Posted on 10/24/2014 7:45:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nathan Cirillo and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
As I noted yesterday, the moral contrast between these two men — the Ottawa terrorist and the guard he shot — couldn’t be more stark. Cirillo gave his life in the service of country and honor. Zehaf-Bibeau gave his life in the service of tyranny and murder.
All those who have died serving Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. have made a great sacrifice for those respective democracies. Most Westerners honor them with gratitude. Tragically, however, some Westerners are betraying that honor by joining the Islamic State’s global movement.
This societal struggle — against a very small minority of extremists — speaks to a profound philosophical divide.
While the Islamic State claims to represent a new, just, and holy order, its hyper-Salafi jihadist ideology is antithetical to democracy. Where we stand for individual freedom, they stand for totalitarianism. Where we stand for the rule of law, they stand for the tyranny of one psychotic man.
Yet hundreds of Britons, around 100 Canadians, 50 Australians, and 15 Americans are now known to serve the Islamic State. The terror is spreading, and not just in Canada. As events in Australia and Britain attest, Islamic State terrorists in the Mideast and elsewhere are inspiring terrorism from their supporters in the West. Persuading them that serving the Islamic State doesn’t require travel to Syria or Iraq, ISIS offers ordained purpose to those Westerners who detest their democratic society. In basic terms, it turns hateful minds toward violent terrorism. And because of the detection challenge that homegrown terrorists pose for intelligence services, they represent an urgent threat to Western nations’ security. That threat must be met head-on. Treason charges offer one answer.
Of course, it is not a simple answer. While the U.K. is considering treason charges against citizens who join the Islamic State, there is no recent precedent there. The last man convicted of treason in Britain was a Nazi propagandist, Lord Haw-Haw, way back in 1946. Public reaction to new treason trials would obviously be complicated.
However, treason charges here in the United States remain an important legal remedy. Consider Adam Gadahn. Gadahn, a U.S. citizen who joined al-Qaeda in the late 1990s, was charged with treason in 2006. Federal law explains that “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 imprisonment] . . . ” This legal clarity is important. Noting a citizen’s “owing” of allegiance, the actus reus (evil action) of “levies war” or “giving aid and comfort” to the enemy, U.S. treason law is well suited to the West’s present homegrown-terrorist threat. Other nations should follow this example.
Still, this isn’t just about legal remedies. Treason charges also offer a critical political response to this threat.
While some claim that treason laws are authoritarian relics (some, absurdly, argue that treason trials are equivalent to Islamist beheadings), the Islamic State’s hyper-violent ideology won’t be defeated by half-measures. Western countries must clarify that their passports are more than individual documents of travel. They must affirm that passports carry responsibility. At present, the Islamic State (and al-Qaeda) believe that the West is vulnerable to internal destruction by its own citizens. Perpetuating this myth, the terrorists are successfully persuading young men (and some women) to a life that seems to “mean something more.” These terrorists highlight their international membership to inspire a war that reaches beyond border checkpoints. As evidenced in Canada, the U.K. and Australia, the effort is succeeding.
Treason trials would help us to grapple with this trend. Re-drawing a line of citizen responsibility, we would demonstrate our intolerance for national betrayal and our commitment to American national sovereignty. We would puncture the easy empowerment that the Islamic State is seen to provide.
Even then, this isn’t just about law and politics. It’s also about honor.
Last week, I visited the graves of two U.S. Army soldiers, Alex Jimenez and Byron Fouty, at Arlington National Cemetery. While serving in Iraq in 2007, these men were captured by the Islamic State’s predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Brutally tortured for months, they were then murdered and dumped in a shallow grave. As with Nathan Cirillo, Patrice Vincent, and Lee Rigby, their national service ended in the struggle against a brutal ideology. Honoring them, we must render justice upon their Western opposites: those traitors who support the Islamic State’s cause of death.
Tom give us a break. We have had one person charged with treason since World War II. Reminds of people wanting impeach our Sunni Potus. That “ain’t gonna happen” any more than finding someone guilty of treason.
http://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2006/October/06_nsd_695.html
Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2006
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
NSD
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
U.S. Citizen Indicted on Treason, Material Support Charges
for Providing Aid and Comfort to al Qaeda
WASHINGTON – A former resident of Orange County, Calif., has been indicted in the Central District of California on charges of treason and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization for making a series of propaganda videotapes for al Qaeda, the Department of Justice announced today.
