U.S. anti-war group won't pay Iraq sanctions fine

[Rose Siding]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. peace activists faced with a $20,000 fine for violating U.S. sanctions against Iraq seven years ago for delivering medical supplies said on Tuesday they will go to jail before paying the fine.

"For 15 years our government has waged economic and military warfare against the people of Iraq," Jeff Leys, a coordinator for the group, Voices in the Wilderness, told a press conference here. "We will not comply, we will not collaborate."

On Friday, a federal judge ordered the organization, one of the largest American anti-embargo groups in the 1990s, to pay a $20,000 fine imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2002.

The fine was issued by the government after group members carried medicines and medical supplies to Iraq in 1998 without asking for a license to export humanitarian supplies.
....
If the fine is not paid, some members of the activist group could face criminal charges that carry a maximum sentence of 12 years each in federal prison.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=9391629

[FtWayneBlue]

1. But Haliburton/KBR dealings of the time are OK?!!!!! n/t

[wtmusic]

2. WTF? Kathy Kelly already did jail time for this!

:wtf:

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kelly.php?articleid=1799

[DemInDistress]

3. what a sick and repulsive country

America's has become...chsing after people who delivered medical necessities badly needed meds but Halliburton and the Bush Crime Family could wallow in billions of oil money....I love my country its the management that sucks...

[saigon68]

4. Notice how the Judge

WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS.