Posted on 10/10/2001 12:44:32 PM PDT by 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.
Uriel1975 initiated it on the following threads and engaged Murray Sabrin to give us a bit of a push.
CAPITALISM AT ITS FINEST... A Modest Proposal for Citizen's War
A Modest Proposal for Citizen's War... Mobilizing the Forces (MARQUE & REPRISAL UPDATE)
Please read there for an excellent discussion of the issues.
I don't mind explaining to folks about the nuances of privateers, pirates and bucaneers but this is important news and we can discuss the details without all of the inuendo and character assasination don't you think?
By the way, do you realize we've scooped all major media and networks with this story. That's a good thing in case you haven't figured it out yet.
Do you remember what our President said about this war on terrorism? It will be prolonged and will involve many different nations. There is no chance that the war will be over before this bill is passed.
Maybe you should take a course in actually answering a question as was posed in reply #11.
What exactly is a "privateer"? Is that a modern day "mercenary"?
Oops I forgot, asking Libertarians a question is verboten(I guess it invades on Libertarian reality).
Please forgive me all knowing one, the high and mighty, dcwusmc.
Do you know what the requirements are? I like the Pirate angle.
The rules are likely to be similar to those that apply to bounty hunters. And you will most likely have to be a US citizen, and post a bond of somekind.
privateer n. 1. a privately owned and manned armed ship commissioned by a government in a war to attack and capture enemy ships, esp. merchant ships. 2. a commander or crew member of a privateer.
Now, if you care to update "privateer" word for modern usage it can easily be applied to bounty hunters and hackers.
mercenary adj. 1. working or done for payment only; motivated by a desire for money or other gain; venal;greedy --n 1.a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army 2 any person who will do anything for money; hireling
Now, to me it seems these have two distinct definitions. A mercenary is hired assuming payment, where a privateer is responsible for collecting his own rewards, hence the stress on merchant traffic. Reading the second noun definition of "mercenary" it seems that any job could label someone as a mercenary.
These defs came from Webster's New World Dictionary.
Anyway...fun with words time over.
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