Indymedia: Seattle activist takes on government in D.C. court

[rainbow4321]

http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/247188.shtml

Whether at home in Washington state or away in Washington, D.C., Bert Sacks can’t seem to get the federal government to see things his way. Sacks, an outspoken antiwar activist, took nine trips to deliver medicine to Iraqi children between 1996 and 2002 in defiance of U.N. sanctions. This week he faced new legal hurdles from the Office of Foreign Asset Control, the agency that enforces economic and trade sanctions.


On Wednesday, Sacks faced more problems resulting from other sanction-defying trips to Iraq: OFAC brought a $20,000 suit in D.C. District Court against “Voices in the Wilderness,” a group founded in 1995 to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis posed by sanctions against Iraq. Sacks is prominent in the organization.

OFAC fined “Voices” for a humanitarian aid mission in 1998, but did not issue the penalty until four years later – nine days after “Voices” members participated in a mass antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C.

Lawyers for “Voices” argued Wednesday that OFAC’s timing was retaliation for the protest, and was also a case of selective enforcement. They cited congressional testimony by Sen. Carl Levin in May that Houston-based BayOil had paid $37 million in illegal surcharges to the Iraqi government for 200 million barrels of oil, a violation of U.N. sanctions. OFAC brought no penalties against BayOil; Levin said OFAC claimed the matter fell outside its jurisdiction.