Back from Iraq, activist finds price of protest is $10,000

Back from Iraq, activist finds price of protest is
$10,000 fine

By GINA BARTON gbarton@journalsentinel.com

Last Updated: Aug. 11, 2003

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal Original URL:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/aug03/161576.asp

When Ryan Clancy went to Iraq to protest the war, he
knew he was breaking the law. He thought the penalty
was a $500 fine, a price he was willing to pay for the
cause of peace.

But when Clancy recently got a call from federal
officials, he learned the stakes are much higher.
Authorities have fined Clancy $10,000, and if he
doesn’t pay, he could spend up to 12 years in prison.
"I have no intention whatsoever of paying any money for
having gone over there and worked with children," said
Clancy, who has an education degree from Beloit
College. "It’s a bizarre and arbitrary charge."

Clancy, 26, of Milwaukee, is charged with violating
sanctions the U.S. and other countries passed in the
early 1990s prohibiting travel to and trade with Iraq.
They were in effect in February, when Clancy arrived
there as one of nearly 300 protesters from around the
world who camped out near power plants, water treatment
facilities and hospitals to act as "human shields" in
hopes their presence would prevent American bombings.
Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the U.S. Treasury
Department, said he could not comment specifically on
Clancy’s case. However, he did say fines were being
issued against some of the human shields not because
they were protesting but because they ignored the
sanctions, which were partially lifted when the
rebuilding process in Iraq began.

"Unlike in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the freedom to
express one’s views is a right afforded to all
Americans," he said. "However, in a society governed by
the rule of law such as ours, choosing which laws to
abide by and which to ignore is not a privilege that is
granted to anyone."

May be negotiable Federal authorities may be willing to
negotiate the amount of the fine with Clancy, Griffin
said.
At this point, Clancy has been presumed guilty and does
not have the right to a hearing, said Arthur Heitzer, a
Milwaukee attorney who is an expert on international
travel sanctions and has worked with numerous clients
charged with similar offenses for traveling to Cuba.
Clancy’s research about Cuba is what led him to believe
he would have to pay a $500 fine for going to Iraq.
Despite the fact that travel to Iraq had been
prohibited for more than 10 years, as far as Heitzer
can tell, officials just started enforcing the ban
about six months ago. Neither he nor Griffin could say
exactly how many people are facing penalties.

"The sanctions . . . are clearly designed to prevent
people from going and seeing for themselves what’s
going on," Heitzer said. "The very government that says
it’s trying to protect our freedoms is saying, ’We get
to tell you where you can travel and where you can’t
travel.’ "

Griffin disagreed.

"Sanctions are an important foreign policy tool, but
they have to be enforced to work," he said. "Those who
violate them can expect that the law will be enforced
fully and fairly."

Heitzer does not believe the government can seize
Clancy’s assets - including the inventory of Trounce,
the Menomonee Valley record store he owns - without a
court order. If federal authorities get such an order,
Clancy can appeal through the federal courts.

The government also could pursue criminal charges,

Griffin and Heitzer said.

"They’re not differentiating between me and a uranium
dealer, even though the only thing I brought over there
was crayons and construction paper. I don’t think they
can make weapons of mass destruction with that," Clancy
said. "I would love to have my day in court, but I’m
afraid they’re going to go after my assets, and I don’t
have a lot."

Inspired by CNN report After seeing a CNN report on
human shields, Clancy used frequent flier miles and
$1,500 in savings to join the cause. He traveled to
Milan, where he was picked up by a double-decker bus
based in London. For weeks, the vehicle traveled
through Europe, Turkey, Syria and then finally to Iraq.
"I went out of concern for our country, as well as the
rest of the planet," said Clancy, a former Peace Corps
volunteer. "The U.S. was interfering in an extremely
destructive way, punishing Saddam’s victims and
breeding more terrorists."

Clancy spent most of his approximately three-week stay
in Iraq working with children. Teenagers wrote letters
to American youths, he said, one of which bore the
message: "We like you, and we don’t know why you don’t
like us."

He asked younger children to draw pictures about their
lives. One 6-year-old drew a picture of her house with
her family, smiling stick figures, standing outside. In
the background, she drew a missile headed for the
triangular roof.

"I had to show the Iraqi citizens it was not a matter
of ’United We Stand,’ " Clancy said.
Clancy left Iraq before bombing by the U.S. began. He
crossed into Jordan to get cash he thought he’d need to
make it home once the war started, and he was not
allowed to re-enter Iraq.

On the trip home, he went 80 hours without sleep, and
he was interrogated by officials at airports in both
Israel and Minneapolis.

In Minnesota, he says he was ushered into a room with
harsh overhead lighting and grilled as authorities
photocopied every scrap of paper in his possession. He
was given the third degree about a number for "Boo" in
the electronic directory of his cell phone, which
belonged to his 80-plus-year-old grandmother.

Once he made it home, he was temporarily banned from
commercial air travel. About three weeks ago, he
finally was allowed aboard a flight to Oklahoma to buy
a truck.

"I thought it had all blown over," he said.

From the Aug. 12, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee

Journal Sentinel