Feral Jundi

Monday, December 14, 2009

Strategy: The Five Elements of the Letter of Marque and Reprisal

Filed under: Legal News,Strategy — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 8:03 AM

   This is unique.  This is the first website that I have found, that actually listed various LoMs from all over the world and from different time periods, and has reduced the LoM to these five basic elements.  So if anyone is interested, follow the link below, and you can check out what the various countries set up. It lists France, Holland, Britain, America, and Spain as just a few.

   Now if I could get a hold of the LoM that we issued to the Airship Resolute during World War Two, then that would be really cool. I imagine it is in some congressional archives deal, and maybe that will be a future post.

   The Resolute was a Goodyear ship as well, and did advertisements after the war.  If there are any documentarians out there, this would be a very unique subject to work on and present.  There is nothing out there that talks about it, to include any serious wikipedia stuff, and I think it would be a fascinating subject if tied into a modern day usage of the LoM. –Matt

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The Five Elements of the Letter of Marque and Reprisal

Letters of marque and reprisal are commissions or warrants issued to someone to commit what would otherwise be acts of piracy. They will normally contain the following first three elements, unless they imply or refer to a declaration of war to define the enemies, and may optionally contain the remainder:

1. Names person, authorizes him to pass beyond borders with forces under his command.

2. Specifies nationality of targets for action.

3. Authorizes seizure or destruction of assets or personnel of target nationality.

4. Describes offense for which commission is issued as reprisal.

5. Restriction on time, manner, place, or amount of reprisal.

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American Letter of Marque, 1812

The Letter below is an example of an American letter of marque of an actual privateering commission issued by the government of the United States to the schooner Patapsco during the War of 1812.

JAMES MADISON, President of the United States of America.

TO ALL WHO SHALL THESE PRESENTS, GREETING:BE IT KNOWN, That in pursuance of an Act of Congress passed on the eighteenth day of June one thousand eight hundred and twelve, I have commissioned, and by these presents do commission, the private armed Schooner called the Patapsco of the burthen of 159 tons, or thereabouts, owned by Andrew Clopper, Levi Hollingsworth, Amos A. Williams and Henry Fulford of the City of Baltimore mounting 6 carriage guns, and navigated by 40 men, hereby authorizing James M. Mortimer Captain,

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Legal News: Omnibus Bill FY 2010–Embassy and Worldwide Security Protection Stuff

Filed under: Afghanistan,Government Work,Iraq,Legal News — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:56 AM

     I found this over at Diplopundit, which is a great blog that tracks this stuff.  They basically broke down the bill as to the budget amounts and any new amendments.  I especially clued into the latest budgetary figures, increases in new security positions, and the latest ‘best value’ contracting mechanism that State has. They even mention the Kabul Fiasco specifically, as a reason for the amendment.  Check it out. –Matt

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From Diplopundit:

Worldwide Security Protection

The conference agreement provides $1,586,214,000 for Worldwide Security Protection, which is $8,787,000 above the House and $8,786,000 below the Senate. The conferees note that $13,375,000 requested for fiscal year 2010 was included in the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111-32), bringing the total available for Worldwide Security Protection in fiscal year 2010 to $1,599,589,000. Within the amount provided, $221,926,000, and a projected 200 security positions, are to strengthen the Department’s capacity to respond to the growing security challenges at posts around the world, including the requested positions for the second year of the Visa and Passport Security Plan.

Embassy Security Constructions and Maintenance

The conference agreement provides $1,724,150,000 for Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance, which is the same as the House and Senate, of which $847,300,000 is for priority worldwide security upgrades, acquisition, and construction and $876,850,000 is for other operations, maintenance and construction.

The following provisions are new, modified from the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111-8), or further clarified in this joint statement.

Sec. 7006. Local Guard Contracts.

The conference agreement includes a new provision which allows the Secretary of State flexibility to award local guard contracts on the basis of either lowest price that is technically acceptable or the best value cost-technical tradeoff (as defined in the Federal Acquisition Regulation part 15.101) when awarding such contracts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

Current law requires that all local guard contracts must be awarded on the basis of the lowest price that is technically acceptable, and if other factors had been considered, the problems reported earlier this year involving the local guard contract in Kabul, Afghanistan may have been prevented. The conferees understand that providing the Secretary with authority to make awards through the best value approach can enhance the guard force’s effectiveness and justify the additional cost, particularly in countries with dangerous or hostile environments.

