• Offenses against the state other than terrorism include sedition, sabotage, espionage, criminal syndicalism, and espionage.

• Treason, or “[a] breach of allegiance to one’s government, usually committed through levying war against such government or by giving aid or comfort to the enemy,” is the only crime defined in the U.S.

Constitution.

• Sedition is akin to inciting rebellion against the government.

The government relies primarily on seditious conspiracy statutes to prosecute people for sedition.

• The criminal offense of sabotage is damage to property or obstruction of preparations for war or national defense.

• Espionage, or spying, occurs when one gathers, transmits, and/or “loses” defense information to injure the United States or for the benefit of a foreign power.

• Syndicalism is an alternative to capitalism, typically a cooperative economic system. Criminal syndicalism is thus the use of unlawful means (sabotage, terrorism, etc.) to accomplish economic or political reform.

Interestingly, there is no federal criminal syndicalism statute.

• There are several options available for using traditional criminal-law offenses to target threats against the state. Examples include refusal to testify before Congress, trespass, disorderly conduct, threatening the president, conspiracy, RICO, obstruction of justice, and the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Questions:-

1. Compare and contrast treason, sedition, and sabotage.
2. Define criminal syndicalism. How is it similar to other offenses against the state?