In another thread, it became clear that one can’t join the military for the duration of the hosilities. This seems sensible.
Ok, so how about I dust off my Kalishnikov, brush up on my Pashto, and head over in search of OBL and my piece of $25,000,000?
(Yes I realize that there are certain practical problems with this plan.)
Second question: What if the NYPD wanted to send a few of New York’s finest over there to track down the “perp.”?
Don’t see any more problems with this then if someone else came over to the US to collect their share of bounties and rewards offered by OBL and Co.
Kind of what started this, don’t you think?
Purely practical limit on doing this: Bombs and bullets are notorious for being indescriminate about whom they hit. I don’t like being in the way when the big boys are throwing the boom-booms around. 
Go right ahead, but do take out that body repatriation insurance. Watch out for the mines. And don’t forget farsi.
Pray tell how would this work? (Abstracting away from the fact they would be found and killed right quick)
That is what I’m asking. i.e., I know that it would be a bad idea for a city policy force to send officers to Afghanistan. My question is whether it is legal, what the federal government could and would do, etc.
Well, let’s see…
Leagality: Are bountyhunters leagl in Afganistan? What about the countries they must cross to return anyone they capture? Will they be arrested as international kidnapers? Or be treated as hostage-taking terrorists?
Visibility: They’ve got to go into a country where they’ll stand out, generally not fit in, not speak the local lingo, and not know the local customs. Bounty hunters rely on catching their target unaware: Not much chance of that.
Information & sources: Where and how will they learn the whereabouts and habits of their target(s)? (See above)
Capability: They’ll be going up against alert targets that are better armed, likely better trained (in real-world combat, experience counts for a lot!), in defensive positions, and have well-honed security-conscious life-styles.
Yeah, there might be a problem or two.
Read the GD thread on letters of marque & reprisal in regards to the international law on this.
Theoretical legality of bounty hunting per se in Afghanistan doesn’t matter, people entering the country to kill a guest or citizen without that government’s permission are “enemies.” I suppose they might fall under Geneva convention if one considered them soldiers, else they’re simply criminals. Practical difference? None, its still a bullet in the head.
I still fail to see the point of sending NYPD to Afghanistan unless one hates NYPD and wants to see them die slow horrible deaths. (Mines, Taleban, weather etc.)
What about a bunch of idealistic Americans making their way over there and volunteering with the Northern Alliance- you know, a Hemingwayesque adventure.
Does anyone know how our government views this type of activity?
I would hope dimly. The last thing one needs is a bunch of yahoos who don’t speak local languages and who likely derive their ideas about Afghanistan from action movies getting themselves captured by the Taleban.
Also, much of this question of “legality” assumes that Afghanistan has an organized government and legal system. The “sending the police over” isn’t very logical; for one thing, the 9/11 attack was not considered a “crime”, but rather a terrorist offensive. Secondly, even if it were a police action, the police forces in the US have no jurisdiction in Afghanistan. When someone commits a crime in the United States and flees to Europe, we don’t send over our own police, we let the local boys handle it. If they refused to handle it, there’s nothing we could do as far as police action.
They’ll fall under the convention’s definition of combattants only if they:
Not much chance of that, I guess.
S. Norman
Ok, what if we say that these bounty hunters are prior-service Seals, Green Beanies and Force Recon types that are as mean as Spetznaz and as sneaky as Mossad?
They happen to show up on the capital steps one day with OBL in a headlock. Do you think our government would have any problem with that?
The Living Daylights was NOT a documentary???
::slinks away::
First of all luc you must listen to the force …Just kidding.
SERIOUSLY though. I think that it is a good possiblity that there already are bounty hunters in Afghanistan. Granted they are going to have a difficult time not getting a bomb in the rear, but 25mill turns a lot of heads.
I started a post last week that said why don’t we empty our prisons of all the mass murderers and hannibal the cannibal types onto the mountains of Afghanistan?? It didn’t go over well. Realistically speaking I don’t think one could travel very far in Afghanistan without being noticed, and furthermore I believe one would get shot by the Taliban or bombed by us if they tried.
As for sending NYC finest over there, I don’t think that would be a wise idea either. They are good at exactly what they do, finding thugs on 57th and Lexington not in a mountainous region like afghanistan.
If you want to talk about the legality, it has been hinted that the Geneva Convention would have to come into play, but of course that means there has to be a Government in Power that would have laws against bounty hunter-types and the like. Things are in such disarray over there and the Taliban is now crying that we are using waaay to many large bombs. They are not long for this earth. And I think their governess is fading into extinction faster than a New York Second…
First of all, the 9/11 attack was most definitely a crime. There is no reason why people who were involved in the attack could not be charged, tried, and convicted in the courts of New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, or in Federal Court.
Second, my question relates to U.S. law and policy, not foreign law or policy. Obviously the government of Afghanistan, such as it is, would object to American police (or military) activity there. The question is whether any American law or policy would prevent the NYPD from sending officers overseas to Afghanistan and attempting to bust the perps.
Shrug. Any act of violence can be described as a crime. That does not mean it is terribly useful to do so. Given the nature of the situation, it strikes me as unlikely that one would want to attempt to try ObL in ordinary criminal court. The evidence would not be there.
It’s called jurisdiction. As far as policy, look at the operations in re the Cole bombing. You do not just go to a foreign state and operate. And vice-versa, foreign police do not just come here. There are of course treaties and the like.
As for hopes the Taleban are fading, the poster should study the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
I don’t want some Taliban thug from the ministry of virtue and vice coming over here and penalizing me for violating his law on shaving.
There are people sitting in jail in the United States right now who are suspected of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. I’m confident that many of them will by charged with crimes.
Feel free to start a thread in Great Debates arguing that these people should be released, summarily executed, deported, or whatever.
Fine, I’m looking for somebody to cite me an American treaty, statute, ordinance, presidential order, or whatever, that would prevent a city police force from operating in Afghanistan.
Going once? going twice?
(I imagine this thread will be closed soon.)
Probably not a city police force; however, there might be precedent for the FBI, say, carrying out an abduction of this kind.
A relevant case was that of U.S. drug agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was captured by Mexican drug dealers, tortured, and murdered in Mexico. Nineteen people were indicted in the U.S. Three of the accused were captured abroad (some by DEA agents or people hired by them) and abducted to the U.S. rather than being formally extradited. I haven’t had time to sort through all the legal decisions, but extensive information can be found in the following sites, to provide some fodder for this discussion:
http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/jilp/main/issues/32/pdf/32c.pdf
http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol6/No1/art1-01.html
Another notable extraterritorial abduction was that of Manuel Antonio Noriega from Panama, but that was by U.S. troops and so perhaps not relevant to the OP.
Maybe so, but imagine the Fox Special ™.
No offense but I thought this one of the funniest subjects here.
For starters, Osama uses a few guys who look just like him a decoys.