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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (7825)	8/26/2007 10:34:45 AM
From: Jim S	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25737

"letters of marque and reprisal," ... "what does that actually mean?" GZ, I'm surely not an expert on such things. And I'm pretty sure that as soon as I make my own feeble attempt to explain it, there will be other self-proclaimed "experts" to tell me I'm wrong. But, as I understand the term, letters of marque are pretty much like "Wanted Dead or Alive" Posters, issued to specific individuals to apprehend or kill others on the High Seas. This was a fairly common practice in the days of sailing ship navies. A head of state would issue the Letter of Marque to a civilian sea captain, authorizing that captain to assemble a crew and outfit a ship to go hunt the bad guys, namely pirates, not unlike a bounty hunter. After capturing the pirate ship, the holder of the marque shared the booty with the state issuing the letter. A Letter of Reprisal was similar, except it authorized merchant vessels to legally engage the naval and merchant ships of a warring nation. Interestingly, some famous pirates began their pirating careers with Letters of Marque and Reprisal. It could be argued that a modern day version of letters of marque and reprisal exists with the $10 million reward on UBL's head, and similar rewards for other Al Qaeda leaders. And, it might be that some of the functions of a letter of reprisal are now fulfilled by our Special Forces. What I think Ron Paul has in mind, though, is "outsourcing" even more of the fight against terrorists.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (7825)	8/26/2007 1:30:36 PM
From: Joe Sixer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25737

the issuance of "letters of marque and reprisal," or some sort of updated version of such a concept. this is the first I've ever heard of this phrase, and it's from your post, not from any of the others who have claimed they "know" Paul's position... Au contraire GZ, I refer you to post Message 23537310 where I introduced you to the Congressman’s concept of using Letters of Marque and Reprisal…- had you taken the time to read you would have seen this: The best tool the framers of the Constitution provided under these circumstances was the power of Congress to grant letters of marque and reprisals, in order to narrow the retaliation to only the guilty parties. The complexity of the issue, the vagueness of the enemy, and the political pressure to respond immediately limits our choices. The proposed resolution is the only option we're offered and doing nothing is unthinkable. Had you any curiosity or desire to learn the meaning of the term, you would have researched it instead of disregarding it or dismissing it out of hand if you indeed did read it. In your response, you then asked “Specifically, what would he have done? TIA” I chose not to answer your question, as the answer was readily evident in the material that I referenced.