“Aid And Comfort”

     Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. [Constitution of the United States, Article III, Section 3]

     Isabel Paterson noted the treason clause, in combination with the Constitution’s prohibition of bills of attainder and “corruption of blood,” as supremely important protections for the lives and property rights of Americans. Understanding this requires knowledge of how charges of treason were used by monarchies to destroy those who opposed the king. For all practical purposes, if the king charged you with treason, you were automatically guilty – and no one dared object, for reasons that should be obvious. “Corruption of blood,” another monarchical practice banned by the Constitution, extended the penalty from the accused to his family: it “justified” the attainting of the accused’s relatives, seizure of all family property, and in some cases the enslavement of all family members.

     But these provisions, though critical to attaining a grasp of the mindset of the Founding Fathers, are of less interest today than the three words “War,” “Aid,” and “Comfort.”

     Yes, Gentle Reader, those specific words are of vital importance to us today: the twentieth of June in the year of Our Lord 2016. There are several reasons, but the one I have in mind at the moment is Islam.

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     Perhaps you haven’t yet heard about this pronouncement:

     On “Meet the Press” Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Chuck Todd that only partial transcripts of Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen’s calls with law enforcement will be released. All of his “pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups”? Yeah — you don’t get to read or hear those:

     Lynch’s mealy-mouthed rationale – not furthering Mateen’s “propaganda” – won’t fool anyone. The Administration doesn’t want anyone to hear Islamic terrorist Mateen pledging allegiance to ISIS. Inasmuch as it’s already generally well known that he did so, why bother to suppress that part of the transcript?

     If the reason isn’t pressure from Islamic mouthpiece groups, what could it possibly be?

     Mind you, ISIS has already declared itself our enemy. That, too, is generally well known. However, Constitutional language doesn’t recognize an entity as an enemy of the United States unless Congress has declared war upon it – and one thing you may be certain will not occur, under the Obama Administration or any successor, is a declaration of war against ISIS. Among other things, that would grant implicit statehood to ISIS, which Obama has said “is not Islamic, and is not a state.”

     Rather interesting that we sortie warplanes against this entity that isn’t a state and we aren’t at war with, eh what?

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     There’s been plenty of theorizing about why the Obamunists are so adamant about never associating Islam of any variety with terrorism. It’s possible that there’s some truth in all the proffered explanations. The one that’s uppermost in my mind this morning is the Administration’s current policy of importing Middle Eastern Muslims to our shores under the rationale of “humanitarian aid to refugees.”

     Muslim migrants are already turning much of Europe into a hellhole of savagery. While America’s problems with Islam and Muslims aren’t yet on Europe’s scale, we have quite enough of them and are sure to acquire more should our Muslim fraction increase. That the Obamunists refuse to confront that well established fact suggests that there’s another agenda in play...and it’s unlikely to put the interests of the United States or its citizens at the front.

     Islam itself classifies any land not dominated by Islam and Muslims to be Dar al Harb: “the House of War.” The Qur’an is replete with verses concerning the obligation of Muslims to wage jihad – war – upon the “unbeliever.” While not all Muslims take this to its logical conclusion, very few Muslims confronted by militant co-religionists would deny them at minimum the passive shelter of discreet silence. Surveys suggest that most Muslims would be far more accommodating than that.

     In Constitutional language, “Aid and Comfort” equate to any of the following:

• Providing an enemy with material support (e.g. food, clothing, ammunition);
• Providing him with wound care or other medical services;
• Sheltering him or otherwise aiding in his concealment;
• Spreading propaganda for his cause.

     To the best of my knowledge, whether attempting to suppress information about the enemy’s intentions constitutes propaganda of a passive sort has not been tested in court.

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     Clearly, while it’s the most open of secrets that Islam is at war with us, the Administration will never admit that “the feeling is mutual” – that we are accordingly at war with Islam or any excrescence thereof. Indeed, great pains have been taken to separate the two Congressionally declared military excursions of recent years, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, from open association with Islam. For if Congress should ever declare that America is at war with Islam or any of its subvarieties, the treason clause comes into effect – and there are many, many persons on our soil who have given “Aid and Comfort” to Islamic militants. Some of those persons are routinely found within the corridors of power.

     What’s still worse is that the avoidance of the fact is entirely bipartisan. No one on either side of the aisle will ever allow that a state of war exists between world Islam and the United States of America. The implications go well beyond those that powered the internment of West Coast residents of Japanese descent. No one in our political elite wants to dredge those waters today.

     But war is upon us:

     It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. The gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!

     You don’t need to be told who said that and when, do you, Gentle Reader?