[wideawake]

There you go with your lack of historical perspective again.

Not only is this not an argument but simply an unproven assertion, and it is in fact a disproven assertion since I actually gave some historical perspective which you, signally, did not.

How's the multi-billion dollar Nation building exercise going?

Not an argument.

Caught Osama yet?

Not an argument.

Yeah... didn't think so...

Not an argument.

To recap:

(1) No nation on earth honors letters of marque and reprisal. The United States emphatically does not. Therefore the whole point of letters of marque and reprisal from the perspective of the bearer, i.e. being afforded legal protection when abroad, no longer obtains.

(2) The entire purpose of letters and marque and reprisal from the perspective of the issuer, i.e. creating a financial incentive for private citizens to capture or debilitate the issuer's enemies, is supplied by the current $50M bounty - a far larger sum than anyone would be able to realize simply by capturing whatever goods bin Laden was in possession of when found.

[Fester Chugabrew]

No nation on earth honors letters of marque and reprisal. The United States emphatically does not.

So these letters are specifically NOT mentioned in, or authorized by, our founding documents?

[philman_36]

(1) No nation on earth honors letters of marque and reprisal. The United States emphatically does not.
If that were so then why didn't the US sign onto the Treaty of Paris?
And since it's still in the Constitution it is still active. Just because they haven't been used in years doesn't mean the US couldn't issue them.

[philman_36]

Another good read...THE "LETTERS OF MARQUE" CLAUSE