by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
A hot subject today is whether the president of the US can legally instruct the military to US grab citizens, render them overseas to “black sites” and interrogate them as enemy combatants. A separate question concerns the legal power to try a civilian by “military tribunal” and if they are convicted, to execute them, without benefit of judiciary.
There are different legal principles and laws involved. This article searches for the legality of the aforementioned renditions and military tribunals. Four laws and four court cases will come into the discussion. The laws are: the AUMF of 2001, the Military Commissions Act of 2009, the NDAA of 2012, and the criminal law of treason. The court cases are Hamdi of 2004, Hamdan of 2006, Hedges of 2013, and Ex parte Quirin of 1942.
Hovering over this article is the current rumor that some part of the DoD (Department of Defense) is at this moment hauling some US citizens, believed to be traitors, to offshore locations. They may be “rendered” to CIA black sites in Europe, or Guantanamo Bay in Cuba (aka Camp X-ray, nickname “Gitmo.)”
Basically, this article analyzes jurisdiction: Who has the authority to “bring to justice” persons who can be shown to have betrayed the nation?
Knowing, however, that the subject of jurisdiction is boring, let’s spice it up with the following question: Who has jurisdiction right now, today, to arrest any American who played a part on September 11, 2001 in attacking the New York WTC or the Pentagon?
Punishing the 9-11 Miscreants
On September 14, 2001, a mere three days after Americans were stunned by the destruction of the World Trade Center, President Bush asked for, and got, a joint resolution from Congress, enacted on September 18, as follows:
“That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”
That is known as the “AUMF” – the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. It has a sunset clause but every year – 19 times so far — Congress has renewed it. Congress is notably lax in enforcing Article, sec 8 of the United States Constitution that gives the legislature exclusive authority to declare war. (See my lawsuit, Maxwell v Trump).
In plain English, the AUMF authorizes a presidential move against any person “he determines” to be a Nine-Elevener, including a US citizen, with no further due process needed. He can “use force.”
(In actuality, though, the DoJ, Department of Justice, is more likely to employ the normal judicial system to try such persons if they are Americans.)
Enemy Combatants
Normally you would think that a US citizen cannot be removed from the country to be interrogated (or tortured) at a black site. But a civilian can be dealt with as an “enemy combatant” if he is fighting against the US (per Hamdi; see below).
Note: we are not talking about court-martialing under the UCMJ – the United Code of Military Justice. That is a domestic law in the US that applies only to members of the US military, not civilians.
The UCMJ came about via Congress’ power in Article I, section 8, clause 14 “To make rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.”
Hamdi v Rumsfeld, 2004
Hamdi was a US citizen captured in Afghanistan and accused of aiding the enemy. The important point today from this 2004 SCOTUS ruling, is that a US citizen can be designated an enemy combatant. Under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the decision as to whether he is a combatant can be made by an executive branch’s Combat Status Review Tribunal – CSRT’s.
Hamdi agreed to be freed at the expense of forfeiting his US citizenship. Another citizen, Jose Padilla, was included in the Hamdi case and was removed to the brig in South Carolina.
Hamdan v Rumsfeld, 2006
A man with a similar name, Hamdan, was not a US citizen. Nevertheless, he sought access to American courts from his location at Gitmo. This resulted, at US Supreme Court level, in such detainees being given at least some rights.
One of the court’s decisions was that a president cannot set up military commissions without legislation for it. Thus, Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act, the MCA in 2006.
MCA — Military Commissions Act of 2009
Following another SCOTUS ruling, in Boumediene, a new MCA was passed in 2009. It extended further rights to NON-citizen detainees, such as making information acquired by torture inadmissible.
The Military Commissions Act of 2009 is “to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes”. The phrase “and for other purposes” is very open-ended! (Note: The term “Military Tribunal” is not the same as Military Commission. A tribunal is part of the UCMJ for soldiers.)
The NDAA – National Defense Authorization Acts
Now let’s turn to, the NDAA of 2012. According to the US Constitution, Congress cannot fund an army for more than two years at a time. Hence every two years it passes a new National Defense Authorization Act. The 2012 Act was signed by President Obama on December 31, 2011. It provides for indefinite detention of enemy combatants, whether or not they were caught on the battlefield.
In a memo, President Obama stated that AUMF apples to a person who “was part of the Taliban, or al-Qaida forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act, or has directly supported hostilities, in aid of such enemy armed forces…” [Emphasis added]
As the memo was dated March 13 those criteria are known as “the March 13 standard.” Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had said, in a speech at Northwestern University School of Law, on March 5, 2012:
“… there may be members of certain terrorist groups who fall outside the jurisdiction of military commissions because, for example, they lack ties to al Qaeda and their conduct does not otherwise make them subject to prosecution in this forum. Additionally, by statute, military commissions cannot be used to try U.S. citizens….
