| Yesterday, yet again with no fanfare, President Bush signed an Executive Order entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”
The real eye-catcher is in the first section:
I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, |
| So does that mean as activists against the war living in the United States that we as individuals are obstructing “the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people,” as this Executive Order clearly states? Because we are against this illegal and unjustified invasion of a foreign country, want our men and women to come home and stop policing a civil war, and redeploy a limited amount of military power to focus solely on combating terrorism, that we are obstructionists?
If I interpret this correctly, considering it is rather broad (on purpose), the Secretary of Treasury has the authority to seize the assets of any United States citizen that our government feels is interfering with reconstruction and reform of Iraq. Sounds like with this Executive Order the 1st Amendment of the United States is dead.
Remind me again what country we are living in? |
