Proper and Improper Charges of “Treason” and “Terrorist”
ind your Manners and your Tongue
Americans, especially public
figures and holders of public office, should take more care in their use and
misuse of language.
Words like “terrorist” and
“traitor” deepen division, crudely disparage, and incite violence among and
between people and nations. Careless use of language renders language
contradictory, confusing, contradictory, even libelous.
Misuse and overuse often robs
meaning, reduces terms, words, concepts to meaninglessness. Slanderous language
is often used as pretext for other actions, often aggression, sanctions,
warfare, and assassination.
For a long time US leaders and
other influential public officials and media personalities have used language
slanderously against other people foreign and national. Such egregious breach
of expected social, public, and professional standards is grievously irresponsible.
This kind of vulgarity and incivility, carelessness in character and conduct
models bad behavior for the young and impressionable. It sends the wrong message
to world nations. It does serious injury to the integrity of the offender; and
more broadly, to the standing and credibility of United States of America in
the world.
What is unacceptable should be
recognized as unacceptable; not glossed over, acquiesced to, or treated as boys-being-boys — Jane being Jane or Joe being Joe — acceptable.
If a crime is alleged, the
allegation should be reported to the proper authorities and by them
investigated, prosecuted, and adjudicated strictly and impartially,
independently, within the appropriate institution of justice.
The language of treason and
terrorism should be held in check; when used, used appropriately.
ild Charges of Treason
2019
US
President Donald Trump charges
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made
up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most
important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to
Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the
call. Arrest for Treason?”
President Trump reportedly
charges former advisor with treason
“John Bolton is ‘a traitor’ and
his book should not be published before the election in November
The president is directly quoted
I give the guy a break
I give him a job. And then he turns on me.
He's just making things up.
“President Donald Trump tells his staff he will work to block former
national security advisor John Bolton’s tell-all memoir,” which had been set for release. The Washington Post reportedly cites two sources.
“In these exchanges, Trump called Bolton ‘a traitor’ and said that all
the conversations they had were classified.
2020
(May)
US president from the White House
declares
“The Obama administration Justice Department was a disgrace….
It’s treason. It’s treason.”
ild Charges of Treason against President Trump
2019
Former CIA operations officer, 2016 presidential candidate, David Evan
McMullin declares
“I’ve always been fascinated by traitors. They consider themselves
highly intelligent, yet fail to understand how likely they are to be caught.
When they are, they become men without a home, having betrayed their countrymen
and been used by an enemy. So it will be with this one.”
William Joseph “Joe” Walsh, Candidate for 2016 US presidency speaking
on CNN Sunday program
“This is a strong term I’m going to use, but I’m going to say it on
purpose: Donald Trump is a traitor.”
The president “betrayed our country again this week” by calling on
China and Ukraine to investigate one of his chief political rivals in the 2020
presidential race.”
“This president deserves to be impeached.”
The Constitution of the United States: Article II The Executive Branch
Note, Section 4 Disqualification: The President, Vice President and all civil
Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for,
and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
https://usconstitution.net/const.html
Candidate former Rep. Mark Sanford responds to Walsh’s charge
“[T]o jump to conclusions and say … what he’s done is treasonous is to
say we’re not going through the very process that the Founding Fathers laid
out.”
Financier, political consultant, former White House communications
director Anthony Scaramucci charges
It’s just his personality and style and traitorous nature because you
have to call him for what he is.”
“The American president is a traitor to the United States. He is
literally the most un-American president that we’ve had, probably since Andrew
Johnson.”
onstitution of the United States Article 3 (Judicial Branch) Section 3
Treason
“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War
against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two
Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but
no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except
during the Life of the Person attainted.
Treason Clause Common Interpretation
Paul T. Crane, US Department of Justice criminal division appellate
section
Deborah Pearlstein, professor of law, co director Yeshiva University
Cardozo Law School Floersheimer Center for
Constitutional Democracy
The Constitution specifically identifies what constitutes treason
against the United States and, importantly, limits the offense of treason to
only two types of conduct:
(1) ‘levying war’ against the United States; or
(2) ‘adhering to [the] enemies [of the United States], giving them aid
and comfort.’
“Although there have not been many treason prosecutions in American
history—indeed, only one person has been indicted for treason since 1954—the
Supreme Court has had occasion to further define what each type of treason
entails.
“To further guard against the prospect that the government could use
false or passion-driven accusations of treason to undermine political
opponents, the Treason Clause provides that the offense may only be proven by
‘open confession in court,’ or on ‘the testimony of two witnesses to the same
overt act.’
“The ‘overt act’ requirement was designed both to limit the kind of
substantive behavior treason could punish—only conduct, not mere expression—and
to ensure that the conduct itself demonstrated a defendant’s intention to
betray the United States.
“Believing that no witness could meaningfully testify to a defendant’s
internal state of mind, the Cramer Court made clear that the defendant’s
disloyal intent must be evident from the witnessed acts themselves; the
government would have to prove that each overt act alleged ‘actually gave aid
and comfort to the enemy.’