“[In 2011], all three branches of the government weighed in to affirm the ongoing relevance of the 2001 AUMF and its application not only to those groups that perpetrated the 9/11 attacks or provided them safe haven, but also to certain others who were associated with them.”
Hedges v Obama (2nd Circuit, 2013)
The NDAA 2012’s section on “associated” persons was challenged by Chris Hedges, a former New York Times writer, on the grounds of its ambiguity. He argued that journalists would have to cut back on their field work, lest they be “associated” with, say, a Taliban member.
A district court agreed but the Second Circuit overruled, and SCOTUS declined to hear the case.
Recapping
This article’s ransacking of legislation and court cases is prompted by a rumor that President Trump is attempting, secretly, to “bring to book” some American traitors. The issue to be determined is one of jurisdiction: Is dealing with treason, by use of rendition and interrogation, legal?
So far, we looked at the AUMF of 2001, the MCA of 2009, and the NDAA of 2012. It is clear that there are military commissions for enemy combatants, per the MCA, and that per Hamdi, a US citizen can be an enemy combatant. However, it appears that only aliens can be tried by military commission:
The AUMF’s wording gives enormous discretion to the Executive branch: “… the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned or aided…[etc].”
The NDAA of 2012 also has loose wording:
“or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States… , including any person who has committed a belligerent act, or has directly supported hostilities, in aid of such enemy armed forces.”
Next we ask: Does a 1942 precedent still hold?
Ex Parte Quirin, 1942
In 1942, the US president, FDR, used a military tribunal to convict six German saboteurs. That is to say, the decision of a justice matter, normally held in a court, was taken by the executive branch. The saboteurs were enemies of the US, as Germany and the US were at war. On the battlefield, the president could order them killed. But did he have the right to “tribunalize” the captives in the US?
FDR issued a Proclamation: “all persons who are subjects, citizens or residents of any nation at war with the United States… [and who enter the US] through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing or … sabotage, espionage[etc] shall be subject to the law of war and to the jurisdiction of military tribunals”.
The US Supreme Court in Ex Parte Quirin, 1942, held:
“there is a class of unlawful belligerents not entitled to [POW] privilege… And by Article 15 of the Articles of War Congress has made provision for their trial and punishment by military commission, according to ‘the law of war’.”
Quirin has never been specifically overruled. FDR on his own initiative ran a tribunal that tried and indeed executed six German saboteurs. No US citizens was involved, however.
Treason
The crime of treason is spelled out in the US Constitution. The wording in federal law is at 18 USC 2381:
“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
This law is almost never used, no matter how obvious the treachery of some Americans may be. Note: The domestic War Crimes Act also goes begging. See its easy-to-qualify-for provisions at 2441. Presumably there is a blockage in the Attorney General’s office that makes it “impossible” to prosecute treason and war crimes!
Hamdi and the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings
Hearings were held in 2018 in the US Senate, to confirm the appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. A question was asked that raised eyebrows. Some people thought Senator Lindsey Graham was seeking the nominee’s view on use of military commissions:
Senator Graham: “… there’s a longstanding history in this country that your constitutional rights follow you wherever you go, but you don’t have a constitutional right to turn on your own government and collaborate with the enemy of the nation. You’ll be treated differently. What’s the name of the case, if you can recall, that reaffirmed the concept that you can hold one of our own as an enemy combatant if they were engaged in terrorist activities in Afghanistan?”
Kavanaugh answered “Hamdi” but did not elaborate.
The War Between the States
A relevant historical “precedent” is one from the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln dealt with the Confederates, who were attacking the nation, as “rebels.”
On April 27, 1861 the president suppressed the right of habeas corpus for rebels, allowing them to be held indefinitely without charge. That was successfully challenged in Merryman v Maryland, but to no avail.
The Rumor That Bush and McCain Died by Execution
A writer who is known only by the name G5, and who indicates that his career was in covert operations, published an article at GumshoeNews.com on December 7, 2018. He claims that certain Insiders conducted a trial of both President GHW Bush and Senator John McCain. This is G5 speaking:
“McCain was questioned by the Military. He lived up to his codename of ‘Songbird’. But had nothing to offer beyond what was already known. He was subsequently executed (The Espionage Act, Military Tribunal) by lethal injection. Well hidden by the issue of age and illness.
