{"id":2606,"date":"2006-01-11T21:06:53","date_gmt":"2006-01-12T04:06:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2006-01-11T21:06:53","modified_gmt":"2006-01-12T04:06:53","slug":"bush-joins-oreilly-in-claiming-treason-by-dissenters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2006\/01\/11\/bush-joins-oreilly-in-claiming-treason-by-dissenters\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush Joins O’Reilly in Claiming Treason by Dissenters"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know, the so-called<\/a> social contract<\/a> which created the national government provides them the power to prosecute for treason, as it was in the Old World, but at least they made the standards pretty specific. From Article 3 Section 3<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now comes George W. Bush, joining Bill O’Reilly<\/a> in invoking “comfort to the enemy” while crying<\/a> about folks who point out what a complete<\/a> and total<\/a> disaster his invasion<\/a> of Iraq has been:<\/p>\n

“I ask all Americans to hold their elected leaders to account and demand a debate that brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, which criticism is permissible and what isn’t? What brings credit to our democracy<\/a> and what makes our enemies feel comforted?<\/p>\n

What if I were to assert that the Iraq war is what brings comfort to our enemies? What if I were to cite the CIA<\/a>, the RIIA<\/a> [.pdf], the Saudis<\/a>, the Israelis<\/a>, all the former<\/a> CIA guys<\/a> I’ve interviewed<\/a>, the<\/a> best<\/a> reporters<\/a> and academics<\/a> to back me up<\/a>? That al Qaeda has become<\/a> al Qaedaism – an ideology like neoconservatism<\/a>, but for pissed off<\/a> Salafist types, that the Kurdish Peshmergas<\/a> are preparing for war<\/a>, that the SCIRI<\/a> and Da’wa party<\/a>, who lived in Iran though the Iran-Iraq war and up until the US invasion in 2003 and now dominate the Shi’ite south<\/a>, have basically secured a giant new province for the Ayatollahs<\/a> that we had supported Saddam Hussein against<\/a>?<\/p>\n

What if I were to point out that the congress has had to raise their phony “debt ceiling” to 9 Trillion dollars<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Or that the Constitution has been all but scrapped<\/a>?<\/p>\n

How about the fact that a high level member of the War Party has been indicted<\/a> for the leaking of the name of a CIA officer at the<\/a> center<\/a> of their anti-nuclear proliferation efforts, others are under investigation for leaking secret codes<\/a> to Iranian spy<\/a> Ahmad Chalabi<\/a>, and one more has pled guilty<\/a> to passing classified information to Israel?<\/p>\n

Seems to me that if we’re to start throwing around accusations of treason, the Cheney\/ex-Trotskyite cabal<\/a> and their child-leader<\/a> are much more susceptible<\/span> to charges of working against America for the benefit<\/a> of foreign states<\/a> than those of us in opposition.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> Thank you all for your many thoughtful comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you know, the so-called social contract which created the national government provides them the power to prosecute for treason, as it was in the Old World, but at least they made the standards pretty specific. From Article 3 Section 3: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2606"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}