“The two-witness requirement was likewise geared to raising the bar to
prosecution, applying ‘at least to all acts of the defendant which are used to
draw incriminating inferences that aid and comfort have been given.’
“While there was no dispute in Cramer’s case that he had met with a man
who turned out to be a German soldier in the United States, the Court concluded
that these facts alone failed to establish Cramer had actually given that enemy
soldier aid and comfort. The Court accordingly reversed Cramer’s treason
conviction.”
Cramer v. United States, 325 U.S. 1 (1945)
The Supreme Court of the United
States reviewed the conviction of Anthony Cramer, a German-born naturalized
citizen, for treason.
In a 5-4 decision the court
overturned the jury verdict. Justice Robert H. Jackson, for the majority, wrote
“the constitution is clear in its definition of treason, limited to the waging
of war, or giving material assistance to an enemy.
“The prosecution and its
witnesses could demonstrate only an association and not that Cramer had given
‘Aid and Comfort,’ as defined in Article Three [of the US Constitution]. …
[T]he jury had been given no evidence that Cramer had ‘even paid for their
drinks.’”
In its reversal of the Court of
Appeals, the Supreme Court’s “majority opinion held [that] the associations
were insufficient to convict Cramer for treason.”
The German-born mechanic, Anthony
Cramer, had associated with two Germans, Werner Thiel and Edward Kerling, one
of whom Cramer had had prior business dealings. Werner Thiel and Edward Kerling
were later found to be in the United States for the purpose of committing
sabotage. Cramer was drag netted, arrested and convicted at trial, for
association.
ild and not so Wild charges of Terrorism
April 9, 2019
US Department of State claims
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC), “regularly threatens freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf
(sic) while its Aerospace Force directs the country’s ballistic missile program
in defiance of Security Council resolutions (sic).”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo anounces
“… our intent to designate the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force (sic), as a
foreign terrorist organization (FTO). This designation will take effect one
week from today.”
“This is the first time that the
United States has designated a part of another government as an FTO.”
“The Quds Force is a unit in Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare
and military intelligence operations.”
The US CIA operates black sites where
“unacknowledged black operations or black projects are conducted.” Such sites
“are controlled by the CIA and used by the US government in its War on Terror
to detain alleged ‘unlawful enemy
combatants.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site
The Committee Study
of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program of the
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) discovered that in
the period before and during the “War on Terror,” the CIA engaged in extensive
torture, “various forms of enhanced interrogation techniques” of human beings;
and destroyed videos of these crimes.
The findings were released at the end of 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_report_on_CIA_torture
Michael Richard
Pompeo is a military industry businessman and former CIA director. As a
businessman, Pompeo with three buddies started an aerospace company funded by
Koch industries and whose client pool included military industrialists Boeing, Lockheed
Martin, and Raytheon Aircraft; Pompeo was also president of Sentry
International, an oilfield equipment manufacturer that also partnered with Koch
Industries. When Pompeo became US CIA chief in 2017, he brought along his
business partner Brian Bulatao, as the CIA’s chief operating officer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo
hicago-based author and radio host Stephen Lendman illustrates “terrorism”
“Fact: Iran hasn’t attacked another country in centuries, threatening
none now. The US wages permanent war on humanity, raping and destroying one
country after another, notably since the 1950s, especially post-9/11.”
“The Pentagon, White House, Congress, CIA, NSA, FBI, DHS, NED, USAID,
and other US agencies are terrorist
organizations – aiming for world conquest and domination, wanting all nations
worldwide bending to Washington’s will – brute force and other terrorist
tactics used to enforce it.
“The Trump regime is waging war on Iran by other means, similar to its
actions against Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries, wanting their governments
toppled, their nations transformed into US vassal states.”
January
5, 2020
The President’s Rose Garden news conference January 5, 2020 charges
South of the Border “Terrorists”
“We have terrorists coming through the southern border because they
find that’s probably the easiest place to come through. They drive right in and
they make a left.”
Associated Press fact checks the president:
‘The only known terrorists who crossed illegally from Mexico in those
decades were three ethnic Albanians from Macedonia who came as children with
their parents in 1984; and, in their 20s, were arrested in the foiled plot to
attack the Fort Dix, New Jersey, Army base in 2007, the CATO study found. They
were not from a special-interest country.”
Further, “If they’re driving in
through border crossings, no wall would stop them.” As to the president’s “broader
point, US officials have not cited evidence of a terrorist influx from Mexico.”
Todd Bensman led homeland
security intelligence efforts for nine years for the state government in Texas.
“At the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration and
stronger defenses against terrorist infiltration, analyst Todd Bensman said the
Trump administration is losing credibility by exaggerating the threat from
Mexico.
Bensman estimated “perhaps 20 a year,” and has declared “I can say
definitively that the number of terrorist suspects arriving at the southern
border or en route never came anywhere close to 3,000, let alone 4,000 in any
single year of my state government intelligence service.”