“George H W Bush was indicted and charged, 10 August, 2018, on money laundering, conspiring to violate the Logan Act, human trafficking, and racketeering under the RICO Act. He pleaded guilty. The back-up charges were his involvement in the assassination of JFK, and Project Hammer (9-11).
“The 9-11 charge involved the estimated $240 billion covert government securities that were to mature on the 12 September, 2001. Bush was executed by chemical means in hospital on 30 November, 2018, based on his guilty plea.”
Trump’s Plan
If those two stories are true, note that they happened on Trump’s watch. The current rumor is that Ezra Cohen-Natwick, the current Undersecretary of Defense, is in charge of further operations, and that the pardoning of Michael Flynn may be relevant.
Long story short: AUMF could be said to cover — at a stretch – presidential use of force against “persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
The question of whether this includes US citizens was answered by the Hamdi ruling that a citizen can be an enemy combatant. It is possible that Trump is pursuing these matters.
Nice photo of Bill Gates and Tony Fauci there, Dee. Thanks. Oh, and is that Larry Silverstein? Bout time. Any other Aumfies?
Mary, your video above features Boris Johnson and his right hand man, chief adviser Dominic Cummings amongst those on the ‘Little list of those who would’t be missed’.
I think your video has been far too harsh on them.
Here’s something more flattering :
THE DISCOURSE OF VOLUNTARY SERVITUDE TRANSLATED BY HARRY KURZ
ÉTIENNE DELABOÉTIE
Contents
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 37
Part I—The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support. . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Part II—Liberty is the natural condition of the people. Servitude,however, is fostered when people are raised in subjection. People are trained to adore rulers. While freedom is forgotten by many there are always some who will never submit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Part III—If things are to change, one must realize the extent to which the foundation of tyranny lies in the vast networks of corrupted people with an interest in maintaining tyranny.. . . . . . . . .
https://ia801906.us.archive.org/25/items/etienne-de-la-boetie-discours-de-la-servitude-volontaire/Etienne%20de%20La%20Boetie%20-%20Discours%20de%20la%20servitude%20volontaire.pdf
Absolutely necessary to listen to all so that everyone may be ready for a serious kerfuffle….. and make a few bets on the result. (:-}
https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2020/11/jim-willie-trumps-wildcard-is-the-us-military-tribunals-coming-hot-war-between-the-white-hats-at-the-nsa-the-deep-state-must-video-3554682.html
MSM, (and ABC) journos, eat you little lying hearts out when you hear what your corporate’s futures may be.
This is the direct link:
So where tv be?
Come on give us some fun and tell us if Q exists and if so, what he/they be?
You have been more fun than Nemesis.
Jim Willie, he’s very flamboyant with his prognostications, isn’t he ?
Pity it will all come to nothing.
Ned, all that remains is whether your hopes (of a Trump resurrection), will be dashed now or a few weeks down the track.
The outcome is not in question. It’s only a matter of timing.
‘The outcome is not in question.’
Well that is the bet each way!
So what is not in question?
Reads like bs obfuscation to me
Virginauntie dogma: they’re all a puppet 100%
Fairly useless but there it is
HI Mary,
The best synopsis I have read of what Trump is up to – AND has been since before 2018 is here
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-11-28-situation-update-nov-28th-art-of-war-trump-won-election.html
If the reader has any doubts just read his Presidential Order of Sept 12 / 2018 HERE
Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-imposing-certain-sanctions-event-foreign-interference-united-states-election/
Thank you, Peter, I have to agree that Mike Adams has laid out a good plot here — sort of like Cicero mocking Cataline:
“Trump declared a national emergency, meaning the 2020 election took place under a national emergency order. This allowed Trump and white hat elements inside the DoD to set up a SCIF and monitor the election theft happening in real time. Trump allowed the Democrats to steal the election, in other words, so that they would entrap themselves in a grand scheme of treason and cyber warfare that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the entire Democrat party.”
cf “Quo usque tandem, Soros-types, abutere patientia nostra?”
Peter,
You would love the link above.
It is not Trump, its those behind him from before 2018.😆😆😆
DEFIANCE, AN ODE:
So he rips up a fine and then?
And no info re the actual legality.
Does make you wonder.
He was unwise to rip up the fine as he had an ‘unalienable right granted by his Creator and acknowledged by the Declaration of Independence’, given HJR 192, to convert that note into the payment for the infringement.
I’m not familiar with what avenues of recourse would be open in the U.S.
All I know is that the full story never gets published there or here.
Which means doing a bit of research can save you an arm and a leg
In W.A. no “news” outlet or government official will ever tell you that if your income is under a certain amount(e. g. if you’ve been made redundant like the gym guy) you’re entitled to have any fine converted into a work order.
