Word: walkerism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sounds suitably dramatic, legally, treason is a pretty tricky crime to prove (and is punishable by death). Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution reads, "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." Walker may well have fulfilled those requirements, but there's more. A defendant may be convicted only "on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." Will two fellow fighters come forward to offer witness accounts of Walker's crime? Will an unrepentant...
...Despite his mass media ubiquity over the past several days, Walker remains a mystery. Here's what we know: He comes from a well-to-do home in suburban San Francisco. We've learned that an adolescent fascination with Islam led to his conversion and subsequent embrace of the Bay Area Muslim community. This interest, in other words, was not a passing fancy. After his high school graduation, Walker's passion for his adopted religion spurred trips to Yemen and later to Pakistan, where he was last heard from in May of this year...
...conceivable that he'll never have to. In the upper echelons of Washington, D.C., where one might expect the most heated of responses to the Walker case, there is a perceptible push to withhold a verdict. This week, President Bush referred to Walker as "this poor fellow," and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told reporters his fate would be decided "in good time...
...Meanwhile, Walker himself remains a total mystery. By most accounts, he seems to be at least slightly unhinged (an observation echoed by a Northern Alliance fighter who, according to wire reports, indicated the young American and made the universal gesture for "crazy"). Whether he's mentally competent to stand trial remains to be seen, but some legal experts suspect Walker will not be tried as a traitor; instead he'll be charged with sedition - a largely unused charge that implies the advocacy of violence against the government - or some other, lesser crime...
...what crime, exactly? Did Walker commit a crime by simply joining opposition forces? While we don't know if Walker ever fired a gun against the anti-Taliban forces, we know he was prepared to fight. Should we make a distinction between carrying a loaded gun and actually firing...