Aucbonyx.222 net.news utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:Onyx:jmrubin Thu Jan 14 18:53:59 1982 treason in the U.S. The U.S. has a very restricted definition of treason, which is right in the Constitution--the only crime defined there. Treason is either making war against the U.S. or giving aid and comfort to its enemies--an explicit act with 2 witnesses. Sedition has a somewhat wider definition, however, it got a bad name early in U.S. history. At the beginning of the 19th century, during the administration of the first John Adams, there were a bunch of "sedition" laws which were generally perceived as tyrannical. (at least by the people who write history) In any case, it certainly did the party in power no good-- as I recall, John Adams was the only Federalist president. (not counting George Washington who, despite Federalist leanings, was considered somewhat beyond party) Of course, people have been executed and jailed in wartime for all sorts of reasons. We all remember Nixon's enemies list, and let's not forget all those IRS agents tramping down to Louisiana at the behest of FDR, trying to nail Huey Long. Then, of course, there are always trumped up charges, e.g. Sacco and Vanzetti. (We can't really be certain if they were guilty of the crimes with which they were charged--largely because such evidence as was given at their trial concerned the fact that they were persons of Italian descent who opposed the existence of government, not said crimes.) As I recall Canada has an emergency law which allows people to be held without charge--wasn't it imposed when they had that kidnapping in Quebec and all those bombs in mail boxes? Joel Rubin ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.