On top of which, due to certain “organisational” issues, said work is always ridiculously cushy
And I can’t imagine that the U.S. Courts are any better equipped to deal with an unforeseen rash of contested infringements than the already bogged-down Aus magistrates
It’d be really interesting to see THOSE stats
A follow-up on my report in regard to chem spraying south of Perth, yesterday. Today is completely overcast with a cool breeze. Whether this is connected to the spraying or to the Maunder Sunspot effect I do not know. We are at the end of November, usually summery warm to hot weather with clear skies. Of course with this overcast condition there is no telling what is going on above cloud cover today.
Sitting under a hazy sky
I look up to see
a plane coming to land,
as pretty as can be.
the pilot forgets
But not me
I look above and see the trails
as plain as one can see
it doesn’t last too long
only 4 seconds for me
but it is enough to convince
and that is all I need to see
a plane coming to land,
people inside
drinking coffee or tea
but that did not stop, the thing I see
contrails so low
I start to grieve
Oh woe it is, to see.
Mary,
Just a reminder.
Do you recall many of the warnings received from Dr Dunegan from the lecture by Dr Day in 1969., posted here at GS…… years back.
I had a family member look up your book: Truth in journalism’. ( trying to awaken the poor sod), I have many copies…. referenced on the topic to a neighbour with one)
She found paragraph 87?.
Fancy it was predicted that travel would be restricted. Poor Oz state politicians and running dog msm journos and shock jokes have no idea that they have been suckered.
Oh well. So it is!
Oh, do not miss the forecast that new diseases would arrive.
Oh well. Cannot fix stupid! If they have missed the rest.
Time to try another attempt to fix stupid by logging here on Gs for the awakened?
Since we have Qantas Joyce: no needle no travel.
US Citizens Were Classified As Enemies of the State in 1933
“In 1933, the federal United States hypothecated all of the present and future properties, assets and labor of their “subjects,” the 14th Amendment U.S. citizen, to the Federal Reserve System.”
“………..12 USC 95(b) refers to the authority granted in the Act of October 6, 1917 (a/k/a The Trading with the Enemy Act or War Powers Act) which was “An Act to define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy, and for other purposes”.
This Act originally excluded citizens of the United States, but in the Act of March 9, 1933, Section 2 amended this to include “any person within the United States or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof”.
It was here that every American citizen literally became an enemy to the United States government under declaration.
According to the current Memorandum of American Cases and Recent English Cases on The Law of Trading With the Enemy, we have no personal rights at law in any court, and all rights of an enemy (all American citizens are all declared enemies) to sue in the courts are suspended, whereby the public good must prevail over private gain.
This also provides for the taking over of enemy private property. Now we know why we no longer receive allodial freehold title to our land… as enemies, our property is no longer ours to have.
The only way we can do business or any type of legal trade is to obtain permission from our government by means of a license.
So who initiated all of these emergency powers? Again the abominable Federal Reserve
Read on –
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2018/07/us-citizens-were-classified-as-enemies-of-the-state-in-1933/
Looks good, Crisscross, but I don’t get how that phrase makes an enemy of a person who was NOT trading with the enemy.
Have you read the Halliburton Agenda?
When the western world went broke in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the assets of the people and their heirs of the body politic was put into trust and ‘government’ became administrators of the bankruptcy.
(if you want to know where the original Commonwealth of Australia went when it was usurped by the fictional version, it is still there, but the people were induced to abandon that original jurisdiction to reside in the fictional shadow of a legal jurisdiction)
But those assets still remain in trust for those who elect to claim their share using the jurisdiction of equity and the maxims that define the inherent principles of equity.
We are all ‘enemies of the State’ because we are responsible for a sum certain of debt to the State’s creditors, and we cease to be debtors when we pay our share of the debt, and thereafter no longer are deemed to be enemies.
A principle document created to record our birth is securitised and converted into legal tender which feeds the forever increasing debt of the fictional body politic.
To free ourselves we need to claim that document as ours (that includes the debt) and extinguish the debt using our unalienable equity.
Apologies if the general description raise more questions than it answers, but over time we have been made ignorant of our rights.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot
You say
“McCain … was subsequently executed (The Espionage Act, Military Tribunal) by lethal injection.
…If those two stories are true, note that they happened on Trump’s watch.
I just republished this the other day
The brain cancer looked totally fake
Four months ago, Gumshoe exclusively published Elias Davidsson’s interpretation of the UN Security Reso that was passed one day after Nine-Eleven.
https://gumshoenews.com/2020/07/17/the-day-after-nine-eleven-unsc-passes-resolution-1368-starts-pillar-four/
Julius provided good commentary re Russia. I am wondering how many nations have got their dander up, at the moment, based on Sidney Powell’s release of the Kracken. Wow.