March
30, 2020
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif (Twitter)
The United States “has gone from sabotage & assassinations to
waging an economic war & #EconomicTerrorism on Iranians—to #MedicalTerror
amidst #covid19iran.”
“The illegal blockade of Iran’s financial resources by the sweeping US
sanctions makes access to drugs and medical equipment impossible…
“This is leading to a humanitarian catastrophe.”
April
19, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Twitter) urging UN Security Council
to prolong the arms embargo on Iran, set to expire in October
“The arms embargo on Iran – the world’s leading state sponsor of terror
– expires six months from today. The UN Security Council (UNSC) must extend the
embargo before Iran’s violence escalates and they start a new arms race in the
Middle East. The clock is ticking.”
UN Envoy Majid Takht-Ravanchi responds on Twitter that Pompeo’s action
is
“Yet another attempt by US to distract from its continued
#EconomicTerrorism on the Iranian people: this time, the US is calling on #UNSC
to violate its very resolution 2231, and continue arms restrictions on Iran.
But US will not succeed in wooing others to violate int’l law.”
anguage and its proper use matter. Accurate study and reading of
history matter. A nation and people who are unafraid of looking unblinkingly at
US relations at home and abroad matters are a nation and people made better for
seeing clearly. Perhaps their courage will allow them also to correct the actual
wrongs committed by their leaders and other influential entities.
Sources
PBS “Trump suggests Democrats are committing treason. Here’s what the
Constitution says” September 30, 2019 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-suggests-democrats-are-committing-treason-heres-what-the-constitution-says
Business Insider “Trump reportedly wants to block ‘traitor’ John
Bolton’s new tell-all book” Sarah Al-Arshani February 22, 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-he-plans-to-blocl-traitor-john-boltons-book-2020-2
Newsweek “Former CIA Agent Accuses Trump of Being a ‘Traitor’ Who
‘Betrayed’ America after New York Times Report” Christina Zhao January 12, 2019
https://www.newsweek.com/former-cia-agent-calls-trump-traitor-who-betrayed-america-after-nyt-report-1289303
Politico “Joe Walsh says ‘traitor’ Trump ‘deserves to be impeached’”
Connor O’Brien October 6, 2019
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/06/joe-walsh-trump-impeached-sanford-032524
Free Republic “Anthony Scaramucci: Trump is ‘a traitor to the United
States’ Fox News Joseph A. Wulfsohn, October 4, 2019
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/3783787/posts
AP NEWS “AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s mythical terrorist tide from Mexico”
Calvin Woodward Tuesday January 8, 2019
https://apnews.com/4a7792c523ab4b5984893b38c988d70b
The Independent UK “Trump accuses Obama’s DOJ of ‘treason’ in wild rant
against department and FBI over Michael Flynn” John Bennett May 7, 2020 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-latest-doj-obama-fbi-michael-flynn-treason-a9504746.html
US Constitution usconstitution.net
https://usconstitution.net/const.html
Constitution Center Treason Clause Common Interpretation
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/article-iii/clauses/39
Common Interpretation
Wikipedia Cramer v. United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cramer_v._United_States
Lendman, Stephen, “US military: An unparalleled terrorist
organization.” Press TV April 9, 2019
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/04/09/593023/US-military-An-unparalleled-terrorist-organization
“18 US Code § 2331
defines a terrorist organization as follows: The term refers to ‘activities
that involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life…(that) intimidate or coerce a civilian
population…influence the policy of a government by intimidation or
coercion…(and engage in) mass destruction.”
“The US Army
Operational Concept for Terrorism (TRADOC Pamphlet No. 525-37, 1984) called
terrorism ‘the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals
that are political, religious, or ideological in nature…through intimidation,
coercion, or instilling fear.’”
“‘(W)ar on terrorism
(is) war of terrorism.’ Historian Howard Zinn said ‘(h)ow can you make war on
terrorism, if war is terrorism…Governments are terrorists on an enormously
large scale.’”
“Scholar/activist
Eqbal Ahmad called terrorism ‘coercive violence…that is used illegally (and)
extra-constitutionally’ – whether by governments, groups or individuals, state
terrorism most destructive of all, namely wars of aggression and other hostile actions
by one nation against others.”
“Separately, Ahmad
asked: ‘Who will define the parameters of terrorism, or decide where terrorists
lurk? Why, none other than the United States, which can from the rooftops of
the world set out its claim to be sheriff, judge and hangman, all at one and
the same time.’”
“…Clearly and
indisputably, the US, its government and agencies, especially its military, is
an unparalleled terrorist organization ….”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/04/09/593023/US-military-An-unparalleled-terrorist-organization
Press TV “Iran FM: US ‘medical terrorism’ leading to ‘humanitarian
catastrophe’” March 30, 2020
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/03/30/621942/coronavirus-Zarif-Kommersant-medical-terrorism-US-sanctions
Press TV “Iran: US seeks to hide ‘economic terrorism’ with arms embargo
call” April 19, 2020.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/04/19/623359/Iran-Majid-Takht-Ravanchi-US-economic-terrorism-arms-embargo
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