Towards a National Socialist America -- Lew Rockwell on the Patriot Act. [Archive]

Lucille

05-26-2011, 08:15 PM

The Political Doctrine of Statism (http://lewrockwell.com/rockwell/political-doctrine-of-statism180.html)

The Patriot Act that was rammed through after the September 2001 attacks was one of the more egregious blows against liberty in our lifetimes. It shredded core rights and liberties that had been taken for granted for centuries. Liberties are never lost all at once, but the Patriot Act, as disgusting in its details as in its name and the rhetoric that surrounded it, was for the United States the turning point, the law that best exemplifies a full-scale embrace of statism as a national ideology. It is a law so severe, so outlandish, as to cause people to forget what it means to be free.

This is why I believe Ron Paul’s book Liberty Defined to be one of the most important statements of our time. He defines liberty clearly and cleanly as freedom from coercive interference from the state. That is how the liberal tradition from Aquinas to Jefferson to Rothbard understood it, too, for there is no greater threat to liberty than the state. Its powers must be crushed if we are to revisit what liberty means.
[...]
There is always some great excuse for the trashing of the human freedom that built civilization as we know it. If the state cannot find one, it is glad to invent one. A population that is ideologically gullible or afraid for its security can permit government to run roughshod over people’s rights and liberties, and a government that gains such power never gives it back on its own. Rights and liberties must be reclaimed by the people themselves, and the spark that makes this happen is reversing the conditions that permitted the rise of statism. The people must lose their gullibility through ideological enlightenment, and they must lose their sense of fear that the world will fall apart if the tyrant is not in control.

Part of this process of enlightenment requires an understanding of what was lost when we gave up liberty, and what can be gained by reclaiming it.
[...]
The point that Mises was making with his book was that it is not enough to hate a particular regime; we must oppose the ideological underpinnings of that regime and see what it has in common with the universal experience of tyranny. Nor is it enough merely to oppose government. We must also come to love liberty, to see and understand how it works even though we live in times when liberty is ever less seen, and ever less understood. This was the burden of his great book: to highlight Nazism as a particular application of the broader menace of statism itself.

This is also the point of Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined. Yes, he opposes government as we know it. Much more importantly and much more profoundly, he understands the liberty that we do not know, and he strives to help us to love it, dream of it, and work for its achievement.

It doesn’t surprise me that Ron’s own son Rand Paul turns out to be the only member of the U.S. Senate to dare to stand up to the Patriot Act and call it what it is. He has staked his political career on his action to stop its reauthorization. It is truly the case that if we can’t see what is wrong with the Patriot Act, we can’t see what is wrong with any despotism in the past or the present. If we can see what is wrong with it, we have a good start on beginning to see what is right about human liberty.

greyseal

05-26-2011, 09:34 PM

"The terms of a Treaty are not enforceable in the States of the Union" United States Supreme Court- Downes v. Bidwell.
Congress never created the FBI
: Read notes following 28 U.S.C. § 531 to find that Congress didn't create the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI simply appeared in the Department of Justice -- it is an administratively-created entity, so cannot exceed authority originally vested in the Attorney General or the Department of Justice. Statutory authority vested in the FBI and the Attorney General is found at 28 U.S.C. § 535:
The Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation may investigate any violation of title 18 involving Government officers and employees...
Administrative creation of the FBI is confirmed in The United States Government Manual, 1996/97 edition, page 349:
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation was established in 1908 by the Attorney General, who directed that Department of Justice investigations be handled by its own staff..."
This administrative authority is also extended to Federal Agencies, and employees in regard to treaties entered into by the United States concerning terrorism.
Congress never created the NSA (see the Church Committee report).The NSA is a Chartered Agency along with the Central Intelligence. a provision of a treaty with Britian,to deciper SIGNET intelligence, neither Agency has jurisdiction in the several states. The former NSA was the signal Corp, overseen by the munitions division of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

U.S. Supreme Court BOOS v. BARRY, 485 U.S. 312 (1988)

As a general proposition, it is of course correct that the United States has a vital national interest in complying with international law. The Constitution itself attempts to further this interest by expressly authorizing Congress "[t]o define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations." U.S. Const., Art. I, 8, cl. 10. Cf. The Federalist No. 3, p. 43 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961.
Well does Congress sit in assembly to implement treaties, "[t]o define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations."? Yes they do. Following is reference to the Congressional committee to implement a treaty with Europe concerning terrorism. This Committee wrote the Patriot “Act”.

Title 22 USC Foreign Relations

TITLE 22 > CHAPTER 7 > SUBCHAPTER II-B > § 276m
§ 276m. United States Delegation to Parliamentary Assembly of Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE)
(a) Establishment
In accordance with the allocation of seats to the United States in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (hereinafter referred to as the “CSCE Assembly”) not to exceed 17 Members of Congress shall be appointed to meet jointly and annually with representative parliamentary groups from other Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) member-nations for the purposes of—
(1) assessing the implementation of the objectives of the CSCE;…..

Here’s the definition of terrorism according to the Council of Europe

Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism
Warsaw, 16.V.2005 http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Tr ... 96.htm#ANX
The member States of the Council of Europe and the other Signatories hereto,
Recalling that acts of terrorism have the purpose by their nature or context to seriously intimidate a population or unduly compel a government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act or seriously destabilise or destroy the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisation;
Have agreed as follows:
Article 5 – Public provocation to commit a terrorist offence
1 For the purposes of this Convention, "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence" means the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, where such conduct, whether or not directly advocating terrorist offences, causes a danger that one or more such offences may be committed
Article 8 – Irrelevance of the commission of a terrorist offence
For an act to constitute an offence as set forth in Articles 5 to 7 of this Convention, it shall not be necessary that a terrorist offence be actually committed.

