NEWS RELEASE
ACLU Defends Milwaukee Peace Activist Facing Fine Over Iraq Travel Ban
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2005
Contact: Laurence Dupuis, ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation,
(414) 272-4032, ext. 12
MILWAUKEE, WI -- The federal Office of Foreign Assets Control has fined
Milwaukee-area businessman and peace activist Ryan Clancy after he allegedly
traveled to Iraq in early 2003. Today volunteer attorneys for the American
Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in federal court in
Milwaukee contesting the imposition of the $8,000 fine without a fair
hearing.
In a related case ACLU affiliates in New Jersey and New York, supported
by cooperating counsel from the law firm of Gibbons, Del Deo, have filed
suit in New York to block OFAC’s similar action against Reverend
Frederick Boyle, a Methodist minister accused of traveling to Iraq.
OFAC accuses Mr. Clancy and Rev. Boyle of going to Iraq as “human
shields” prior to the beginning of the war in 2003. “The government
does not claim that Ryan Clancy provided any financial benefit to the
Iraqi government or even to any individual Iraqis,” said ACLU Executive
Director Christopher Ahmuty. “This fine clearly isn’t about
controlling ‘foreign assets.’ It’s about squelching
the ability of people to travel and learn for themselves what is going
on in disputed countries like Iraq and then punishing those who have the
courage to question the government’s version of events upon their
return.”
Larry Dupuis, the ACLU of Wisconsin’s legal director, added that
the procedures used by OFAC to impose these fines were fundamentally unfair.
“Those accused of travel to Iraq do not get an opportunity to see
the evidence against them or to have a hearing with a neutral decision-maker,”
Dupuis said.
“Shouldn’t Americans have the right to find out for themselves
what is being done in their name?” Ahmuty concluded.
The ACLU’s lawsuit today asks that the fine be dismissed in its
entirety or that the case be returned to OFAC to hold a meaningful hearing
at which Mr. Clancy can contest the accusations against him.
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