By the late 1790's, America was fighting an undeclared "Quasi-War" with France on the high seas. France's Revolutionary government, at war with England, began allowing its navy to seize American ships trading with that country. England began interfering with American ships trading with France. Congress authorised the War Department to build six frigates (primarily intended to fight Barbary pirates, no longer confined to the Mediterranean by Portugal) in 1794, but by 1797 only three had been built.
Meanwhile, the French were further incensed by a trade agreement between America and Great Britain. In 1796, France refused to receive American diplomats, and would not restore diplomatic relations until America paid "a large bribe." In April 1798, Congress authorised President John Adams to acquire a dozen ships of war, drastically increasing the size of America's fledgling Navy, and granted those ships the authority to capture armed French vessels found off the American coast. Later that year, Congress increased the authorisation to allow American ships to capture any French ship in international waters.
In the midst of all this tension, pacifist George Logan took it upon himself to "treat unofficially for a better understanding between the two Governments." In June 1798, Dr. Logan went to France to assure that government that the American people wanted peace despite the belligerence of President Adams. His words emboldened the French to continue their seizure of American vessels, undermined US foreign policy and no doubt prolonged hostilities (which lasted two more years) by revealing tensions within the US government, which the French could exploit.
Logan's high-handed activities caused Congress to pass the Logan Act the following year, which prohibits American citizens from attempting to conduct their own private foreign policy initiatives on behalf of the United States. Only the President may speak for the country as a whole when dealing with other governments. The Logan Act (US Code 18, Part I, Chapter 45, Section 953) reads:
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.In April 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took it upon herself to visit Syria while that country is involved in disputes with the United States throughout the Middle East -- not the least of which is terrorists using that country as a conduit through which to infiltrate Iraq. The White House specifically asked her not to do so, as it might undermine US policy towards Syria and embolden dictator Bashir Assad. Other politicians have visited Syria, but none have done so with the purpose of opening dialogue with that country against the express foreign policy dictates of the President. Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), who accompanied Pelosi, said of the trip, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."
However, Lantos' job -- and Pelosi's -- is to create laws. Foreign policy falls under the purview of the Executive branch of government, not the Legislative. Congress has as much power to conduct foreign policy as the President has to write laws -- namely, none at all. Nancy Pelosi's attempt to conduct her own private foreign policy is a clear violation of the Logan Act, for which she should be charged by the Attorney General... if he has time before the Democrats hound him out of office on yet another trumped-up non-scandal, that is.
Some have said that Pelosi, being a member of Congress, does indeed have the "authority of the United States" mentioned in the Logan Act, and was representing America on her trip. If that's true, then she did it badly. She appeared as a supplicant to Assad, and walked about wearing a headscarf and black abaya, showing her deference -- and America's, as our representative -- to overblown fundamentalist Islamic sensibilities. Pelosi allowed herself to be photographed smiling and showing friendship to a man who is the subject of a US campaign designed to isolate and embarrass him for the part his government played in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. She badly botched a message from Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert, telling Assad that Israel was prepared to resume peace talks with Syria. Olmert's actual message was that "Syria should first stop supporting terrorism and 'act like a normal country,' and only then would Israel be willing to hold discussions." It's hard to imagine how Pelosi's blundering Syrian junket could have been any more of a foreign policy disaster for the United States.
Since assuming her position as Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has been leading the power-drunk Democrats in an attempt to reduce the Presidency to the purely ceremonial position it often occupies in other nations. True power in those countries usually resides in a prime minister -- a position to be filled here, no doubt, by Madame Pelosi herself. The recent condition-laden military funding bill was a blatant attempt to usurp the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief, and now the Democrats are trying to take over as arbiters of US foreign policy... and it remains to be seen whether anyone will do anything to stop them.
