Breaking: Text of H.R. 3076- September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001

Thomas ^ | 10/16/2001 | Ron Paul

[Demidog]

The GPO just got this up. It's simple, elegant and most of all Constitutional.

Please contact your representative and Senators today and ask them to sponsor and support this bill.

Go Ron Paul!

And a special Kudos to Uriel1975 who brought this to the attention of a few special folks. This is a Freeper initiated bill. Activism works and you're watching it happen right before your very eyes. Please help us get this bill passed and signed.

[Demidog]

bump. Please bump this to anyone you think interested.

[KingKongCobra]

Ron's cool but this is a waste of time. We're already doing the right things to get the scumbags in Afghan. Let's role!

[KingKongCobra]

role - hahahaha

[cajungirl]

Is the word 'marque' pronounced as two syllables or one. Anyone know what it means. And why is it call Letters?

[Demidog]

H.R. 3074 - Air Piracy and Reprisal Capture Act

As an aside, why in the world did this post get pulled from Breaking news? This is breaking news. The text of the bill just became available. This is a Freeper Effort that has resulted in the submission of a bill in the House of Representatives. What is more breaking then that? White powder?

[KingKongCobra]

It's an 18th century version of 'bounty hunters'. If we didn't have a standing army, it might be a little more amusing.

[RnMomof7]

It's an 18th century version of 'bounty hunters'. If we didn't have a standing army, it might be a little more amusing.

Sometimes what appears obscure is the most lethal weapon!

[sinkspur]

This has got to be the biggest waste of effort in the history of the country. It's almost laughable. My own congressman here in Texas, Joe Barton, wrote me an e-mail after I contacted him about this last week, in which he said that he thinks Paul's legislation is "unnecessary and, frankly, dangerous."

Why are mercenaries needed when the U.S. and Britain have 30,000 troops waiting to march into Afghanistan after the Special Ops guys do their work.?

I fully expect to see Ron Paul, flanked by Demidog and his minions, marching into the House someday in white powdered wigs, knee pants, black buckle shoes and monocles.

Why don't you guys start a theatre company if you want to play George Washington?

Meanwhile, keep the cowboys out of the way of the professional military.

[KingKongCobra]

And sometimes it is just a ditsy idea that will garner no more that 12 votes in Congress.

[KingKongCobra]

Amen, to that.

[the_doc]

Don't be so thoughtless. You don't understand the Act.

[general_re]

It is pronounced "mark" and it means "retaliation" or "reprisal". The way it works is, back in the day when the US didn't have much of a standing army or navy to speak of, the Constitution allowed Congress and the Executive to issue Letters of Marque to private citizens, basically authorizing them to act as they see fit against some nation or group perceived to be an enemy of the United States - it was useful back in the day when merchant ships usually had a couple of six-pounders on board anyway, just in case ;)

So, you'd go and ask for one, and the President or his aides would give you, literally, a letter (hence, "Letter of Marque") authorizing you to beat the holy hell out of the Barbary Pirates (or whatever) in the name of the United States, and away you'd sail. Anyway, like KingKong said, think "bounty hunters" and you've pretty much got the picture...

[RobFromGa]

Why don't you guys start a theatre company if you want to play George Washington?

Even though previous conversations with sinkspur have proven fruitless, I'll try again for the less daft members of the audience:

Some of us here on FR actually like the Constitution and are not afraid of the fact that the Founding Fathers were pretty smart people.

They set up a way to handle War against entities that were not Nation-States. Letters of Marque and Reprisal were the mathod. Since we haven't had to use them for a while doesn't make them less necessary. This is the right way to proceed, regardless of your ill-informed viewpoint, sink guy (like Clinton).

[redbaiter]

Bounty hunters don't have jacka$$ lawyers blunting their spears at the last moment from the other side of the globe.

Do you suppose Mr Paul could sneak in a bill requiring everyone else in Congress to read the Constitution, with little quizzes once a week?

[America's Resolve]

It's pronounced "Letter of Marque" = "Letter of Mark"

As explained, it's an old fashioned bounty on their heads. Govts did this in the days of priacy, hiring private ships and crews to hunt down the pirate ships and kill them and their crews or bring them back home to decorate a ships yardarm.

The Constitution specifically allows the government to issue Letters of Marque for situations where a full military response isn't necessarily appropriate. We have companies in this country that are all former seals, special forces, army rangers etc that make VERY capable mercenaries. Mercenaries to hunt down Mercenaries :)

Godspeed

[Dog Gone]

This practice was outlawed by the Hague Conferences over 100 years ago.

We signed it.

This is illegal and stupid.

[Demidog]

You're wrong. We didn't sign it. We are under no obligation to give up our ability to deal with terrorism even if we had signed it.

[Dog Gone]

We were not supposed to have standing armies.

Yeah, and the world stopped in the 18th century.

Nothing in the Constitution prohibits standing armies. In fact, the Constitution expressly provides that Congress shall maintain a Navy.