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There’s another thing I like. In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government license authorizing a person (known as a privateer) to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale. Calling the September 11, 2001, attacks an act of “air piracy”, Paul introduced the Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001.

Letters of marque and reprisal would have targeted specific terrorist suspects instead of invoking war against a foreign state. Paul reintroduced this legislation as the Marque and Reprisal Act of 2007. He voted with the majority for the original Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists in Afghanistan. In April 2009, following the Maersk Alabama hijacking, he proposed issuing letters of marque to combat the problem of piracy in Somalia.

Letters of Marque and Reprisal were government-issued authorizations for piratical acts by the civilians who received one. They were abolished in the 1850’s by the major European powers. Don't expect their reinstatement any time soon. Why anyone would believe the government should be in the business of encouraging piracy is beyond me.

There would be not profit in having a Letter of Marque unless you could commit acts of piracy (A/K/A as stealing other people's stuff) so the idea that they would actually solve anything off the coast of Somalia is laughable, as is the idea they would solve anything anywhere else.