The indictment and surrender of five employees of the Blackwater Worldwide company for alleged murders committed in Iraq raises a question that the Libertarian Party of Georgia finds troubling.
Why does the US Justice Department have the power to punish Americans for things they do outside of the United States?
The Sixth Amendment to the Bill Of Rights says “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” Taken along with the Tenth Amendment limitation of Federal power to what specifically is authorized in the Constitution, it is the belief of the Libertarian Party of Georgia that the indictment and arrest of the Blackwater people are unconstitutional.
These five Blackwater guards have been accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked attack in Baghdad just over a year ago. We acknowledge that murder is a bad thing. But our position is that it is a bad thing that needs to be handled by the Iraqi criminal justice system, not American courts.
The Blackwater people are charged under three similar laws. Congress passed a War Crimes Act in 1996 that gives American courts the authority to punish citizens who commit vaguely and arbitrarily described “war crimes” beyond our borders. Four years later Congress enacted the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Torture Act of 2000, which expand the range of activity taking place in other countries that will land an American citizen in an American court.
Even earlier, Congress passed the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Act in 1992. This law is aimed at Americans who travel abroad to have sex with children — an international Mann Act.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia is opposed to murder, war crimes, torture, and the sexual exploitation of children. But we believe in the rule of law, and the supreme law of our land — the US Constitution — seems to say that the federal government is prohibited from prosecuting citizens for actions that take place outside of American territory.
The very concept of national sovereignty means that a country is responsible for its own laws, and no other country has the authority to arrest or punish people within its borders. By this understanding, the sovereign nation of Iraq should request extradition of these five men so they can be tried in Iraq, by Iraqis, for a crime allegedly committed in Iraq.
In addition to our fundamental Constitutional opposition to these overreaching laws, we have two practical objections to them.
First, when the United States claims the authority to punish Americans for things they do elsewhere, we are doing exactly the same thing King George III did to the colonists — transporting them to London for criminal trial, of which Jefferson wrote in the Declaration Of Independence “He (George III) has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws.” During the founding period England believed home English citizens were not subject to colonial law.
In the Blackwater Five matter, the only difference we see is that England in 1776 was (thought to be) stronger than the Colonies, and in 2008 America is stronger than Iraq. Like England, we seem to believe that American citizens are not subject to Iraqi law. Both these things are hallmarks of imperialism, where a strong nation runs the affairs of a weaker one.
And second, by claiming the authority to punish citizens for their actions abroad, the US gives cover to other nations to do the same thing. More than once Chinese dissidents who attended a peace conference in New York were arrested on their return to Beijing — and on every occasion the American government “strongly protests such actions.” Yet our Congress thinks it’s hunky dory when it’s America doing the same thing.
Not every problem in the world is America’s fault, or America’s problem. Criminal justice is the business of each individual nation. America is wrong to prosecute the Blackwater Five for what they may have done outside our borders. The Libertarian Party of Georgia believes the proper resolution to this is for Iraq to request extradition of these men, and then try them in an Iraqi court.