Here’s the conforming Agreement located in the Patriot “Act”.
Title 18 USC Federal Employees

(USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001
SEC. 802. DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113B > § 2331

(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

(A) The term “United States”, when used in a geographic sense, means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, any possession of the United States, and any waters within the jurisdiction of the United States. (note) *geographic sense exclude the several states of the union. The states mentioned in the "Patriot Act" are the member countries of the Treaty.

PROTOCOLS OF 2005 TO THE CONVENTION CONCERNING
SAFETY OF MARITIME NAVIGATION ANDTO THE PROTOCOL CONCERNING SAFETY OF
FIXED PLATFORMS ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF ADOPTED BY THE
INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCE
IN LONDON ON OCTOBER 14, 2005, AND SIGNED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON FEBRUARY 17, 2006

The Protocols are an important component in the international
campaign to prevent and punish maritime terrorism and the proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction and promote the aims of
the Proliferation Security Initiative. They establish a legal basis for
international cooperation in the investigation, prosecution, and extradition
of those who commit or aid terrorist acts or trafficking in
weapons of mass destruction aboard ships at sea or on fixed platforms.

New offenses
Paragraphs 5–7 of Article 4 of the 2005 SUA Protocol
also create four new categories of offenses under the Convention:
using a ship in a terrorist offense; transportation
of WMD, delivery systems, and related items; transportation
of a terrorist fugitive; and accessory offenses. It does
so principally by adding three new articles to the Convention:
Article 3bis, 3ter, and 3quater.
Article 4(5) of the 2005 SUA Protocol adds Article 3bis
to the Convention.
Counterterrorism offenses
Article 3bis(1)(a) makes it an offense for a person to unlawfully
and intentionally, with the purpose of intimidating
a population, or compelling a government or an
international organization to do or abstain from doing any act (i) use against or on a ship or discharge from a ship
any explosive, radioactive material or BCN weapon in a
manner that causes or is likely to cause death or serious
injury or damage;…..

So in addition to the actual crime of terrorism, there’s a nuance. a thought crime, if you will, it’s referred to as an accessory offence,

Accessory offenses
A comprehensive framework creating criminal liabilityfor accessory offenses is provided in Article 3quater, which is added to the Convention by Article 4(7) of the 2005 SUA
Protocol. Subparagraph (a) of Article 3quater makes it an offense to kill or injure any person in connection with any offense under Articles 3(1), 3bis, or 3ter of the Convention.
Subparagraph (b) of Article 3quater makes it an offense to attempt to commit an offense under Articles 3(1), 3bis(1)(a)(i)–(iii), or 3quater(a) of the Convention. Subparagraphs (c) and (d) of Article 3quater make it an offense to
participate as an accomplice or organize or direct others in connection with any offense under Articles 3, 3bis, 3ter, or 3quater(a) or (b). Finally, subparagraph (e) of Article
3quater makes it an offense to contribute to the commission of one or more offenses under Articles 3, 3bis, 3ter, or 3quater(a) or (b) by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. These accessory offenses are substantially the same as those provided for by the Terrorist Bombings Convention and the Terrorist Financing Convention. They will strengthen the ability of the international community
to investigate, prosecute, and extradite those who conspire or otherwise contribute to the commission of offenses under the Convention.

Criminalization and jurisdiction under domestic law Article 5(1) of the 2005 SUA Protocol modifies Article 5 of the Convention to add the offenses enumerated in Articles
3, 3bis, 3ter, and 3quater to the list of criminal offenses that States Parties must make punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature.
Article 5(2) of the 2005 SUA Protocol adds to the Convention a new provision, Article 5bis, to ensure liability for legal entities as well as persons. Article 5bis requires
States Parties, in accordance with their domestic legal principles, to take the necessary measures to enable a Legal ]entity located in their territory or organized under their laws to be held liable when a person responsible for the management or control of that legal entity has, in that capacity, committed an offense under the Convention.
Such liability may be criminal, civil, or administrative and is without prejudice to the criminal liability of individuals having committed the offenses. Further, States Parties
must ensure that legal entities held liable for offenses under Article 5bis are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal, civil, or administrative sanctions,
which may include monetary sanctions. This provision is identical to Article 5 of the Terrorism Financing Convention.
Article 6 of the 2005 SUA Protocol makes conforming amendments to Article 6 of the Convention, which requires States Parties to establish jurisdiction over the offenses set
forth under the Convention. Each State Party is now required to establish jurisdiction over offenses under Articles 3, 3bis, 3ter, and 3quater. Article 8(1) of the 2005 SUA
Protocol makes a similar conforming amendment to Article 8, paragraph 1, of the Convention to permit the master of a ship to deliver to the authorities of any other State Party any person who the master has reasonable grounds to believe
has committed an offense under Article 3, 3bis, 3ter, or 3quater. Both provisions simply update the Convention provisions to include the full range of offenses under the
Convention as revised by the 2005 SUA Protocol.

So who is liable for a thought crime, or an accessory crime, why a federal agency or government employee, referred to as a legal entity. In this instant matter, the FBI would have authority to investigate.

Implementing legislation
Title 18, U.S. Code sections 2280 and 2281 implement the Convention and the 1988 Protocol. Legislation necessary to implement the 2005 Protocols is being prepared
for separate submission to the Congress. The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Defense join in recommending that the 2005 Protocols be
transmitted to the Senate at an early date for its advice and consent to their ratification, subject to the understandings previously described.

This legislation referred to in the above text would be a thought crime bill to implement the 2005 Protocols.
1. S. 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention ...
A bill in the US Congress: A bill to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism.
Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism
Homegrown definition: A grassroot uprising in defense of a Nations natural resources.

(