Ever Hear of the Logan Act?

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A morning visit to Thinkn’boutstuff reminded me of the rarely enforced 1799 Logan Act.

The Act states:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

So why is this interesting now? An excerpt from Reuters :

Reuters 12/15/2006 — The largest delegation from the U.S. Congress to visit Cuba since 1959 arrived in Havana on Friday seeking to open a dialogue with the communist government of acting President Raul Castro despite White House opposition to such contacts.

“We sense this is an important time and we hope to meet with officials and hopefully launch a new era in U.S.-Cuba relations,” said Rep. Jeff Flake an Arizona Republican.

The State Department opposed the trip, delegation members said. “The bottom line is, we think it is the right thing to do,” said Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern. “I’ve long thought our policy toward Cuba has been arrogant and dumb.”

Nothing like U.S. tax dollars supporting seditious members of congress hell-bent on normalizing relations with their favorite terrorist state. I’d love to see this law enforced, and it’s interesting to note that former president Ronald Reagan reminded Jesse Jackson of the law after Jackson’s well-publicized trip to Cuba and Nicaragua, but no charges were filed.

Read more here, and here, here, and here.

9 thoughts on “Ever Hear of the Logan Act?”

  1. Harry Belofante
    Danny Glover
    Maxine Waters
    Jesse Jackson
    Cynthia Mcenny
    Shelia Jackson
    Jose Serrano
    Charles Wrangel
    The entire Black Caucus

  2. Exactly Mandingo and don’t forget the peanut farmer Carter, the Hollywood list, and certain news personalities- Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, etc, etc, etc.

  6. Ziva, you pitched that fastball in at 100 mph!!! Damn, that was good.

    Lesly, there are in fact many Republicans who have forgotten their conservative roots. I am not one of those. I am a rock-ribbed Reagan conservative and will be until the day I die. I am as angry at those cowardly members of my party as I am with those of your species for doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.

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