Posted on 10/16/2001 5:25:12 PM PDT by Demidog
September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 (Introduced in the House) HR 3076 IH
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3076
To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to certain acts of air piracy upon the United States on September 11, 2001, and other similar acts of war planned for the future.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 10, 2001
Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
A BILL
To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to certain acts of air piracy upon the United States on September 11, 2001, and other similar acts of war planned for the future.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) That the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 upon the United States were acts of air piracy contrary to the law of nations.
(2) That the terrorist attacks were acts of war perpetrated by enemy belligerents to destroy the sovereign independence of the United States of America contrary to the law of nations.
(3) That the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks were actively aided and abetted by a conspiracy involving one Osama bin Laden and others known and unknown, either knowingly and actively affiliated with a terrorist organization known as al Qaeda or knowingly and actively conspiring with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, both of whom are dedicated to the destruction of the United States of America as a sovereign and independent nation.
(4) That the al Qaeda conspiracy is a continuing one among Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and others known and unknown with plans to commit additional acts of air piracy and other similar acts of war upon the United States of America and her people.
(5) That the act of war committed on September 11, 2001, by the al Qaeda conspirators, and the other acts of war planned by the al Qaeda conspirators, are contrary to the law of nations.
(6) That under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, Congress has the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal to punish, deter, and prevent the piratical aggressions and depredations and other acts of war of the al Qaeda conspirators.
SEC. 3. AUTHORITY OF PRESIDENT.
(a) The President of the United States is authorized and requested to commission, under officially issued letters of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed and equipped persons and entities as, in his judgment, the service may require, with suitable instructions to the leaders thereof, to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and property of Osama bin Laden, of any al Qaeda co-conspirator, and of any conspirator with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda who are responsible for the air piratical aggressions and depredations perpetrated upon the United States of America on September 11, 2001, and for any planned future air piratical aggressions and depredations or other acts of war upon the United States of America and her people.
(b) The President of the United States is authorized to place a money bounty, drawn in his discretion from the $40,000,000,000 appropriated on September 14, 2001, in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response to Terrorists Attacks on the United States or from private sources, for the capture, alive or dead, of Osama bin Laden or any other al Qaeda conspirator responsible for the act of air piracy upon the United States on September 11, 2001, under the authority of any letter of marque or reprisal issued under this Act.
(c) No letter of marque and reprisal shall be issued by the President without requiring the posting of a security bond in such amount as the President shall determine is sufficient to ensure that the letter be executed according to the terms and conditions thereof.
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.
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?
Sometimes what appears obscure is the most lethal weapon!
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.
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).
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?
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
We signed it.
This is illegal and stupid.
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.
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