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ACLU of Wisconsin Defends Local Man Accused of Travel to Iraq
August 23, 2004
Peace activist and Milwaukee-area businessman Ryan Clancy is contesting
the imposition of a $10,000 fine assessed by the federal Office of Foreign
Assets Control for allegedly traveling to Iraq prior to the beginning
of the war last year. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin
Foundation and volunteer ACLU attorneys from Madison, Wisconsin, today
filed papers arguing that the Office's rules violate Mr. Clancy's rights
to due process and freedom of travel and speech.
The Office accuses Mr. Clancy of going to Iraq as a “human shield”
prior to the war. “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 suppressing the freedom of patriotic Americans
to travel and learn for themselves what is going on in 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’s state legal director, added: “Under
the government’s rules, a person could fly to Jordan or Turkey,
walk across the border to Iraq and ask people what they thought of Saddam
Hussein or George Bush and walk right back without spending a cent and
still be subject to a huge fine, and even criminal prosecution.”
To make matters worse, the government’s rules do not give a person
a meaningful opportunity to challenge the fine. The regulations do not
permit a person to find out the basis for the government’s accusations,
to confront witnesses, or to have a hearing with a neutral decision-maker.
“It’s another example of the executive branch’s contempt
for fundamental principles of due process,” Dupuis continued. “First,
the administration tried to hold U.S. citizens in indefinite detention
without meaningful court review, until the Supreme Court resoundingly
affirmed that a person – even a so-called “enemy combatant”
– can’t be deprived of liberty without due process. Now the
administration is trying to take the property of U.S. citizens who question
U.S. policy, again without a hearing and due process.”
The ACLU’s filing today asks that the fine be dismissed in its
entirety.
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