Bring Back HUAC
By Judson Cox (11/21/04)
Now that the political silly season is over, and I am on record as saying the best thing for the Republican party would be for liberals to continue making the kind of loony, anti-American statements that alienate the country, perhaps I can deal with the serious issues of treason and sedition without being accused of partisan motives.
Debate, protest and even conscientious objection to war are essential elements of our political system, which is why such activities are protected by our Constitution. Treason is taking up arms against our nation, or giving aid and comfort to our enemies. Sedition is actively encouraging acts of treason. Treasonous and seditious activities are illegal; they are not protected as free speech.
America has dealt with treason in the past – Benedict Arnold, the Rosenbergs and Tokyo Rose to name a few cases. Arnold was guilty of spying for and aiding the British in our nation’s nescience, and fled to England to escape execution. The Rosenbergs were Soviet spies, executed for passing nuclear secrets to the enemy. Although many on the Left defend them to this day, the “Venona Cables” (decoded Soviet communicates) confirm their espionage, and Khrushchev identified them as Soviet spies in his memoirs. Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri) was tried for her role in anti-American propaganda on behalf of the Imperial Japanese government during World War Two. She was found guilty, but later pardoned when it was proved that she had been forced to partake in treasonous activities against her will, and that she sought to undermine the Japanese as best she could.
These cases show the variety that treason can take, and the complexity of such charges. All were sympathetic characters to varying degrees, but were prosecuted for aiding enemies of the United States. Even though Tokyo Rose was later pardoned, these cases illustrate how seriously treason was once taken in America. In more reasonable times, treason and sedition were crimes, for which death was the likely penalty.
The prosecution of treason and sedition became less popular due to the backlash against Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Although none of the people named in McCarthy’s investigations were ever proven innocent, it has become legend that McCarthy ruined the lives of many innocent liberals. Even though the “Venona Cables” later proved many of McCarthy’s “victims” to be guilty of crimes far worse than those they were accused of, McCarthyism has become a slur levied against anyone who recognizes the un-American activities of traitors.
Michael Moore makes millions producing anti-American propaganda. He actively gives aid and comfort to our enemies, and allows his film (Fahrenheit 9/11) to be used as a recruitment tool for Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. Tokyo Rose was convicted for participating in lesser acts, but Moore was seated beside former President Carter at the Democratic National Convention!
John Walker Lindh joined al Qaeda, and took up arms against our forces when we invaded Afghanistan. He participated in the prison uprising that killed CIA agent Michael Spann. Instead of being convicted and executed for his obvious treason, he was imprisoned like a petty criminal.
Those who commit sedition, like Columbia University professor Nicholas De Genova, who called for, "a million Mogadishus” when we invaded Iraq, and the protestors who hold signs saying, “We support our troops when they shoot their officers” are given a pass. They are not prosecuted, deported, executed, imprisoned or blackballed; they are allowed to prosper and profit from their treason and sedition.
This should not be. If our country is worth defending by means of war, it is surely worth defending by legal means. Due to timidity or apathy, we are not enforcing our laws. We are allowing our enemies to undermine our resolve, and to recruit soldiers for their armies in American schools, prisons, mosques, movie theaters and living rooms. Have we forgotten that, “a house divided against its self cannot stand,” or are we too pampered, protected and liberal to care?
We must urge our leaders to re-institute the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and we should urge the Attorney General to prosecute the crimes of treason and sedition. This is not a partisan issue, or a conservative issue; it is a matter of enforcing existing laws and taking the steps necessary to protect this nation. It would be the ultimate irony if we were to establish free, democratic nations in the Middle East, and defeat Islamic terrorism abroad, only for our nation to fall at the hands of our own disloyal citizens.
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http://www.PetitionOnline.com/bbhuac/petition.html
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