by J.B. Williams
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The US Constitution defines the act of treason as follows, "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." [article III, section 3.]
The last time america charged and prosecuted anyone for the act of treason was in 1947. Hans Max Haupt was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison for aiding his son who was a spy for Germany during World War II. The son, Herbert Hans Haupt, was tried, convicted, and executed by a military tribunal. The elder Haupt helped his son find a job, gave him a place to live, and bought him a car, all while knowing that his son was working as a German spy. The government argued that the father supported his son's espionage by committing acts of aid and comfort to the enemy. Haupt's trial was the last treason case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Modern liberal Democrats scoff at the term "treason", used by many other americans with increasing regularity, to describe the recent string of overt actions by "democratic progressive liberals" seeking to regain political power. They scoff because there is no such thing as treason in their minds, and all things are fair game in pursuit of power, even at the expense of american lives, even when they find themselves the bedfellows of america's worst enemies.
But are they right? Is treason a humorous term and charge that has outlived its usefulness? Or has it just become such a favored political tool of opposition, through its wholesale use by high-ranking government officials and low-life dissenters alike, that it is an un-prosecutable crime today?
If a political operative opposed to american policy broke into the CIa, stole TOP SECRET files that included sensitive war related intelligence reports and shared them with american enemies, who benefited by that information during a time when the US was engaged in battle, every american in this country would call this an overt act of treason.
If a CIa agent stole [leaked] those same files and sent them to enemy headquarters during a time of war, he would be called a double agent and he would be prosecuted as a traitor. Every american would again, call this an overt act of treason and they would be right.
Yet when a news reporter, working in secret collusion with a rogue CIa employee, sneaks TOP SECRET sensitive intelligence briefings out of CIa headquarters and broadcasts them on world-wide television, or plasters them all over the front page of every newspaper in the world, both embarrassing the nation they call home and providing direct aid and comfort via shared TOP SECRET security information to every enemy around the globe, some americans call these people "whistle blowers", heroic patriotic dissenters?
When an opposition political party pounces on that front page story and races to cash-in on it as a campaign tool, as we have seen Democrats do repeatedly without ever wondering much less worrying how such information became public from our most trusted secret intelligence offices, then the whole damn lot of them are guilty of an overt act of treason.... Or... there's no such thing as treason. (If there's no such thing as treason, then there is no such thing as national security either...)
When they do it repeatedly, and they do, there is no mistaking their intent...
One such reporter is Mark Mazzetti, who reports for such lofty clients as World News, and the NY and La Times. Mazzetti's latest scoop is the much publicized NY Times headline Spy agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat, based entirely upon "leaked" fragments from a nine-page CIa report, allegedly titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,'' allegedly shared with Mazzetti by a CIa employee sworn to secrecy, who remains nameless and faceless. Our most secure information is not protected, but those who leak it are...
Need I point out that when a reporter's right to conceal his source includes a right to conceal the identity of a traitor, a trusted CIa employee who is clearly engaged in "leaking" the highest level national security secrets, a traitor in a position to do great harm - something is horribly wrong in america!
Mazzetti has a pattern of this behavior by the way. His previous scoops include numerous "leaked" headlines concerning so-called classified national security information supposedly available to only the most trusted members of the US government. Mazzetti seems to be the most valuable asset to both america's enemies and the Democratic Party, both immediately out in force working his headlines for political gain before the ink is even dry.
You'll find that Mazzetti has spent a lot of time digging up anything that would undermine america's war on terror, which means, providing aid and comfort to america's enemies, always from secret sources inside the US government. In fact, Mazzetti has yet to write a pro-american piece concerning the war against those who attacked us on 911 or those who would attack again.
Now politics has always been a high-stakes game and dirty tricks are unfortunately commonplace in that arena. But not so long ago, we drew the line somewhere just short of treasonous acts, especially during times of war. Not any more. all is fair, even treason, in politics. Everything except quizzing a former President about his eight-year role in the events leading up to the most deadly terror attack on US soil that is...
a US President was once forced to resign from office under threat of impeachment for spying on the campaign offices of his political opponent. But someone inside our most trusted intelligence community is cherry picking fragments of secret intel reports and leaking it to a carefully selected anti-administration reporter willing to print it in an anti-administration newspaper to provide campaign material for the opposition party, providing our enemies with information they are not supposed to have in that process and nobody bats an eye or wonders who this secret double agent for the DNC is???
