.S. Asserts Power to Seize Private Gold, Silver

verfasst von Amanito, 23.08.2005, 18:08

-->August 23, 2005
NewsMax.com Wires

MANCHESTER, Conn.-- The U.S. Government has the authority to prohibit
the private possession of gold and silver coin and bullion by U.S.
citizens during wartime, and, during wartime and declared emergencies,
to freeze their ownership of shares of mining companies, the Treasury
Department has told the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.

But gold and silver owners aren't alone in such jeopardy. For the U.S.
Government claims the authority in declared emergencies to seize or
freeze just about everything else that might be considered a financial
instrument.

The Treasury Department's assertions came in a letter to GATA dated
August 12 and written by Sean M. Thornton, chief counsel for the
department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, who replied to
questions GATA posed to the department in January.

It took GATA six months and some prodding to get answers from the
Treasury, but the Treasury's reply, when it came, was remarkably
comprehensive and candid.

The government's authority to interfere with the ownership of gold,
silver, and mining shares arises, Thornton wrote, from the Trading
With the Enemy Act, which became law in 1917 during World War I and
applies during declared wars, and from 1977's International Emergency
Economic Powers Act, which can be applied without declared wars.

Currency and Securities

While the Trading With the Enemy Act authorizes the government to
interfere with the ownership of gold and silver particularly, it also
applies to all forms of currency and all securities. So the Treasury
official stressed in his letter to GATA that the act could be applied
not just to shares of gold and silver mining companies but to the
shares of all companies in which there is a foreign ownership
interest.

Further, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the
government's interference must have some connection to the declared
enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign
ownership. Anything that can be construed as a financial instrument,
no matter how innocently it has been used, is subject to seizure under
the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act.

Having just gone through a controversy about a Supreme Court decision
about government's power of eminent domain, most Americans may be
surprised to learn that the Trading With the Enemy Act and the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act could expropriate them
instantly and far more broadly without any of the due process extended
to parties in eminent domain cases. All that is needed is a
presidential proclamation of an emergency of some kind -- and of
course Americans lately have been living in a state of perpetual
emergency.

When the Trading With the Enemy Act was passed in 1917, gold and
silver formed part of the official currency of the United States and
were essential to ordinary commerce, so perhaps an argument could be
made then against"hoarding," even if"hoarding" could not be well
defined. That is no longer the case; the United States has officially
disavowed gold and silver as money and they no longer have a
meaningful role in commerce. (GATA is working on that.)

So gold and silver investors may want to ask their members of Congress
to seek repeal of the statutes that give the government the authority
to interfere with the private ownership of gold and silver,
emergencies or not.

And ordinary citizens with no particular interest in gold and silver
may want to ask their members of Congress to reconsider these statutes
simply for being wildly tyrannical.
<ul> ~ http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/8/22/200930.shtml</ul>

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gesamter Thread:

• .S. Asserts Power to Seize Private Gold, Silver - Amanito, 23.08.2005, 18:08
  • Re: Schönes Beispiel für 'Obereigentum'..... - - Elli -, 23.08.2005, 18:15
    • Re: Schönes Beispiel für 'Obereigentum'..... - thoughtful, 23.08.2005, 21:45