Breaking: Ron Paul introduces Marque and Reprisal Bills in House

Ron Paul | 10/10/01 | demidog

[Demidog]

I just received a call from my contact at Ron Paul's office.

Ron Paul today introduced two bills into the House of Representatives which would authorize the State Department to issue letters of Marque authorizing privateers to attack and collect assets from terrorists who commit hostile acts against the U.S.

This means that you (yes you personallywould be able to help to bring down the rogue and nationless enemies of the United States provided you meet a few requirements.

The precendence for this bill is based on specific Constitutional powers and was seen as a remedy by our founders for those nationaless terrorists who committed acts against U.S. merchant ships on the high seas. We're dealing with Pirates here and a significant effort has been made by Ron Paul's team to create a legal definition for "Air Piracy" which would include hijackings.

The text of the Bills have not been published yet but I will update everyone the moment the text becomes available.

The Bills are: H.R. 3074 and H.R. 3076

Please call your congressman and tell him that you want them to either sponsor or support this bill.

[carenot]

"What would you think if a foreign government sent alien bounty hunters to attack and collect assets from American citizens on our soil? Would you accept that?"

I would expect our bounty hunters would have already taken them out.

[A.J.Armitage]

I'd like to point out that this isn't an either/or thing. We can have regular military operations against the Taliban and any other governments backing al Qaeda, and pay bounties to privateers for catching or killing operatives in other places. If you think about it, that's the only strategy that makes sense: hit them with everything, in multiple ways. Remember, using privateers against pirates didn't stop us from sending the Marines to the shores of Tripoli to whack the Barbary pirates.

[isthisnickcool]

I worked on one of Ron Pauls first campaigns. He is not showboater and certainly not vain. Unfortunately, he is not the norm in Washington but should be.

Ron Paul is made of STEEL! AMERICAN STEEL! LONG LIVE DR. RON PAUL!!!

[AKbear]

Darn fine idea...I will do that! Thanks for the idea.

[culpeper]

They'll never pass it. The last thing politicians want to do is give power to the populace. I would love to see it happen but they don't have the balls.

[Archaeus]

Ron Paul must have had an extra bowl of Stupid Flakes this morning. Or has he realized that to get any bill passed in D.C. it has to be loaded with stupocity.

[chesty_puller]

Who really cares what Rep. No says now?

[A.J.Armitage]

What would you think if a foreign government sent alien bounty hunters to attack and collect assets from American citizens on our soil? Would you accept that?

Of course not. I also wouldn't accept it if they sent an army here to atack us. That's the main purpose of government: to keep others from harming the people, or failing that to retaliate.

I should also note that the United States neither deliberately harbors terrorists nor is unable to crack down on them when we catch them. There aren't any terrorist organizations here aimed at other countries to begin with. All our terrorists are from outside the country or are native terrorists focused on domestic political goals.

[Uriel1975]

One word.

PHENOMENAL.

Phenomenal work, Demidog. I've been out and about most of the day; I just got home and logged onto FR, and what to my wondering eyes should appear....

This is great news. Really great news. I trust that you will post the text of the Bills for our edification as soon as they become available. At that point, Precisian's concerns are well-taken -- it will then become incumbent upon us to assist Representative Paul in building the largest possible coalition of Congressional support for these Bills, as well as developing matching support in the Senate. I'll trust Demidog to keep us apprised of Congressional support for this Bill, and I'll work with Murray Sabrin to see how many friends we can gather in the Senate. (Demidog, feel free to Email me privately with any developments on the Congressional front which can not be made immediately public).

Once Demidog has the text of the Bills up, I'll see if there's any way I can bring this to the attention of H. Ross Perot. As I mentioned one time in the past, although I have no personal connection to Perot, it happens that he is a close friend of a former client of mine. As he is the only private citizen in recent memory to undertake a successful "counter-terrorist" mission utilizing private ex-military contractors, his support -- if I can get it to his attention and if he's inclined to support such an idea -- could be invaluable.

Pertinent to annalex's query, below is some info regarding Perot's past involvement in this kind of operation (I sent this to Demidog three weeks ago in a private Email):

...as radical as the idea of resurrecting Marques and Reprisals might seem to Non-Libertarians (who tend to think in terms of purely governmental solutions), the facts of history are pretty straightforward: In 1979, American citizens were being held hostage by the radicalized, quasi-terrorist Revolutionary Islamic government of Iran. The US Government under Carter conceived, as you'll recall, a search-and-rescue operation termed "Desert One" which turned into an absolute fiasco -- a miserable failure. At the same time, Ross Perot contracted a private mercenary operation headed by former Green Beret "Bull" Simons to rescue EDS employees being held by Iran. The Private Sector action, while a little messy in execution, was (by contrast) a complete success.

Strong congratulations are in order to nunya bidness for helping to get my original article posted on the Internet and for his background research on the subject included therein; double congratulations to Demidog for his work in daily corresponding with Ron Paul's office to keep this idea on the front burner.

A hearty "Well Done!!" to everyone on the "Free Republic Libertarian Caucus" who has assisted in bringing this proposal this far. Let's build momentum and keep this ball rolling!!

[Southack]

Well, I'm no Libertarian (you people argue too much and fight incremental improvements as you wish for ideal answers), but I'm all for authorizing U.S. citizens to go after terrorists.

We've got over 80 million private gun-owners in this great nation, and enabling gun-owners to make an honest dollar bagging bad guys strikes me as prudent.

Just don't authorize such actions by private citizens to interfere in any way with our on-going military operations.

[Uriel1975]

I'd like to point out that this isn't an either/or thing. We can have regular military operations against the Taliban and any other governments backing al Qaeda, and pay bounties to privateers for catching or killing operatives in other places. If you think about it, that's the only strategy that makes sense: hit them with everything, in multiple ways. Remember, using privateers against pirates didn't stop us from sending the Marines to the shores of Tripoli to whack the Barbary pirates.

Exactly.

Who really expects Algeria, Egypt, Syria, United Arab Emirates and these other nations to graciously offer their full and unconditional support for official US government counter-terrorist operations within their borders? Even if they did offer such official support, their governments are probably so riddled with Jihadist sympathizers that Al-Qaeda operatives might often receive "advance warning" of official US government moves against terrorist cells operating and recruiting within their territory.

By contrast, private ex-military contractors can play by their own rulebook, and potentially hit these guys from any direction, without warning.

[A.J.Armitage]

Roughrider said there were 33 presidents in the Bush family tree. Is that true?

I guess that depends on how far back you go. If you go back all the way, after all, he's related to all of them.

[GOPcapitalist]

Ron Paul Rules! Draft Ron to run for US Senate in the Gramm vacancy (Bonilla is not running and Cornyn is weak) www.draftronpaul.com

[jammer]

Well, dog, do you think the legislation contains an exception for Congress? I mean, we have the treasonous leaks from Hatch and Feinstein. Can we arrest them?

[jammer]

Excuse me but aren't mercenaries only effective when they can operate in secret(i.e. no official government sanction).

No. It's past your bedtime.

[Texaggie79]

WTG RON!!