from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/travel/articles/0504passport04.html

Would comments warrant reporter's loss of passport?
commentary Jane Greig
Cox News Service
May. 4, 2003 12:00 AM

The passport is the sine qua non identification document, even though, according to the State Department, only 52 million U.S. citizens, 18 percent of the population, have passports.

The familiar navy blue, gold-stamped booklet is a badge of citizenship. Have passport, will travel - easily.

When TV news correspondent Peter Arnett gave an interview to state-controlled Iraqi television in which he criticized the American war effort and praised the morale of the Iraqi people, one irate American raised questions about Arnett and the "privilege of a U.S. passport": "Would (Arnett's) traitorous remarks cause his passport to be lifted by the government? Under what circumstances can a U.S. passport be rescinded by the government?"

A U.S. passport is the property of the government and must be surrendered upon demand of authorized government representatives. Denial of a passport is more common than forfeiture. If the Department of Health & Human Services certifies that you are more than $5,000 behind in child support, you cannot receive a passport. In addition, some outstanding felony or criminal warrants can lead to denial of a passport.

Lose your status as a citizen of the United States, lose your passport. Sounds straightforward, but forfeiture of citizenship is hard to commit because volition is involved. The Immigration and Nationality Act outlines the circumstances under which a U.S. citizen loses citizenship. You must perform these acts voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing citizenship, says Kelly Shannon, State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs spokeswoman.

Briefly, some of the voluntary acts include: obtaining naturalization in a foreign state; entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the United States or serving as an officer in the armed forces of a foreign state; taking positions of employment with a foreign state that require a declaration of allegiance; renouncing citizenship before a U.S. consular officer outside America.

Arnett and his comments do not fall into any of those categories.

Were his remarks traitorous? If tried and convicted of treason, Arnett would lose his citizenship and passport. Conviction for an act of treason is one of the acts listed as subject to the loss of citizenship in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Treason is difficult to prove, although the definition appears unambiguous: "levying war against (the United States), or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

The proof must be the testimony of two witnesses to an overt act of treason or a confession in open court.

Broadcast comments were the reason Iva Toguri was convicted of treason. Purportedly serving as one of the propaganda voices known as Tokyo Rose in World War II, Toguri was pardoned by President Gerald Ford.

But Arnett was not taunting American troops. Was he giving aid and comfort to the enemy? Perhaps, but was it aid and comfort of the type given by convicted traitor Hans Max Haupt, who assisted his son, Herbert Hans Haupt, an enemy spy in World War II? (The father was sentenced to life in prison; the son, executed by a military tribunal.)

I doubt Arnett will be tried for treason. The former reporter for NBC and National Geographic lost his job, not his passport. (After the NBC comments cost Arnett his job, Al Arabiya TV, Belgium commercial TV station VTM and the Daily Mirror of London all reported they had hired him.)

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