Posted on 09/19/2001 6:23:08 PM PDT by Uriel1975
Richard Shelby R-Ala., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Saturday noted that the war on terrorism should include a freer hand to assassinate foreign enemies and hire more unsavory covert operatives. He also said there's little difference between targeting an enemy in a bombing raid and trying to kill him with a hit squad. The bombing would be legal while a hit squad would be banned by a 25-year-old presidential order prohibiting foreign assassinations. President Bush needs to review the presidential ban that was signed by former President Gerald Ford, Shelby said in an interview.
President Bush may not have to review anything. And if Congress is afraid to make a formal declaration of war they do have another option. The US Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, The congress shall have Power "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.”
A letter of Marque is defined by Webster’s 1828 dictionary as, "a private ship commissioned or authorized by a government to make reprisals on the ships of another state.
2. That which is taken from an enemy to indemnify an owner for something of his which the enemy has seized. Reprisals may consist of persons or of goods. Letters of marque and reprisal may be obtained in order to seize the bodies or goods of the subjects of an offending state, until satisfaction shall be made.
3. Recaption; a retaking of a man's own goods or any of his family, wife, child or servant, wrongfully taken from him or detained by another. In this case, the owner may retake the goods or persons wherever he finds them.
Letters of marque and reprisal, a commission granted by the supreme authority of a state to a subject, empowering him to pass the frontiers [marque,] that is, enter an enemy's territories and capture the goods and persons of the enemy, in return for goods or persons taken by him.
4. The act of retorting on an enemy by inflicting suffering or death on a prisoner taken from him, in retaliation of an act of inhumanity."
So it would seem that the solution that would shed very little, if not any, American blood has been provided by the founding fathers. ~~~ nunya bidness
As you've probably heard, Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization is estimated at as many as 20,000 followers in a loose-knit collective spanning as many as 37 countries. While Federal military action is entirely justified against the actual nation-States proven to be active sponsors and harbors of organized terrorist operations, surely we do not expect to declare National War on all of these countries where recruitment, support, and training cells exist. Nor should we trust the (shall we say, not 100% perfect) resources of US counter-terrorist Intelligence, hamstrung in their operations by the "rules of engagement" imposed upon them by the nature of their work and by their host countries to effectively eliminate these cancers. So -- what are we to do?
The Issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal is a fully-Constitutional Federal Power which was specifically intended for the prosecution of Vengeance against the "stateless terrorists" of the Founder's day -- Pirates, Brigands, private armies, military adventurers, etc.
The purpose of a Letter of Marque and Reprisal is to create a financial incentive for private-sector military professionals -- trained mercenaries with an ability to travel individually or in small groups without detection -- to bring justice to those "stateless terrorists" identified as enemies of the citizenry. To gather intelligence on the ground, hunt these individuals down where they are hiding, and apprehend or eliminate them in their nests. The advantages of these private, paramilitary units (which are NOT mutually exclusive to a purposeful and directed Military response against defined physical targets) may suggest themselves already; so let's address the disadvantages first:
-- so does the US Criminal Justice system, every year... but we still prosecute Murder, because Murders must be avenged. But - bearing in mind for a moment that this is not a perfect world - ask yourself this: Who is likely to kill more innocent people -- a private mercenary unit who is looking for a specific individual so that they'll get paid, and knows that getting caught "in-country" could leave them at the mercies of a hostile foreign kangaroo court if they hit the wrong target..... or a B-52 bomber at 20,000 feet??
-- They already did try to kill the President (and Congress, too), and the soon-to-be-coming mass bombing raids against diverse and sundry Jihadistans aren't very likely to make them cozy up to us and play nice.
-- September 11, 2001. And what is stopping them from doing it again, using different tactics, against different civilian targets is... what? The point is bloody well moot.
-- Yes, and I'm proposing to pay them a heck of a lot more than the average 18-year old infantryman we're about to put into harm's way - and only if they volunteer for the mission, at that.
