Seattle man sues federal office over fine for visiting Iraq

[govegan]

A retired engineer is suing the U.S. government after being fined $10,000 for making a humanitarian trip to take medical supplies to Iraq.

Bertram Sacks, a 61-year-old Seattle resident who has made nine such trips since 1996, filed a 40-page lawsuit in U.S. District Court yesterday, alleging that the federal Office of Foreign Assets Control overstepped its authority, violated the U.S. Constitution and flouted international law when it penalized him for humanitarian missions.
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But Sacks and his lawyers, Donald Scaramastra and Gary Swearingen, contend that the U.S. legislation does not authorize government officials to prevent private citizens from undertaking humanitarian efforts. The team seeks to have Sacks' fine overturned, with a ruling that would affirm that view. Their complaint will be served on federal officials in Washington, D.C., next week, Swearingen said.



Article in Seattle P/I: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/156696_sacks15.html

This just seems so incredibly petty, on the part of the government controlled by the Putrescent Poltroon and his band of prevaricating neo-fascist loons. The fact that death, destruction and mayhem have value for these folks, and that compassion, sympathy and humanitarian care have little beyond the political capital they may generate should be disconcerting to any rational person.

As Scott Nearing expressed so presciently and with eloquence:


Another consequence of natural and social forces operating through the agency of change is the rat race for wealth, prestige, and power which is the central motive of western civilization. At the individual level the wealth-power rat race is carried on by those who devote their talents and energies to getting ahead and keeping ahead. They are not satisfied merely to survive. They strive for recognition, for prestige. Their declared aim is security. Their real goal is the exercise of power. Hunger for power animates them, corrupts them, and finally consumes them. They lead the rat race, enjoy its honors, grow paunchy with its rewards.

The most successful of the rat race leaders constitute a wealth-prestige-power oligarchy, a self-selected minority which initiates policy and directs the appartus of exploitation. The oligarchs aim to gain and keep a monopoly of wealth, prestige, and power and from this vantage point to get a monopolist's share of available goods and services.