Number of Signatures: 145

BACKGROUND:

On Wednesday, July 17, 2007, President Bush issued his latest executive order that gives the Secretary of the Treasury the power to confiscate any American's property as long as the Secretary "determines" that the suspect "poses a significant risk" of committing any "act or acts of violence" (an undefined term) that would negatively impact the president's war in Iraq. There is no legal recourse. If the Secretary's "determination" is simply wrong, there is no legal way to prove your case. No avenue for court review is provided. The only way you will get your property back (or restore access to it) is if you 'BEG' the Secretary to change his mind. Good luck!

Here is the Executive Order as displayed on the White House website.

Here is an article analyzing the language of the executive order.

Here is an article about former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts' comments on the subject.

THE PETITION:

Dear Congressman/Senator (Insert Name):

President Bush's latest (as yet un-numbered) Executive Order, entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq", reported to Congress on Wednsday, July 17, 2007 is an intolerable assault on any American's right to own property.

There is no guarantee that either president Bush or any suceeding president of the United States will restrict its application to actual terrorists and their domestic aiders and abetters. By its own language, the order applies to "any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or the effect of ... undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq, or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

That language potentially includes you and every American citizen or legal resident alien who opposes president Bush's policies in Iraq, as long as the Secretary of the Treasury in his exclusive discretion (after "consultation" with - not requiring the agreement from - the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense) merely "determines" that you "pose a significant risk of committing an act or acts of violence" that have the described effect.

He does not have to prove that you actually committed such an act or acts, or even that you have conspired to commit such acts. All he has to do under the language of the order is to "determine" that you pose a "significant risk" of committing such act(s), and all of your property is subject to "blocking."

Whether or not this or any other president is likely to ever use this new and unprecedneted power is irrelevant. The mere power to strip a potentialy innocent human being of all his property rights in an instant, without prior notice, and without any form of legal recourse, is unimaginably dangerous, is unprecedented in the history of any civilized nation, and is wholly without the powers delegated to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

Please use every means at your disposal to force a public reading of this executive order on the floor of the House or the Senate, and demand full debate of its provisions and effect.

In the name of all freedom loving Americans and those who intend to become such in the future, in the name of fundamental fairness and due process, and in the name of the rule of law itself, I implore you to vote in favor of rejection of this executive order and of any other that may come before you in the future that may threaten the loss by any American of either life, liberty, or property on a mere, potentially unfounded, naked assertion of the likelihood of committing a possible future crime.

Respectfully,

(Your Name)

(Your Address and email)