In recent months, we have heard these headlines regurgitated by Osama Bin Laden, almost as if he's on the DNC Talking-Points fax blast list, or at least a subscriber to the NY Times. We have recently heard the nut running Iran and the South american dancing monkey from Venezuela use these same headlines as their best propaganda tools. We are at war...a war tough enough as it is. This kind of help, we don't need.
Many americans have asked why the NY Times is allowed to continue its front-page war against the war on terror. President Lincoln stopped the presses from rolling across this land when reporters became so blatantly careless with their reporting at the expense of additional american lives. What the NY Times is engaged in is far worse...and could easily come with much greater consequences. Yet they operate with impunity, repeatedly exposing our most guarded national security secrets?
When our enemies get off another attack on US soil, using information picked up from the front page of al Jazeera, courtesy of Mazzetti or one of his fellow reporters, disseminated via the DNC Talking-Points fax blast, who will be to blame for those attacks? Bush? I'm sure that's how Mazzetti, the NY Times and Democrats will write it. But will they be right?
Mazzetti has friends... lots of friends. Many members of the modern US press are complicit. He is the best friend the Democratic Party has today. almost every political propaganda attack launched by Democrats [or america's enemies] against Bush's war on terror resonates from a column written by Mazzetti or his friends. Most of them "leaked" TOP SECRET information from a protected source working inside the CIa, or Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - secret sources that should be drawn and quartered...not protected by the First amendment.
are these acts of treason? There are only two ways a single american could doubt that these are all acts of treason, acts that aid, abet and comfort our enemies, acts that undermine those charged with preventing the next 911.
1)...If you in any way benefit from these leaks, as all liberal democrats seek to, because you agree politically with the purposes behind such leaks, these breaches of public trust, these cowardly acts against american security, then in your mind, they are acts of courageous patriotic whistle blowing. The leaker of the information, the overtly biased reporter scooping the headlines and the politicians hoping to cash-in, are all heroes to you.
2)...If you believe that the US government should function in a glass house, open for all to see and know, even in intelligence operations, even in war planning, then you must also believe that there is no such thing as TOP SECRET information or operations, no such thing as TOP SECRET clearance, and therefore, no such thing as treason.
If you fall into either of these two categories, then you will have no problem with the NY Times, Mazzetti or his friends, the CIa agent illegally divulging national security secrets, or even those who use this information to pursue political power or kill more americans.
If on the other hand, like I, you believe that these things equal no such thing as national security, then it is high time to begin prosecuting high crimes. It's time to put a stop to this madness before more innocent people die. Saving a fledgling political party can not be more important than saving innocent american life by protecting national secrets at all cost. Only those with no respect for human life to begin with, could see it any other way.
No administration can defend this or any other nation against foreign aggressors with trusted security agents leaking and the press printing TOP SECRET national security plans, exposing every vulnerability and warning our enemies of every US initiative to block their next attack.
a reporter's right to protect his source must not be allowed to trump the nation's right to protect its national security secrets and defense plans. If this is allowed to continue, we will get hit again. There is nothing any administration could do to stop it... No administration can be asked to secure our nation while under attack from within for every effort to do just that.
In 1947, a man was jailed for life for buying his son a car, helping his son find a job and a place to live. His son was executed for sharing sensitive american information with america's enemy. What these people are doing today is far worse and the potential consequences are beyond imagination.
It's time to call these acts what they are and prosecute them to the full limit of the law.
If you think the average american voter is going to entrust national security to people willing to expose national security secrets as a campaign tool to regain political power, think again!
You are damn lucky we are so civilized these days. In the old days, every red-blooded american would have appointed himself judge, jury and executioner for people like this. They wouldn't be just put out of business - they'd be put out of our misery, for good!
It's time for a treason trial. We must begin by charging and prosecuting one, setting the standard by which all others will be judged. Mazzetti seems a great candidate. But then so does almost every Democrat in Washington DC today and every Hollyweird loud mouth...
Pick one, any one, and let it be known that real americans still know what treason is and we are still prepared to prosecute those who practice such hideous acts in their search of political power.
Mazzetti is no hero, neither is whoever keeps leaking Top Secret security information from inside our most trusted agencies and neither are those politicians rushing to gain political advantage from these leaks instead of rushing to shut them down...
all of these people should be removed from any position of trust because clearly, none of them can be trusted...
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