Back from Iraq, activist finds price of protest is $10,000 fine
By GINA BARTON
gbarton@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Aug. 11, 2003
When Ryan Clancy went to Iraq to protest the war, he knew he was breaking the law. He thought the penalty was a $500 fine, a price he was willing to pay for the cause of peace.
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Ryan Clancy
They're not differentiating between me and a uranium dealer, even though the only thing I brought over there was crayons and construction paper. I don't think they can make weapons of mass destruction with that. 
But when Clancy recently got a call from federal officials, he learned the stakes are much higher. Authorities have fined Clancy $10,000, and if he doesn't pay, he could spend up to 12 years in prison.
"I have no intention whatsoever of paying any money for having gone over there and worked with children," said Clancy, who has an education degree from Beloit College. "It's a bizarre and arbitrary charge."
Clancy, 26, of Milwaukee, is charged with violating sanctions the U.S. and other countries passed in the early 1990s prohibiting travel to and trade with Iraq. They were in effect in February, when Clancy arrived there as one of nearly 300 protesters from around the world who camped out near power plants, water treatment facilities and hospitals to act as "human shields" in hopes their presence would prevent American bombings.
Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Department, said he could not comment specifically on Clancy's case. However, he did say fines were being issued against some of the human shields not because they were protesting but because they ignored the sanctions, which were partially lifted when the rebuilding process in Iraq began.
"Unlike in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the freedom to express one's views is a right afforded to all Americans," he said. "However, in a society governed by the rule of law such as ours, choosing which laws to abide by and which to ignore is not a privilege that is granted to anyone."
May be negotiable
Federal authorities may be willing to negotiate the amount of the fine with Clancy, Griffin said.
At this point, Clancy has been presumed guilty and does not have the right to a hearing, said Arthur Heitzer, a Milwaukee attorney who is an expert on international travel sanctions and has worked with numerous clients charged with similar offenses for traveling to Cuba.
Clancy's research about Cuba is what led him to believe he would have to pay a $500 fine for going to Iraq.
Despite the fact that travel to Iraq had been prohibited for more than 10 years, as far as Heitzer can tell, officials just started enforcing the ban about six months ago. Neither he nor Griffin could say exactly how many people are facing penalties.
"The sanctions . . . are clearly designed to prevent people from going and seeing for themselves what's going on," Heitzer said. "The very government that says it's trying to protect our freedoms is saying, 'We get to tell you where you can travel and where you can't travel.' "
Griffin disagreed.
"Sanctions are an important foreign policy tool, but they have to be enforced to work," he said. "Those who violate them can expect that the law will be enforced fully and fairly."
Heitzer does not believe the government can seize Clancy's assets - including the inventory of Trounce, the Menomonee Valley record store he owns - without a court order. If federal authorities get such an order, Clancy can appeal through the federal courts.
The government also could pursue criminal charges, Griffin and Heitzer said.
"They're not differentiating between me and a uranium dealer, even though the only thing I brought over there was crayons and construction paper. I don't think they can make weapons of mass destruction with that," Clancy said. "I would love to have my day in court, but I'm afraid they're going to go after my assets, and I don't have a lot."
Inspired by CNN report
After seeing a CNN report on human shields, Clancy used frequent flier miles and $1,500 in savings to join the cause. He traveled to Milan, where he was picked up by a double-decker bus based in London. For weeks, the vehicle traveled through Europe, Turkey, Syria and then finally to Iraq.
"I went out of concern for our country, as well as the rest of the planet," said Clancy, a former Peace Corps volunteer. "The U.S. was interfering in an extremely destructive way, punishing Saddam's victims and breeding more terrorists."
Clancy spent most of his approximately three-week stay in Iraq working with children. Teenagers wrote letters to American youths, he said, one of which bore the message: "We like you, and we don't know why you don't like us."
He asked younger children to draw pictures about their lives. One 6-year-old drew a picture of her house with her family, smiling stick figures, standing outside. In the background, she drew a missile headed for the triangular roof.
"I had to show the Iraqi citizens it was not a matter of 'United We Stand,' " Clancy said.
Clancy left Iraq before bombing by the U.S. began. He crossed into Jordan to get cash he thought he'd need to make it home once the war started, and he was not allowed to re-enter Iraq.
On the trip home, he went 80 hours without sleep, and he was interrogated by officials at airports in both Israel and Minneapolis.
In Minnesota, he says he was ushered into a room with harsh overhead lighting and grilled as authorities photocopied every scrap of paper in his possession. He was given the third degree about a number for "Boo" in the electronic directory of his cell phone, which belonged to his 80-plus-year-old grandmother.
Once he made it home, he was temporarily banned from commercial air travel. About three weeks ago, he finally was allowed aboard a flight to Oklahoma to buy a truck.
"I thought it had all blown over," he said.