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

Thomas ^ | 10/16/2001 | Ron Paul

[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.

[Demidog]

The no-parking zone in front of my house.

That is stupid. I'm not positive that it's constitutional though.

[RnMomof7]

Well a group of 20 terrorists without the benefit of US satellite and intelligence data was able to destroy 2 buildings and kill thousands of people. Seems to me that it is not at all far fetched that private organizations could do the job.

Bingo! Military unitis and intelligence are easily breached..not so a tightly knit ban,that also has plausibly deniability.

[Demidog]

I don't know if he does or not. The question is do the people support the bill? And will he see it as a tool he can use to help himself look good in the end?

My guess is that both answers will be affirmative after enough debate and activism on the issue.

[sinkspur]

If a bunch of, in most peoples mind, illiterate towel-heads can take down two of our greatest creations then a group of well financed, and trained Americans can get Osama.

Exactly. The well-financed and trained group you speak of is the U.S. military.

If the cowboys want to go to Iraq or Iran or Libya or Lebanon, then that's where they ought to go. And more power to them.

[Demidog]

You may as well temper your enthusiasm over this legislation; it's not going to see the light of day.

It already has seen the light of day. Your prediction has already failed.

You seem to be making these mean-spirited statements out of spite. Why are you so angry?

[nunya bidness]

Good work. The beauty of this proposal is that it can be used worldwide and on a very small scale (read locally) to target bad guys. No coalitions. Just assasins.

[Demidog]

The well-financed and trained group you speak of is the U.S. military.

And you just got through saying that Clinton didn't fund them enough. How long will Bush be in his term before he's responsible for CIA failures? This was what? 9 months into his term? Did he do anything in those 9 months to improve the situation?

[MadameAxe]

And please provide the proof that we didn't sign a treaty which renounced this practice. Thanks.

Er, if you're the one claiming there's a treaty, it's your job to prove to demidog that there is one, not his job to prove to you that there isn't.

[Dog Gone]

I suspect that private companies of former seals, rangers, specops etc, given all the resources needed by the govt would be sleek and trim enough to get these guys.

So, the Army Rangers who might be tracking and trailing a terrorist hoping that he would lead them to bin Laden wouldn't mind some Reward Rambos dropping in and killing the guy?

It's not a question of fitness or desire. It's a matter of having the best armed forces in the world, provided with classified intel, not being interfered with by very patriotic, but less-informed, people.

[sinkspur]

It already has seen the light of day.

It has not.

This legislation will not be voted on, because it will not be taken up.

And I'll bet you $1,000 on that one.

BTW, I'm not angry. I just think your posting this unneeded legislation TWICE on Free Republic is a waste of bandwidth.

There is no support for it in Congress, and Bush wouldn't sign it if it were, through some miracle of God, to reach his desk.

I'm sure you're proud of yourself that you got Paul to introduce this. Maybe it would be better if you wasted your time on stuff like this rather than ridicule the pledge of allegiance, as you've been doing all day.

[nunya bidness]

I can see a pot-bellied, Bo-Gritz-like character in his night vision gear running around in Afghanistan with absolutely no satellite data, no intelligence data, nothing but testosterone and his "letters of marque."

I didn't see anything in the proposed legislation that said that the mercs had to be American citizens. Did you?

[Dog Gone]

I know we signed it. I can't find the signature block to post here, so I'm at a loss to prove it, except that I haven't found a source yet that contradicts that except Demidog.

It's possible, and maybe even probable (thanks to Lincoln Lover's post) that it never reached Treaty status and was voted on by the Senate. I simply can't find a lot of evidence on that. Nor can I find much evidence about the signing particulars of the Geneva Convention, which we seem to hold dear.

I think I've shifted the burden through what I've posted. Some here, possibly including you, apparently disagree.

[America's Resolve]

It's a matter of having the best armed forces in the world, All wrapped up in "rules of engagement" and a thousand pounds of other bureaucratese. Having to go through a chain of command 10 miles long in order to get from place to place? Heavens only knows what kind of paperwork.

The terrorists have none of this. They can move on the spur of the moment and the military can't. We're not fighting a terror war, we're fighting the gulf war all over again. Bomb them til he pops up. Only, he ain't poppin. And the govt has no clue where he is at and afganis aren't likely to be talking to the mohawked guy hiding in the bush with information either.

Fine, let the military try. But I just don't minds to be closed to the availability of this course of action in case the military fails to flush him out.

[Storm Orphan]

I think this could complement, not hinder, the government-employed operatives.

Bump for a free enterprise solution.

[KingKongCobra]

And you just got through saying that Clinton didn't fund them enough. How long will Bush be in his term before he's responsible for CIA failures? This was what? 9 months into his term? Did he do anything in those 9 months to improve the situation?

The first spending bills of President Bush's term were do to be passed THIS month. There wasn't anything he could do to change priorities in the last nine months of the previous budget cycle.

[Dog Gone]

Nothing NOW prohibits weekend Rambos from trying to collect the reward on Osama's head.

What this legislation does is tell the world that our military sucks, and we need pirates.

[Dog Gone]

But the fact that Congress will ignore this and call it foolish is only further proof of its value.

Same argument that Maxine Waters uses for every bill she introduces.