TREASURY COULD FINE RESCUERS WHO VISITED CUBA WITH MOORE

[Mika]

Source: Newsweek

The Treasury Department wants to know how Michael Moore was able to travel with about a dozen 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba, where they were able to buy prescription drugs cheaply and receive free health care under the country's socialized medicine system -- all seemingly in violation of the Cuban embargo, Newsweek magazine observed on its website Wednesday. The rescuers appear in a segment of Moore's forthcoming documentary, Sicko. The magazine reported that Moore's production company credentialed the men as journalists, then flew them to Miami on a charter flight that ordinarily carries only licensed travelers. But Angel Marques, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami insisted that no one can board such a flight without a license from the Treasury Department. Newsweek indicated that the Treasury's investigation goes beyond Moore and encompasses the rescue workers as well, each of whom could be fined $65,000.

Read more: http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/treasury%20could%20fine%20rescuers%20who%20visited%20cuba%20with%20moore_1034176

[kenny blankenship]

1. Oh PLEASE throw the book at them Mr. Booosh!

I am begging you.

[malaise]

8. Double dare Bushie

I too am begging you.

[BootinUp]

2. That should be well received /sarcasm

[Joanne98]

3. Does Treasury really want people to start talking about the ..

Plunge Protection Team that sits on the fourth floor of their building?

Maybe MM should make a doc about that?

[aquart]

4. There isn't enough popcorn.

[JDPriestly]

5. The film will make enough money to cover the

$65,000 fines and still have some profits left over. This is going to be Moore's biggest movie yet if the general public is as anxious to see it as my friends and I are.

[youngdem]

6. Do it. PLEASE do it.

I wanna see single digit approval ratings.

PLEASE do it.

We could run Kucinich against them after that and we would win in 08.

[silverweb]

7. Too delicious for words.

A public relations coup of colossal proportions.

Penurious, spiteful infantalism of BushCorp causes giant ideological sinkhole -- self destruction imminent.

:rofl:

[roody]

9. I hope they are ready to ask for a hearing, not to meekly

pay the war criminals. If they get a hearing (highly unlikely) they can put our criminal government on trial.

Kathy Kelley also broke an embargo. This is from Democracy Now
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A federal judge has ordered the human rights group Voices in the Wilderness to pay $20,000 for violating the sanctions against Iraq. A decade ago, Voices in the Wilderness began openly violating the sanctions, bringing in symbolic amounts of medical, educational and humanitarian aid to Iraq on a regular basis. We speak with the group's founder, Kathy Kelly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---snip---

Voices in the Wilderness released a statement in response to Saturday's ruling, saying that they will not pay "a penny of this fine."

Their statement said: "The economic sanctions regime imposed brutal and lethal punishment on Iraqi people. The U.S. government would not allow Iraq to rebuild its water treatment system after the U.S. military deliberately destroyed it in 1991. The U.S. government denied Iraq the ability to purchase blood bags, medical needles and medicine in adequate supplies - destroying Iraq's health care system. "We chose to travel to Iraq in order to openly challenge our country's war against the Iraqi people. We fully understood that our acts could result in criminal or civil charges. We acted because when our country's government is committing a grievous, criminal act, it is incumbent upon each of us to challenge in every nonviolent manner possible the acts of the government. "We continue to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which continues the devastation of the Iraqi people."


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/16/1326230

* Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness. Her new book is called "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--snip


AMY GOODMAN: This is the group's founder, Kathy Kelly, outside the U.N. compound in Baghdad in October 2002.


KATHY KELLY: We're here in front of the United Nations because we believe every member state of the United Nations General Assembly and the entire Security Council has a terrific responsibility right now as these very crucial debates take place to say to the U.N., “No blank check for the U.S. to attack Iraq.”

AMY GOODMAN: Kathy Kelly speaking in Baghdad, October 2002. Voices in the Wilderness released a statement in response to Saturday's ruling saying they won't pay, quote, “a penny of this fine.” Their statement said, quote, “The economic sanctions regime imposed brutal and lethal punishment on the Iraqi people. The U.S. government would not allow Iraq to rebuild its water treatment system after the U.S. military deliberately destroyed it in 1991. The U.S. government denied Iraq the ability to purchase blood bags, medical needles and medicine in adequate supplies, destroying Iraq’s health care system. We chose to travel to Iraq,” the statement said, “in order to openly challenge our country's war against the Iraqi people. We fully understood that our acts could result in criminal or civil charges. We acted because when our country's government is committing a grievous criminal act, it's incumbent upon each of us to challenge in every non-violent manner possible the acts of the government.” The statement went on to say, “We continue to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq, which continues the devastation of the Iraqi people.”
---snip---

KATHY KELLY: Well, Amy, it was interesting that Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C. Federal Court concluded a 17-page opinion by quoting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. And he quoted from King's letter from a Birmingham jail in which Dr. King said, “Those who break an unjust law should do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.” And what we want to say to Judge Bates and to the United States government is that if Judge Bates were to choose to put any one of us in jail, then we would go openly and lovingly, but we won't pay one penny, not one dime, to these war criminals to continue putting U.S. productivity into attacks against Iraq's people or into the imperial designs to seize Iraq's oil revenue. It's something that, relying on Dr. King's teachings, we in conscience cannot do.

[northzax]

10. funny thing about civil disobediance

you tend to get caught when you put it on film. bad luck, but really, it's quite common knowledge that it is illegal to travel to, and spend money in, Cuba without a licence from the treasury department. Stupid law, perhaps, but not a new one, or an obscure one.

[VP505]

11. Another opportunity

for Bu$hCo via the Treasury Dept to embarrass themselves, best thing that could happen if this hit's the front page of every major paper.

[Horse with no Name]

12. I find it "odd" that they are up in arms over this

whilst completely ignoring the fact that the life of a Federal Judge was threatened...