Check out Diplopundit here.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Legal News: A Check on Faint-hearted Presidents–Letters of Marque and Reprisal, by William Young

Filed under: Legal News — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 7:13 AM

   This is an excellent treatment of the subject.  If you have the time to review the legal side of the LoM and all of it’s modern day implications, I highly recommend reading this. One note for the author though.  During World War Two, Congress issued a LoM, and that technically was the last one issued.  Eeben might be able to add some more corrections in reference to EO, but that was about it for corrections. I might have added some more relevant companies for the discussion of contractor capability, but that was about it. –Matt

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A Check on Faint-Hearted Presidents: Letters of Marque and Reprisal

By William Young

Volume 66, Issue 2, Spring 2009

Washington and Lee University School of Law

VII.  Conclusion

Letters of marque and reprisal provide a method with which Congress can check a lack of presidential initiative in future military conflicts.  Within certain constraints, the Constitution allows Congress to issue letters of marque and reprisal to private contractors, allowing Congress to enlist private contractors to accomplish military objectives that the President refuses to support.  Congress’s decision to issue letters of marque and reprisal against the will of the President,

however, will be a balancing act of risk and reward.  The risks are many, substantial, and unpredictable, and may involve great injury and serious consequences both domestically and internationally.  The injury, or potential injury, to the United States must be so great that Congress feels it has no choice but to accept these risks in an attempt to prevent or redress that injury.

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(A section talking about the Executive Outcomes example and funding for such a thing.)

     Second, the lack of funding requirements (other than the limitation that the U.S. government cannot fund the privateers) might give Congress greater operational latitude in issuing letters of marque and reprisal.  As noted in the

discussion of EO, private firms are capable of altering the military landscape on a regional level.170  One could envision a scenario in which Congress, against the President’s wishes, feels that a large scale military action is necessary.

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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Industry Talk: DynCorp Fires Executive Counsel

Filed under: Industry Talk,Legal News — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 7:06 AM

   Thats rough if your chief compliance officer ends up being the guy that pulls the unethical stuff like this.  That’s great that they fired him if in fact he was acting out of line.  Just a suggestion though. Maybe hire a non-lawyer type for the position or do a more thorough vetting of the new legal eagle? Trust but verify, all the way. –Matt

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DynCorp Fires Executive Counsel

November 28, 2009

By August Cole

DynCorp International Inc. said it has terminated one of its top lawyers, a move that comes on the heels of the government contractor’s disclosure that some of its subcontractors may have broken U.S. law in trying to speed up getting licenses and visas overseas. The lawyer, Curtis Schehr, was a senior vice president, executive counsel and the firm’s chief compliance officer, a position created earlier this year. He joined DynCorp in 2006 as general counsel.

The company disclosed the “termination without cause” in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The move was effective Monday, according to the filing.

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Law Enforcement: Bullets Hold the Key in Bond’s Unique View to a Kill

Filed under: Law Enforcement,Legal News — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 6:18 AM

   Now this is neat. Dr. Bond has developed a technique to lift finger prints off of shell casings, even if they were wiped clean or old.  The oils or acids on the finger, do their thing to the casing, and it acts like metal etching in a way.  Bond’s technique is to be able to bring out the etching.

   So what does that mean in the grand scheme of things?  Old cases, that had just bullet casings left over, will be brought forward and re-examined.  In war zones, we could track the enemy by the prints they leave on casings.  Better yet, if a contractor was in a shooting, and they were able to go back to the scene and find any enemy shell casings, they could prove they were fired upon by a specific individual, based on the prints lifted.

   This is really applicable now that we are implementing biometrics to COIN operations.  We are using finger printing machines and eye scanners to identify everyone in a combat zone.  Doom on you if you are an insurgent trying to hide amongst the population, because we can now connect shell casings to you.  And seeing how this technique just came out within the last year or so, it will be interesting how far they are taking this.

   What is really cool though, is if they could lift prints off of shrapnel?  That means anyone that touched the metal of an IED, could potentially be called out or added to a matrix of intel, all based on the fingerprints lifted. Even suicide bombers that have blown up, could have the metal components on their system tested.

   Also, if the lawyers for the Blackwater Five are reading this (Nisour Square), then you need to look into grabbing any of the shell casings taken from scene, and lifting some finger prints.  Or even the bullets in bodies could be used. Interesting stuff. –Matt

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Bullets hold the key in Bond’s unique view to a kill

Michael Pollitt

Thursday 5 February 2009

Detective Garrie Dorman wants to find a killer. He travelled from Connecticut last week to ask Dr John Bond, scientific support manager for Northamptonshire police and honorary research fellow at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre, for help. Bond again successfully used a pioneering technique (Forensic science‘s magic bullet, 28 August 2008) to recover fingerprints from shell casings.

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