-- Puh-leeze. Congress just busted the budget to the tune of $40 Billion for what may turn out to be the preliminary battles in a long war. We could bounty the heads of every single al-Qaeda operative at $1/2 million apiece for a quarter of that. And amounts averaging that level are probably appropriate, given a desire for swift and effective retribution, and the dangers that private contractors will face.
Those objections addressed, let's now consider a proposal.
RESOLVED, That the Senators and Representatives of the United States in Congress Assembled, acting by the Powers granted them under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution of the United States of America, do hereby issue and grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal against those agents and operatives of the Al-Qaeda Terrorist Organization, such as the Department of Defense acting on the direction of the President in consultation with this Congress, shall specify. Terms:
In support of the prosecution of these Letters of Marque and Reprisal, the Congress of the United States directs the Department of Defense to provide registered contractors with such armaments, equipment, logistical support, and intelligence as the contractors shall reasonably require; and may provide such discrete transportation and assistance in the prosecution of these contracts as the Department of Defense shall deem appropriate. However, in the case of capture by a hostile agency, the Department of Defense shall have the right to disavow any knowledge of, or responsibility for, the contractors in question; especially in the case of any contractor action against targets not specified for Reprisal by the Department of Defense. Furthermore, action against any targets not specified for Reprisal by the Department of Defense, shall render the Contractor subject to any such criminal charges, or extradition for trial, as the Department of Justice shall consider appropriate.
Having discussed the Disadvantages of this proposal, herein and in a prior thread, it is now appropriate to consider the advantages which this proposal may offer:
Upon the passage of such a proposal by Congress, private paramilitary contractors may immediately begin locating and neutralizing (by apprehension or termination) those individuals identified by the Department of Defense as terrorists and abettors of terrorism. There is no need for private mercenary contractors to wait for the completion of a massive military build-up and formation of a vast (and likely cumbersome) diplomatic coalition; retribution by private Contractors can begin within days, or at most a few weeks, after the issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Congress. This will result in an immediate and progressive reduction of the threat of terrorism against the United States citizenry, as each terrorist cell eliminated by private contractors represents the liquidation of a potential group of hijackers, bombers, mass murderers, or saboteurs. In addition, the rapid liquidation of terrorist cells by private mercenary contractors offers the hope of bolstering American citizen morale, and delivery of a powerful psychological-warfare blow against active terrorists and their organizational networks, and potentially their recruitment, training, and planning operations.
The issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal offers the United States the opportunity to significantly increase, by private, paramilitary contracts, the amount of manpower available for eliminating terrorist threats. As has been noted previously, Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist organization may number as many as 20,000 followers in some 37 countries – some estimates place this number even higher, and Bin Laden is no doubt recruiting new followers everyday. Attempting to deal with all of these individual cells at once may prove extremely difficult for the Intelligence and Counter-terrorist capabilities of the US Government, against an enemy which, if not dealt with in the most expeditious possible fashion, may soon deliver additional and terrible blows against the American citizenry – and the diversion of Intelligence resources from pre-assigned missions could critically deplete US human-intelligence gathering capabilities in numerous areas (to offer a very rough example, when is the last time a national military successfully attempted to attack in 37 different directions at once?). The issuance of financially-bountied Letters of Marque and Reprisal would make immediately available a pool of scores, even hundreds, of resourceful and self-motivated private paramilitary teams – dramatically and favorably changing the dynamic of US Counter-terrorist operations.
Official United States Intelligence assets operate under certain “rules of engagement” which may tend to hamstring their effectiveness in operation against a great number of isolated, small, and hidden terrorist cells. Private paramilitary contractors, OTOH – taking upon themselves the risks and responsibilities of their operations -- are under no such constraints. There will be no “standard operating procedure” for terrorist cells to identify and prepare themselves against – private mercenaries will be able to hunt them “behind the lines and under cover of night”, from a number of different directions and utilizing dozens of unique methodologies.
