 years -- by formally charging Turkey with genocide in a 1915 massacre of the Armenians -- the question comes to mind:
Does this generation have the maturity to lead America?
About the horrors visited on Armenians in 1915, that year of Turkish triumph over the Royal Navy in the Dardanelles, which led to the ouster of First Lord Winston Churchill, and of victory over the British-French-ANZAC invasion force on Gallipoli, there is no doubt.
Between 1915 and 1923, as modern Turkey was being torn out of the womb of a dying Ottoman Empire, a million or more Armenians died in massacres and a forced exodus. It was one of the monstrous crimes and terrible tragedies of a 20th century that abounded in both.
That Armenian-Americans wish to have their holocaust recognized is understandable. But that Democrats could not put off that request -- for Congress to officially charge Turkey with genocide, 90 years ago -- is not.
snip....
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGM2ZTE4Y2ExNDU3NGMyNmNhMWNkYjU3ZWNhYTk0NGQ=
This House resolution has me questioning the loyalties of both the Democrats and the Armenian-American activists.
If there is evidence that this resolution was pushed through committee by opponents of the POTUS for political purposes, that meets the legal standard of treason. I doubt anyone has the balls to prosecute it, but it is certainly treason. As far as providing aid and comfort to the enemy, there is no doubt, but this is much more difficult to prove without physical evidence.
“Treason consists of two elements: adherence to the enemy, and rendering him aid and comfort. Cramer v. U. S., U.S.N.Y., 325 U.S. l, 65 S.Ct. 918, 9327 89 L.Ed. 1441. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 2381. A person can be convicted of treason only on the testimony of two witnesses, or confession in open court. Art. III, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution.”
DemocRATS will gladly throw our country down the toilet, and our brave troops in harm's way, just to acquire and maintain power. There is literally no treachery too destructive, no slander too mean, and no depth too low for a Democrat bent on the destruction of her enemy.
Pat is pretty venal himself -- especially when it comes to Israel.
However, if Turkey is lost to the U.S., Pelosi and Dems won’t escape history’s verdict.
“If there is evidence that this resolution was pushed through committee by opponents of the POTUS for political purposes, that meets the legal standard of treason. I doubt anyone has the balls to prosecute it, but it is certainly treason. As far as providing aid and comfort to the enemy, there is no doubt, but this is much more difficult to prove without physical evidence.”
It would be helpful if there were a legally defined enemy, but the US has not formally declared war in any of its wars since World War II.
In a discussion of treason, the background history is useful. Here is the section pertaining to the USA from a decent introductory article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason
Access the link for the broader background.
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To avoid the abuses of the English law (including executions by Henry VIII of those who criticized his repeated marriages), treason was specifically defined in the United States Constitution, the only crime so defined. Article III Section 3 delineates treason as follows:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.”
However, Congress has, at times, passed statutes creating related offenses which undermine the government or the national security, (such as sedition in the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, or espionage and sabotage in the 1917 Espionage Act) which do not require the testimony of two witnesses and have a much broader definition than Article Three treason. For example, some well-known spies have been convicted of espionage rather than treason.
The Constitution does not itself create the offense; it only restricts the definition. The crime is prohibited by legislation passed by Congress. Therefore the United States Code at 18 U.S.C. § 2381 states “whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” The requirement of testimony of two witnesses was inherited from the British Treason Act 1695.
In the history of the United States there have been fewer than 40 federal prosecutions for treason and even fewer convictions. Several men were convicted of treason in connection with the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion but were pardoned by President George Washington. The most famous treason trial, that of Aaron Burr in 1807 (See Burr conspiracy), resulted in acquittal. Politically motivated attempts to convict opponents of the Jeffersonian Embargo Acts and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 all failed. Most states have provisions in their constitutions or statutes similar to those in the U.S. Constitution. There have been only two successful prosecutions for treason on the state level, that of Thomas Dorr in Rhode Island and that of John Brown in Virginia.
After the American Civil War, no person involved with the Confederate States of America was tried for treason, though a number of leading Confederates (including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee) were indicted. Those who had been indicted received a blanket amnesty issued by President Andrew Johnson as he left office in 1869.
Several people generally thought of as traitors in the United States, including Jonathan Pollard, the Walker Family, Robert Soblen, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were not prosecuted for treason, but rather for espionage. John Walker Lindh, an American citizen who fought with the Taliban against the U.S.-supported Northern Alliance, was convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals rather than treason.
The Cold War saw frequent associations between treason and support for (or insufficient hostility toward) Communist-backed causes. The most memorable of these came from Senator Joseph McCarthy, who characterized the Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations as “twenty years of treason.” McCarthy also investigated various government agencies for Soviet spy rings; however, he acted as a political fact-finder rather than criminal prosecutor. Despite such rhetoric, the Cold War period saw few prosecutions for treason.
On October 11, 2006, a federal grand jury issued the first indictment for treason against the United States since 1952, charging Adam Yahiye Gadahn for videos in which he spoke supportively of al-Qaeda.
Good info. I was thinking the same thing. Without a formal declaration of war, a formal treason prosecution may not be possible.
The dominant religion in Armenia is Christianity, with 94.7% of the population following the Armenian Apostolic Church ...
Well then why don't the Armenian Diaspora and Armenia go calling on Germany's door. To wit,
There is more than ample proof of Germany's complicity why not include Germany? One source is 'German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity' by Vahakn N. Dadrian.
Key word, complicity. Don't go gettin' your bowels in an uproar. No one is suggesting shifting the blame. The author did suggest that had Germany be held accountable way back then there might not have been a Holocaust.
Also, in Professor Huntington's book, Who Are We?, he discusses the problem of our resident diasporas from all over including Armenia and how their influence over Congress, et al really screws things up for the United States of America (that'd be us).
As citizens we each get two senators and one congressman these foreign government-dominated advocates have 100 senators and 435 congressman. I'm getting damn tired of it!
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