[Demidog]

The Constitution is not just a trivial document that doesn't consider such "modern" infamies like terrorsm.

Ron Paul Rules.

[Centurion2000]

Hoist the black flag BUMP !!

[Cicero]

This kind of thing has been very effective in the past. For example, the plague of train robberies in the Wild West was considerably dampened when the bandits understood that passenger cars were full of armed men prepared to shoot without having to call the sherriff for help.

[foreshadowed at waco]

I saw a guy on cable about 2 weeks ago--he represented a private group of business leaders who were posting a reward for OBL--wonder if this bill would help companies who do trades for front organizations that play the markets and sell short in anticipation of terrorist acts (like people who shorted the airline stocks) become more vigilant--I'd personally love to see any and all people have an opportunity to deny these guys the profits from their crimes.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

thanks for the ping.. will call first thing in the A.M. Good work!

[tophat9000]

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.

Cooooool! :>

[tophat9000]

[Woodkirk]

A little competition from the private sector won't hurt the war on terrorism. It might make the public sector work more diligently to prove that they are up to the task. Go Palladin.

[Askel5]

Modern? What about Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates?

(Do I have that right?)

[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!!!

[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?

[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.

[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?

[Texaggie79]

WTG RON!!

[ml/nj]

Someone ought to tell the Congressman how to pronounce marque. It's a one syllable word pronounced the same as the common word mark, at least according to my OED which offers no alternates.

ML/NJ

[FReethesheeples]

bumpity.

[Tares]

bttt