If You Oppose the War in Iraq, You Could Lose Your Property
On July 17, President Bush signed a little-known executive order that gives him the kind of legal authority tyrants like Hitler and Stalin used to keep their populations in utter subjection. It essentially outlaws all opposition to the Bush administration's Iraq war policy.
If you breach this order's draconian provisions, you could lose your property. All your property: your house, your car, your retirement account, your bank accounts, and anything else the government can get its hands on. Indeed, the government can render you homeless—all based on a secret determination by the Treasury Department that you have no right to contest in court.
The order authorizes the Treasury Department to confiscate the assets of anyone connected to the Iraq insurgency. Not just the assets directly connected to the insurgency, but “all property and interests in property.” It also authorizes confiscating the property of anyone who indirectly threatens the peace or stability of Iraq, or who undermines efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform.
If you oppose the Iraq war, support an organization opposed to the Iraq war, or oppose any aspect of the reconstruction effort in Iraq, you could lose everything. Even contributing to a charity that is involved in direct relief efforts for Iraqi refugees could trigger forfeiture of your property, because the executive order expressly prohibits donations of "food, clothing, and medicine intended to be used to relieve human suffering." There is no requirement that you even have to know that your assistance is going to a banned person or group before your assets are confiscated!
Certainly, political protest against the Iraq war could be construed as "threatening peace and stability" in Iraq. Opposing the corrupt Iraqi operations of companies like Haliburton, which have ripped off U.S. taxpayers for billions of dollars in botched and bloated reconstruction contracts, could undoubtedly be viewed as undermining the country's "economic reconstruction."
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Anti-war groups such as the "Raging Grannies," which are already under FBI surveillance would appear to be squarely in the sights of the order. So would anyone who contributes to this organization, or who becomes a member of it. Certainly, any politician who opposes the Bush policy in Iraq could have his or her assets seized.
How can this authority be legal—or constitutional?
For more than 200 years, U.S. courts have given the president almost unlimited executive authority in wartime. More recently, this authority has been expanded to encompass times of declared emergencies.
The United States has been under a declared state of national emergency since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. And, under the authority of an obscure law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the president may exercise controls over international economic transactions during any period of declared national emergency. The law also authorizes property confiscation in what is essentially a supercharged version of civil forfeiture.
In an IEEPA civil forfeiture, such as those that may occur under the new executive order, you have no right to a court hearing. Instead, to contest the forfeiture, you must appeal to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The decisions of OFAC, which can be and are often based on secret evidence that can't be disclosed due to national security concerns, can't be appealed.
You might think, rightly, that this procedure is unconstitutional. However, the Supreme Court disagrees. In 2004, it refused to review a lower court decision upholding this draconian procedure.
Will the Treasury Department begin confiscating the property of the Raging Grannies, the Red Cross—or Barack Obama, for that matter—once this order comes into effect August 17? Probably not—but it could. That's a frightening prospect, and one that is almost guaranteed to place a chilling effect on critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
Now that the government has ended any semblance of obedience to the U.S. Constitution, it's more important than ever to establish your offshore nest egg. It's unlikely that most foreign countries would cooperate in the enforcement of civil forfeitures under this executive order, particularly if they target otherwise lawful activities or charitable contributions, and occur without any accompanying criminal proceeding. That means assets you have overseas—particularly in an asset protected form such as an offshore trust or offshore variable annuity—may well survive an IEEPA civil forfeiture order.
Click here to learn more about "government by emergency"—and how you can protect your privacy and wealth from those who want to take it away—even the government.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Nestmann
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