TREASON

[rockybelt]

noun.
Etymology: Middle English "treasoun", from Anglo-French "traisun", from Latin "tradition-,traditio" act of handing over, from "tradere" to hand over, betray.

1: The betrayal of a trust (Treachery)

2: The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family.

TREACHERY:

1: Violation of allegiance or of faith and confidence: TREASON

2: An act of perfidy or treason

PERFIDY:

noun
Etymology: Latin "perfidia", from "perfidius", faithless, from "per"-detrimental to + "fides" faith

1: The quality or state of being faithless or disloyal: TREACHERY

2: An act or an instance of disloyalty.

Can there be any doubt that the act of outing a covert CIA agent for political reasons qualifies as treason?

[MonkeyFunk]

1. huh?

you totally changed your post.

I withdraw my grade.

[Debi]

2. Are you testing us?

How'd I do?

Was I supposed to respond?

Was this some sort of instant gratification thing?

Am I just a monkey in a cage......:cry:

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. This is only a test. In the event of a real post you will be advised where to read for

further information. This concludes this test of the Democratic Underground early warning system.

[zabet]

4. Dang!!!

Nobody said a dang thing
about a pop quiz when I
signed up. x(

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. Yes, there is plenty of doubt.

One of the many unlovely RW traits adopted by some Dems if referring to all sorts of things as "treason."

Treason has a specific meaning in law (as opposed to a vernacular meaning in the dictionary). It requires the motive of assisting the enemy in wartime. Endangering national security with the motive of injuring Democrats is not "treason."

It is potentially criminal disclosure of classified information.

[rockybelt]

8. What

about aiding and abetting the enemy? By outing a covert CIA agent great harm was done to our intelligence gathering concerning the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and allowed governments to determine who was assisting the CIA with this information. I do believe there would have been some retribution for this. We will never know how many of our agents besides Plame were outed at the same time.

[MonkeyFunk]

10. Doing something that harms the nation

is not necessarily treason.

I agree with others that the term is tossed around far too lightly.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. There is a motive component to American crimes

First, Treason is a crime that can only be committed in the context of a war... it relates to "the enemy."

If you can demonstrate that 1) we are at war, and 2) Cheney's motive was to aid "the enemy" then you have the beginning of even looking at it as treason.

To make treason out of it would require defining "the enemy" as the Bush administration, since that is the only entity Cheney's actions were designed to aid and abet.

I consider the Bush administration the enemy in many ways, but not in the legal sense we are talking about.

(Only congress can declare war, and God knows they haven't declared war on the Bush administration!)

[patrice]

6. I remember Basic Military Training saying that creating or contributing to

a grave threat to the safety of the U.S. constitutes Treason.

But, I guess you'd need an army of attorney's to differentiate between malfeasance and treason.

[whistle]

7. I assume you are making a point about the Bush administration starting with Dick Cheney

...and George Dubya Bush and all the neocons and Bushites installed in the government. Impeach the traitors now!

[rockybelt]

9. That

is exactly the point I am trying to make.

[Basileus Basileon]

12. Most courts do not rely on the American Heritage Dictionary for legal definitions.

Instead, they prefer the Constitution and previous Supreme Court rulings, which have made it clear that treason is a crime of foreign collaboration. Merely harming America (and having the knowledge you are doing so) is not in and of itself treason. Rather, you must be clearly displaying allegiance to a specific foreign power in doing so.

[Warpy]

13. You're still missing the real crime they committed

Outing Plame was a felony, yes, but it wasn't the real crime.

You see, Novak's article outing Plame also outed Brewster Jennings, the cover organization the CIA used to monitor all weapons development in the Middle East. Without Brewster Jennings to bring in accurate information, the administration could tell all the lies they wanted to about aluminum tubes and yellow cake and mushroom clouds in our cities. The CIA was blinded in a very important area, one the administration wanted to blind them in.

This is where the treason is, not in outing a single agent. The treason lies in making the country blind and therefore vulnerable in a very important area.

Outing Plame and then covering it up could result in fines and jail time. Outing Brewster Jennings should result in much, much more.

[rockybelt]

15. Wasn't Brewster Jennings

(CIA) looking into activities, including arms sales, involving Turkey, Richard Perle and Doug Feith?
Wasn't the FBI also conducting their own investigation of these activities?

[Warpy]

17. Yeppers along with nuke technology transfer from Pakistan

See why outing them was the real crime?

[rockybelt]

18. What

happened with the investigations? Better yet, why doesn't Congress get Sibel Edmunds to testify before them? Even if behind closed doors certain revelations will be made that will be substantiated. God knows she has tried every avenue available to her to get the truth out.
Suspecting that the whole truth would bring down this regime, I am surprised that her life has not been threatened. Or has it?

[pansypoo53219]

14. as long as the teevee gnews don't think georgie is a traitor

the congress will not move.

[suston96]

16. The reason "treason" was specifically defined.....

...in the US Constitution was because British courts and Parliament and royalty tossed the word around very loosely. Spitting on the sidewalk was a crime against the crown and therefore treason.

OK. There were no sidewalks. But that is why our Founders defined it and embedded it in the new US Constitution.

[Brigid]

19. Yes. And here's another . . .

Does conning your way into two terms in the White House when you really should be in prison for war crimes and other various and sundry misdeeds also qualify as treason?

[Basileus Basileon]

20. Nope.

Criminal, but not treasonous.

[rockybelt]

21. I do believe

that this incident does qualify under the definition of perfidy. This act was about as treacherous as you can get. It greatly diminished our ability to gather intelligence during a time of war. Not only by outing Plame but destroying the network that had been set up under Brewster Jennings. THIS is the impeachable offense.

[pansypoo53219]

22. MISDEMEANORS!

plus all the spying being done on us WITHOUT warrant!