Adam Gadahn, 28, also known as Azzam al-Amriki or Azzam the American, “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort ... with intent to betray the United States,” according to the treason count in the indictment. The two-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, Calif., today also charges Gadahn with providing material support to al Qaeda.
Gadahn is the first person to be charged with treason against the United States since the World War II era.
Al Qaeda, which has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks around the world, including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State since 1999.
Gadahn appeared in several videotapes that were broadcast between October 2004 and Sept. 11, 2006. In the first tape, Gadahn announced that he had joined al Qaeda, “a movement waging war on America and killing large numbers of Americans,” and that “the streets of America shall run red with blood.”
In another al Qaeda videotape made in September 2005, around the time of the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Gadahn called the attacks “the blessed raids on New York and Washington.” Discussing “jihad against America,” Gadahn referenced terrorist attacks in London and Madrid and stated, “Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing.”
Earlier this summer, Gadahn appeared in another videotape that also contained statements from al Qaeda leaders Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. In another videotape that was broadcast around the world on Sept. 2, 2006, Gadahn encouraged American soldiers to “escape from the unbelieving Army and join the winning side.” Recently, in a videotape released to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Gadahn praised the pilots involved in the attacks and referred to the United States as “enemy soil.”
“Adam Gadahn is a U.S. citizen who made a choice to join and act as a propagandist for al Qaeda, an enemy of this country responsible for the horrific deaths of thousands of innocent Americans on Sept. 11, 2001,” said Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty. “The War on Terror is a fight for hearts and minds, and Gadahn gave himself to our enemies in al Qaeda for the purpose of being a central part of their propaganda machine. By making this choice, we believe Gadahn committed treason – perhaps the most serious offense for which any person can be tried under our Constitution.”
“Adam Gadahn represents a new breed of home-grown extremist, who has chosen to betray the country of his birth, and align with the al Qaeda terrorist network,” said FBI Executive Assistant Director Willie Hulon, National Security Branch. “Based on this indictment, Gadahn was added today to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List.”
“By aligning himself with al Qaeda, by moving overseas to be closer to al Qaeda’s base and leadership, and by joining in advocating al Qaeda’s terrorist agenda, an agenda that includes the overthrow of the United States government and the murder of American citizens, Adam Gadahn has committed treason against the United States of America,” said U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang of the Central District of California. “The charges returned today by a federal grand jury demonstrate that the criminal justice system will not sit passively by while a United States citizen engages in such activities.”
Gadhan, 28, is a fugitive who is believed to be overseas, and has been added to the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Photographs, aliases and a full description of Gadahn can be found by visiting http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm. The Rewards for Justice Program, run by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to Gadahn’s arrest or conviction.
The charge of treason carries a range of penalties from a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in jail to a maximum sentence of the death penalty. The charge of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization carries a potential sentence of 15 years in prison.
The Gadahn case was investigated by the FBI’s Orange County Joint Terrorism Task Force in Santa Ana, California. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, with assistance from the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division – formerly part of the Criminal Division – at the Department of Justice.
Beat me to it. Washington and Chicago would be ghost towns. New York city's halls of finance cleaned out. The only thing moving in the faculty lounges would be dead leaves fluttering through shattered windows. The pulpits of mainstream churches and board rooms of outsourcing corporations -- crickets. The Hollywood sign would turn to pillars of salt...
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
That's a pretty narrow definition, one that was adopted to prevent the horrible abuses of the Tudors and others. Nevertheless, "levying War against" the United States is exactly what our home grown jihadis are doing whenever any one of them attacks a police officer or soldier and makes it clear his purpose is to wage jihad. That means there's every reason to treat his act as the treason it is under the Constitution.
Indeed, Obola, by constantly refusing to prosecute jihadis, like Nidal Hasan, for the treason they admittedly commit, is adhering to out jihadi enemies, "giving them Aid and Comfort," and is, himself, a traitor.
Do we have to declare war when our enemies have declared it on us?
don’t worry about it, Eric Holder is working feverishly on it as we speak!!!
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