April 4, 2003

ATLANTA: The Southeastern Legal Foundation today called on the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal treason charges against former MSNBC reporter Peter Arnett, who gave a lengthy interview with Iraqi TV last week in which he claimed that American military planning has failed in the war in Iraq.

"The U.S. Constitution makes plain that treason is a crime witnessed by at least two people, there's legal intent, and it provides aid and comfort to the enemy - and Peter Arnett's worldwide television tirade against U.S. military activity in Iraq certainly meets those criteria," said Phil Kent, SLF president. "By making judgments about the failures of current military planning and execution, Arnett - as an American citizen - exposed our military to further dangers by encouraging the beleaguered Saddam Hussein regime and its soldiers to fight on."

SLF attorneys identified three important treason cases arising from activity by U.S. citizens abroad during World War II. In these seminal cases, U.S. citizens who broadcast anti-American sentiment on behalf of Nazi Germany while in Germany during the war were extradited, tried and convicted of treason. Best v. U.S. (1st Cir., 1950); Chandler v. U.S. (1st Cir., 1948); and, Cramer v. U.S. (U.S. 1945). In the Best case, Robert Best argued before the court that he was merely a "mediator...a go-between to Hitler...someone who could interpret the German mind to Americans." "This is the Arnett argument," said Kent. "It didn't fly then, and it won't fly now."

"As a constitutional public interest law firm, SLF supports vigorous free speech, and as a former journalist, so do I," said Kent. "But the First Amendment is not a license to say whatever we choose to say. We cannot yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater, and we cannot jeopardize the lives of our military personnel by encouraging our enemies on Iraqi TV to take heart from lies about our troops. Arnett's shameful display, while protected as free speech if he had made his comments here in the United States, is not protected under the First Amendment when spoken on the enemy's TV network."

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