Treason

“Three key elements are necessary for an offense to constitute treason: an obligation of allegiance to the legal order, and intent and action to violate that obligation. Treason is a breach of allegiance and of the faithful support a citizen owes to the sovereignty within which he lives. A citizen of the United States who is subject to the law of a foreign state may owe allegiance to that state at the same time he owes fealty to the United States. But this dual nationality does not relieve him of obligation to refrain from volunteering aid or comfort to the foreign nation if it is at war with the United States. Although the matter has not been presented to a court in this country, an individual present here and enjoying the nation’s protection owes it his obedience while he is resident, and thus may be guilty of treason if he commits what would be the offense when done by a citizen. “-Note

While I realize, especially in this day and age there are people who do and will make up definitions willy nilly about “what the meaning of the word is, is”, it is sometimes appropriate  to reflect on what some of the words we use really mean. I found this description of the act of treason to be appropriate as we whip ourselves and the country over the death of an “American citizen” in hiding among the Al Queda operatives.

I am speaking of  Anwar al-Aulaqi, the supposed “American Citizen” born in New Mexico and Samir Khan also a purported American citizen.  As was posited in the first paragraph however  “Treason is a breach of allegiance and of the faithful support a citizen owes to the sovereignty within which he lives. A citizen of the United States who is subject to the law of a foreign state may owe allegiance to that state at the same time he owes fealty to the United States. But this dual nationality does not relieve him of obligation to refrain from volunteering aid or comfort to the foreign nation if it is at war with the United States.” Aulaqi and Khan both worked with foreign nationals to harm and kill Americans here and all over the globe, they planned terrorist attacks, their stated goal was to bring down the government of America.  In such things they committed treason, no matter where they were living and thus they cast off their citizenship along with the rights and privileges it afforded them.  They were no longer citizens.  It doesn’t take a court of law (and with the activist judges we have today, they (said judges) would probably give the terrorists a medal) to decide that.  Aulaqi and Khan made the decision to jettison their rights and privileges when they joined an Islamo-facist organization who’s stated goal is the destruction of the US and it’s allies.

If either of these so called citizens were not prepared for their end they should not have been where they were, doing what they were doing. Thousands of lives have been saved by the execution of these two sociopaths.  Their end was directly guided by their decisions.  They were in charge of their lives.  When someone fights against their Mother country, when they subvert others with-in that country and seek to overturn or undermine the representative government for their own profit, that my dears, is treason.  We used to hang traitors or at the very least deport them.

We could, on the other hand, always make them federal employees.  They have the work ethic and ideological stance to fit right in with the current administration.