A noted libertarian-leaning congressman has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives designed to give “President Bush a surgical and precise weapon” to use against suspected Saudi exiled terrorist Osama bin Laden.
On Wednesday, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced H.R. 3076, “The September 11 Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001,” which would authorize the White House to order the capture or killing of bin Laden, and not necessarily by official military personnel.
“The founders and authors of our Constitution provided an answer for the difficult tasks that we now face,” Paul, who is also a medical doctor, said in a statement. “When a precise declaration of war was impossible due to the vagueness of our enemy, the Congress was expected to take it upon themselves to direct the reprisal against an enemy not recognized as a government.”
The weapon Congress once used to defend against “terrorism on the high seas” was for lawmakers “to grant letters of marque and reprisal,” said a press release issued by Paul’s lobbying organization, The Liberty Committee.
“Congressman Ron Paul has said that Congress can do more to fulfill its constitutional obligation of providing for the defense of our sovereign nation, and granting President Bush the authority to grant letters of marque and reprisal is exactly what Congress should do,” said Kent Snyder, director of the committee.
Article I, Section 8, Clauses 10 and 11 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to define offenses against the law of nations and to authorize the use of non-governmental persons or entities to capture those who commit those offenses, Snyder said.
“Americans want Osama bin Laden and the other people responsible for the attacks upon our sovereign nation to be captured or killed, and using letters of marque and reprisal will be another weapon of war that President Bush can use to make that happen,” Snyder said.
“American citizens can speed up the capture of bin Laden by telling their elected representatives to get this legislation moving now,” he added.
The Liberty Committee – a nationwide organization of 62,000 members – said the legislation was necessary because conventional military power and tactics haven’t been effective in helping U.S. forces and authorities locate and, more importantly, eradicate “an enemy that hides among civilian populations, or shifts between temporary and remote locations. …”
Massive bombing raids that destroy villages or larger population centers risk the lives of innocent civilians, the committee said in its statement.
“Companies that offer private military and security services to foreign governments were engaged in the former Yugoslavia and with good and productive results,” the committee said. “Appointed by the president, such forces could be coordinated with current government attacks, and have access to U.S. intelligence to augment their own well-established networks.”
“This would not preclude the president’s other efforts to resolve the crisis, but supply him with an additional weapon,” Paul says. “Once current law is extended beyond the high seas to the skies, then Congress can take the next step – granting letters of marque and reprisal to guide and limit the utilization of non-government armed forces against the current terrorist threats.”
“This is also a way to avoid a wider war,” Snyder added.
In the past, critics of the language of Paul’s bill have said letters of marque and reprisal no longer apply in today’s modern world. But Wendy McElroy, writing in the November 1999 issue of The Freeman magazine, said such congressional action is as appropriate today as it always was, when taken in historical context.
“A letter of marque – or letter of reprisal – is the means by which a government authorizes a civilian to arm a private ship in order to attack and plunder the merchant ships of an enemy nation during war,” she wrote. “This is the meaning the term had acquired by the 18th century. In earlier use, it referred to the means by which a government righted a private wrong against one of its citizens.”
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