I hope somebody has swallowed the keys to CERN. On the other hand, if our planet dissipates at this very moment, I’d have to say we deserved it.
“Let’s create a black hole, inside planet Earth!”
“What could possibly go wrong?”
Off topic, for anyone who listened to my question of Sidney Powell’s “standing” to file lawsuit in Michigan.
She is not the plaintiff. She files as atty for Michigan voters and electors (named). I quote:
And Plaintiffs bring this action,to vindicate his constitutional right to a free and fair election ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the process pursuant to the Michigan Constitution, art. 2, sec. 4, par. 1(h), which states all Michigan citizens have: The right to have the results of statewide elections audited, in such a manner as prescribed by law, to ensure the accuracy and integrity of elections.
“84. A second set of new boxes of ballots arrived at the TCF Center around 9:00 PM on November 4, 2020. According to poll watcher Robert Cushman, contained “several thousand new ballots.” ….
Mr. Cushman noted that “none of the names on the new ballots were on the QVF or the Supplemental Sheets,” id. at ¶ 7, and he observed “computer operators at several counting boards manually adding the names and addresses of these thousands of ballots to the QVF system.” Id. at ¶
Further, “[e]very ballot was being fraudulently and manually entered into the [QVF], as having been born on January 1, 1990.” Id. at ¶ 15. When Mr. Cushman challenged the validity of the votes and the impossibility of each ballot having the same birthday, he “was told that this was the instruction that came down from the Wayne County Clerk’s office.” Id. at ¶ 16.”
(‘m like Huh?)
Wonder if any dishonest scrutineers of Australian elections are getting sweaty palms.
Is the house of cards falling, or what?
Your Vote is an Illusion – The Ultimate Vote-Rigging Demonstration
https://redpilluniversity.org/2020/11/29/your-vote-is-an-illusion-the-ultimate-vote-rigging-demonstration/
https://youtu.be/Fob-AGgZn44
This is a composite of segments from several videos on computerized vote machines showing that, not only can they be programmed to rig the count, but that is what they were designed to do. Bev Harris, founder of a voter watchdog organization called BlackBoxVoting.org, invites Benny Smith, a computer programmer to demonstrate how, using only a laptop computer, he can access the vote-counting computer systems in every precinct in the United States and control the outcome for every candidate and ballot proposition. ……………..”
Crown is the pinnacle of pyramid for OWG. Serco dominates full spectrum in all five eyes colonies.
Lord Malloch Brown is the present controller of the deep hidden black hand state, enforcing divoc crown 5G enslavement on earth. The visible players/puppets – all mercenaries for a bag of cash and perverted abominations. Crown kabal communist alliance from hell, are descendants from the war pigs that started WW1 and the private Zionist controlled reserve banks – the central bankster cartels. At the top, nothing has changed, except the hardware today can take out the whole solar system, if anyone of these delinquents spit the dummy! The Statue of Liberty has been the whore doing their dirty work, for a century, now worn out used up and discarded like all us who contributed with toils sweat and tears. Replaced by new blood, displaced from their lands, by wars of occupation for the bounty. There are over 60 bsl4 factories worldwide, making the vax, Oz has four. Pirbright pilgrims with CCP, as their new whore for global domination, the beast and dragon alliance from the bottomless pit.
“The dragon of the Greeks,” says Pausanias, “was only a large snake”; and the context shows that this is the very case here; for what in the third verse is called a “dragon,” in the fourteenth is simply described as a “serpent.” Then the word rendered “Red” properly means “Fiery”; so that the “Red Dragon” signifies the “Fiery Serpent” or “Serpent of Fire.” Exactly so does it appear to have been in the first form of idolatry, that, under the patronage of Nimrod, appeared in the ancient world. The “Serpent of Fire” in the plains of Shinar seems to have been the grand object of worship. There is the strongest evidence that apostacy among the sons of Noah began in fire-worship, and that in connection with the symbol of the serpent.
https://drakenberg.weebly.com/serpent-worship-roman.html
‘Beast’ Strongs 2342 – a dangerous animal (venomous, wild)
https://www.armyofprophets.com/post/3-signs-of-the-end-famines-pestilences-earthquakes-6101961
“We had better get ready.”
“These times…..changing the hearts of all mankind.”
WEF great reset has been delayed a few months (virus excuse)
Martin North swallows the utopian Great Reset (Danish “we are the happiest nation on earth” model) – or does he