Government counter-terrorist expenditures carry little “guarantee” of results – monies are expended and operations executed, but even if the operation is a complete failure (see “Desert One” in Iran, 1979), the money has still been spent – and if the failure is publicized, American morale could suffer significantly. By contrast, private contractors may maximize counter-terrorist “bang for the buck”, as Bounties are disbursed only upon successful neutralization of the “marqued” target -- that is, private mercenaries will be paid to get results (See H. Ross Perot’s private mercenary operations in Iran, 1979). In addition, Government military action may have little accountability for innocents killed – a bombed village is a bombed village, whether you killed the Taliban terrorist-recruiter you’re aiming for, or not. By contrast, Letters of Marque and Reprisal do not necessarily exempt the private Contractor from prosecution in the case of unnecessary killing of civilians – which the Contractor wants to avoid anyway, as it calls hostile attention to his presence and compromises his effectiveness, not to mention the danger to his own life.
The successful employment of Letters of Marque and Reprisal by private mercenary Contractors creates the potential for a resurgence of confidence in the virtues of what the Founders called the “Liberty Teeth” of a free society – an Armed Citizenry. The value of this restoration of Citizen self-confidence in their own arms, their own power of self-defense, cannot be overstated.
By the employment of a fully Constitutional methodology for facilitating private Citizen action against Enemy terrorist elements, the Issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal offers the opportunity to accomplish significant retribution and elimination of terrorist threats without, in and of itself, any restriction whatsoever on existing liberties.
Timeline thus far….
Mr, Speaker,
Sadly we find ourselves today dealing with our responsibility to provide national security under the most difficult of circumstances. To declare war against a group that is not a country makes the clear declaration of war more complex.
The best tool the framers of the Constitution provided under these circumstances was the power of Congress to grant letters of marque and reprisals, in order to narrow the retaliation to only the guilty parties. The complexity of the issue, the vagueness of the enemy, and the political pressure to respond immediately limits our choices. The proposed resolution is the only option we're offered and doing nothing is unthinkable.
There are a couple of serious points I'd like to make.
For the critics of our policy of foreign interventionism in the affairs of others the attack on New York and Washington was not a surprise and many have warned of its inevitability. It so far has been inappropriate to ask why the U.S. was the target and not some other western country. But for us to pursue a war against our enemies it's crucial to understand why we were attacked, which then will tell us by whom we were attacked. Without this knowledge, striking out at six or eight or even ten different countries could well expand this war of which we wanted no part. Without defining the enemy there is no way to know our precise goal nor to know when the war is over. Inadvertently more casual acceptance of civilian deaths as part of this war I'm certain will prolong the agony and increase the chances of even more American casualties. We must guard against this if at all possible.
Too often over the last several decades we have supported both sides of many wars only to find ourselves needlessly entrenched in conflicts unrelated to our national security. It is not unheard of that the weapons and support we send to foreign nations have ended up being used against us. The current crisis may well be another example of such a mishap. Although we now must fight to preserve our national security we should not forget that the founders of this great nation advised that for our own sake we should stay out of entangling alliances and the affairs of other nations.
We are placing tremendous trust in our president to pursue our enemies as our commander-in-chief but Congress must remain vigilant as to not allow our civil liberties here at home to be eroded. The temptation will be great to sacrifice our freedoms for what may seem to be more security. We must resist this temptation.
Mr. Speaker we must rally behind our president, pray for him to make wise decisions, and hope that this crisis is resolved a lot sooner than is now anticipated.
Further Background: Text of past example of Congressional Letters of Marque and Reprisal provided by Demidog.
Sharpen your Liberty Teeth… Call or Email your Representatives and Senators today and ask them to support Representative Ron Paul’s call for the Congressional Issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal against Osama Bin Laden and supporting Terrorist organizations!!
Yes I see your point now. Those stupid dying and suffering people get morphine, and what do you get? That's just not fair. You should be able to get wasted legally as well.
CATO
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