“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.” U.S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 3

After Major-General Benedict Arnold sold British spy Major John Andre the plans for the Continental Army’s fortress and other defenses at West Point on the Hudson River, the unfortunate Major Andre was captured by local militiamen as he headed back to New York City. Andre was out of uniform when he was seized and so was tried as a spy and not as a captured British military officer. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged.

General Washington confirmed the sentence and denied requests from several of his young aides – including, I believe, Colonel Alexander Hamilton – to imprison but not hang such a “gallant” officer as Andre. Washington refused and Andre was hanged by the neck until dead, as that marvelous saying goes. Washington’s intelligence operatives and soldiers also actively sought to capture Arnold. He even sent Lafayette and about a thousand continental soldiers to oppose and try to capture then-British Brigadier-General Arnold as he led a raid into Virginia. If captured, Arnold surely would have been convicted and given the noose.

Currently, Americans, as a people, are faced with an Arnold-Andre like situation that will test the mettle of the citizenry and of President Trump. To date, there is strong evidence that at least five foreign governments were enlisted by the leaders of the Obama-headed national government’s executive branch, and its intelligence and law-enforcement organizations, to support the coup they were running against President Trump; namely, Australia, Britain, Israel, Italy, and Germany. Other participating foreign governments may yet surface.

The enlisting of foreign-government assistance by U.S. citizens to overthrow a legitimately elected U.S. president can be described as nothing else but treason, as it is defined in the Constitution. This behavior cannot be dismissed as “dirty politics” and earn only a slap on the wrist. It must not be played down in the indictment and prosecutions of these U.S. citizens that are to come. The direct, in-person actions of these citizens amount, beyond question, to waging war against the existence of America’s Constitution and republican form of government. If the trials of the people engaged in these activities prove treasonous behavior, the only possible suitable punishment is hanging – and the president must, as did President Washington, allow the punishment to be carried out, no clemency, no commutation, no pardon.

Allowing for the mountain of pertinent evidence yet to be released on those people active in leading the failed coup, the information already disclosed shows that the following people seem to be liable for indictment for treason for enlisting foreign-government support for the express purpose of overthrowing Trump and republican government in the United States:

–Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, Ben Rhoads, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Ashton Carter, Loretta Lynch, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Kerry, John Brennan, and James Clapper (NB: Substantial expansion of this list will occur when the senior aides to these people are identified. That group will include some general officers and others from, at least, FBI, CIA, NSA, and State.)

The reporting on the issue of foreign-government involvement supports the belief that each of these individuals knew, approved, helped promote, and did nothing to stop, the enlistment of foreign-government support to overthrow the Trump administration. There must, of course, be the normal cycle of indictments for treason, subsequent civil or military trials, and then the decisions of the juries or judges.

Personally, as the actions of these individuals were nothing less than waging war against the existence of the American republic, I would prefer open and televised military tribunals to handle the trials. Open and televised non-military trials, however, may be preferable for reasons of which I know nothing about. If treason convictions are secured, the sole acceptable punishment is the one that can only be found on the gallows, at the end of a rope. Televised executions, needless to say, would be mandatory.

After the main event concludes, there also will be some international tidying up to do. If they can be identified, all foreign intelligence and military officers, bureaucrats, politicians, spies, and journalists who knowingly assisted the Democrats’ coup attempt should be the subject of extradition requests from the United States to make sure they do not escape retribution for their war-waging on America. All five of the countries so far fingered for helping the Democrats’ war on republicanism claim to be allies of the United States, so arranging extradition ought to be accomplished smoothly. If extradition is refused by one or all of the accomplice countries, the men and women of the U.S. Special Forces are precisely the team that can arrange the presence of all these foreign brigands in American courts.