The Glade 4.0

Xequecal:

Treason is limited to committing a documentable act of war against the United States or its Allies during a period of active military involvement. The problem here isn't that the U.S. is violating any treaties with Britain, it's that the U.S. will be demonstrably giving aid and comfort (of a very military variety) to the enemy state (Russia) of our own allied state (the UK).

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But espionage is not an act of war is it?

An "act of war" is only part of the Constitutional definition of treason; it would definitely qualify as giving "aid and comfort".

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

That makes the assumption that Russia is the enemy. If we have a treaty with them, are they considered so?

Its my opinion that until a war is declared no nation should be considered an enemy.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

This is where I'm losing you as well, Khross. If we treat with both parties, both are allies.

Is stabbing one in the back for the benefit of another treason?

Russia's still considered a hostile state per NATO treaty provisions. For that matter, START, in any configuration, does not remove that status from Russia. Consequently, we are providing aid and comfort to an enemy state at the expense of actual, bound ally states.

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Treason is defined in the constitution, and hostile state is not.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."

Assuming then that Russia falls within "Enemies", which I would contest, then would not providing foreign aid be giving them Aid and Comfort?

I think, and I'm not entirely sure about this, but "aid" is given to the people of the country, not their government.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

one could argue that he's supporting OUR country-- an assistance to the enemy is incidental.

Seeing as how the British are not in any sort of state of war with Russia, this is questionable at best. The mere fact that a state is hostile, or an enemy does not make them the same as a "wartime enemy". While I disagree with the new START treaty, and I am appalled by Obama's attitude towards the British, I think you are stretching to call this treason.

I should also point out that the President is empowered to create treaties with other states, and the only restriction on that power is the consent of the Senate, and the fact that no treaty can contradict the Constitution. The comparison with the Rosenbergs is therefore spurious; neither was the President, nor his representative or plenipotentiary.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Russia is not an "enemy" in the most serious sense of the word because we are not at war with them. They could be an "enemy" or "hostile" in other senses because both sides are prepared to fight a nuclear war at (more or less) a moment's notice. They are certainly not "friendly", nor does the mere existance of a treaty on some matter make them an ally. SALT I led to an interim agreement on launchers and the ABM treaty as far back as the 1970s, but that hardly made the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. allies.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Who are we at WAAUUUGH!! with?

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn