Rand Paul, Drones, Sizzling Saboteurs, and small pocket knives

View 765 Thursday, March 07, 2013

I have considerable mail discussing Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster on use of drones against United States citizens on American soil. Here is a typical email:

Rand Paul and drones

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

It appears Rand Paul has catapulted himself to national prominence by asking the very kinds of questions I’ve been asking here. He’s also gained some fans both among liberals and among conservative Republicans for doing so .

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/rand-paul-filibuster/

I salute him. I don’t agree with everything he or his father believe, but sometimes a thing is done well.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Not everyone approved. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page today had

Calm down, Senator. Mr. Holder is right, even if he doesn’t explain the law very well. The U.S. government cannot randomly target American citizens on U.S. soil or anywhere else. What it can do under the laws of war is target an "enemy combatant" anywhere at anytime, including on U.S. soil. This includes a U.S. citizen who is also an enemy combatant. The President can designate such a combatant if he belongs to an entity—a government, say, or a terrorist network like al Qaeda—that has taken up arms against the United States as part of an internationally recognized armed conflict. That does not include Hanoi Jane.

Such a conflict exists between the U.S. and al Qaeda, so Mr. Holder is right that the U.S. could have targeted (say) U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki had he continued to live in Virginia. The U.S. killed him in Yemen before he could kill more Americans. But under the law Awlaki was no different than the Nazis who came ashore on Long Island in World War II, were captured and executed.

Of course this is all wrong. The saboteurs who came ashore on Long Island included two United States citizens who had convinced the Germans they had changed sides. One of them defected almost immediately and turned himself in to the FBI. All eight were arrested and tried before a military tirbunal, and sentenced to death. The six German nationals were executed in August 1942 (having come ashore in June of 1942). The two Americans were sentenced to what amounted to life imprisonment, later commuted to time served and deportation to the American Zone in occupied Germany. No one was executed without trial.

The WSJ was taken to task by the Huffington Post and other similar publications for “slamming” Senator Paul, but oddly enough, his concerns were taken seriously by many in the general press. Senator Paul’s action got the response he wanted:

Attorney General Eric Holder responds to Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster with one word: no

‘"Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" The answer to that question is no,’ Holder wrote.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/paul-13-hour-filibuster-word-reply-article-1.1282182#ixzz2MuD1myCQ

And this from the Washington Post:

 

Eugene Robinson

Opinion Writer

Rand Paul makes the right call with filibuster

By Eugene Robinson, Thursday, March 7, 1:39 PM

Rand Paul was right. There, I said it.

The Republican senator from Kentucky, whom I’ve ridiculed as an archconservative kook — because that’s basically what he is — was right to call attention to the growing use of drone aircraft in “targeted killings” by staging a nearly 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor.

Meanwhile the White House has suspended White House tours because of the sequester, but the Easter Egg Roll will go on as planned. No bunny inspectors have been furloughed. God reigns, and the government at Washington still lives. Carry on.

Dear Jerry Pournelle:

My Swiss Army knife is one of my most intermittently useful items. I don’t use it often, but when I need it I am glad that I carry it in my backpack at all times. It has screwdrivers (straight and Phillips), two bottle openers, a corkscrew, tweezers, a small scissors, a magnifying glass… and two blades; one razor sharp, 1+9/16 inches long; and a duller blade, 2+6/16 inches long.

I carry my Swiss Army knife in my backpack at all times, except when I fly, when I must leave it at home. (And of course it is while travelling that I find myself needing a portable multi-tool! As usual, Murphy’s Law applies.) I was hoping to be spared the Theatrical Security Authority’s jihad against portable multi-tools; but alas, 2+6/16 = 2.375, which is 0.015 inches too long even for the TSA’s new rules. That’s 0.015 inches of terrorism; just as bottled water is now officially an explosive.

I understand your reader’s piling on to the TSA; it certainly deserves criticism, or even abolition; but please lay off when they uncharacteristically show the slightest trace of common sense.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel Hellerstein

I hadn’t realized that my readers were piling on the TSA. I have long been on record as saying that much of what TSA does is Kabuki Theatre Security, intended to inconvenience passengers while giving them an impression of added security, and their new rules don’t bother me. I long carried a pocket knife and now I’ll get my old Swiss Army knife out and carry it again, and I will feel neither safer nor more endangered when aboard an airplane. I am concerned that they didn’t strengthen the cabin doors enough, but I am also certain that passengers, now that they are no longer afraid of arrest and imprisonment by their own government for interfering with hijackers, can handle terrorists armed with knives. I’d prefer that the airline issue framing hammers to passengers willing to carry them, but a camera on a shoulder strap makes a pretty good weapon against a small knife. As do many other things we routinely carry.

I heard on the radio that now terrorists will threaten a baby with a pocket knife and everyone will cave in, with the cabin attendants pleading with the flight crew to open the cockpit door. I can’t think that threatening a baby with a Swiss Army Knife is more horrifying than threatening a child’s eyes with a ball point pen. Stand up, stab out one eye to demonstrate you mean business and go on from there. I am sure readers can write their own scenarios.

For that matter, I am sure that most readers can think of ways to bring down an airplane providing that you don’t mind the certainty of being killed in the process. Perfect safety on an airplane is an illusion, and we all know it.

As for me, now where did I put that old Swiss Army knife? And a grindstone. I need a good power grindstone and a lot of water.