From: Brian Davis <bdavis@thepoint.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 18:42:39 +0800
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: Mercenaries
In-Reply-To: <ae65693e0e021004fa1e@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960923004212.29450C-100000@mercury.thepoint.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Wed, 18 Sep 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 9:40 PM 9/17/96, William Knowles wrote:
> 
> >What about the French Foreign Legion? or the Volunteers for Israel,
> >which isn't really a fighting force, but Americans can help keep
> >the Israeli army at a ready state.
> 
> Israel is one of several states which the U.S. allows dual citizenship
> with. For political reasons, because of America's extermination of the Jews
> in WW II (Whoops, we were on the other side...so why do we have such a cozy
> deal with Israel, but not with, say, France? Beats me. Politics.)
> 
> Brian Davis, our former Prosecutor, can tell us how likely it is that any
> person would be charged and brought to trial for being a paid mercenary for
> some small country in the Third World. The CIA is often behind such
> mercenaries, so national security issues could make the issue murky.

Exceedingly unlikely.  A variety of practical problems.  If you came up 
to a U.S. Attorney to show him your picture on the cover of The Zaire Daily 
News as mercenary of the week and spit in his face, you'd get prosecuted.

For spitting in the prosecutor's face.

On a slightly more serious note:  you'd only get prosecuted in someone at 
Main Justice (i.e. in Washington) wanted you prosecuted.

EBD


> 
> But the real reason such prosecutions are rare is that the government
> realizes how Orwellian it sounds to say:
> 
> "You are being prosecuted because you were a mercenary for Oceania in its
> war with Eastasia. While Oceania was once our ally in our battle with
> Eastasia, and we endorsed and financed your role as a mercenary, we became
> allies with our great friend Eastasia and are now in a state of war with
> the tyrants of Oceania."
> 
> 
> >Explicit isn't a dirty word, Or is it?
> 
> AOL has declared "explicit" to be a Banned Word, along with "pissant,"
> "craps," and "cock," and numerous other such ordinary words. (So much for
> mentioning their pissant policies, a game of craps in Las Vegas, or a male
> chicken.)
> 
> --Tim May
> 
> We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
> ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
> Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
> tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
> Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
> "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
> 
> 
> 
> 
>