Re: pkt seminar on the economics of the crisis

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul,

Rules on the free flow of funds as instituted by the Treasury Dpartment, in an
effort to curb money power of suspected terrorist groups, will cause serious
problems to the global financial markets.  Money not free to one is not free to
all.  If suspected crooks face restrictions on money, all of us face the same
restrictions.

I happened to know personally the lawyer who served as the Assistant Treasury
Secretary in charge of freezing Iranian assets under Carter.  His view was that the
effort did not contribute in any way the resolution of the hostage crisis. Iran
continued to have access to funds via a variety of channels, in some cases using
the frozen assets as collaterals.  Global finance capitalism depends on the free
flow of money.  Any attack on that principle attacks global finance capitalism more
than any other target.

The Federal Government has utilized a set of laws called the R.I.C.O. Act
(Racketeering and Influenced, Corrupt Organizations Act) to railroad selected
established organizations, their members and associates into legal battle and jail
terms, in violation of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Freedom from guilt BY ASSOCIATION is a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT.  Under American law,
guilt or innocence is individual, not collective That is, a person's guilt or
innocence is determined by what acts he/she has performed, not by what organization
he/she belongs to or associates with. Under R.I.C.O., one may be tried for noe's
membership in or ASSOCIATION WITH AN ORGANIZATION.

It was announced to day that the assets of some 28 individuals and organization
have been immediately frozen.  If these targets were in fact associated with
suspected terrorists, it would still be a violation of their constitutional right
to be punished retroactively.  For before 9:11, such activities were not illegal.

FREEDOM FROM MASS TRIAL: American Law has always stood against the Government
indicting large numbers of people and engaging in MASS or "SHOW" TRIALS. The danger
of this kind of trial is that a person may be found guilty, not for what he or she
did, but for what another defendant/s may have done, the jury believing that "Birds
of a feather, flock together". Before the R.I.C.O. Act became law, a person could
not be tried for acts which he/she did not allegedly perform or which he/ she
allegedly conspired to perform. UNDER R.I.C.O., YOU MAY BE TRIED TOGETHER WITH
PERSONS WHO YOU HAVE NEVER MET AND OR OTHERWISE. EVIDENCE OF ANOTHER'S CRIMINAL
ACTIONS MAY BE USED AGAINST YOU.

I am in sympathy with your IMCU, but not for this purpose.  We cannot reduce
freedom to protect freedom.

Henry

Paul Davidson wrote:

> I just want to note that if my IMCU plan to reform the international
> payments system was in place -- then
>
> (1) we could cut off dollars finance to bin Laden imediately,
>
> (2) we could cut off Afghanistan from buying goods clandestinely from other
> nations of our "coalition".
>
> (3) if our intelligence agencies were working before September 11, we could
> have had in place  an international auditing and accounting scheme that
> could trace not only the flow of funds that supported the actual terrorists
> living in our midst -- but also others living in the G7 countries at the least.
> And at this point of time we could immediately place such an auditing
> system into operation.
>
> Paul
> Paul Davidson
> Holly Chair of Excellence in Political Economy
> Editor, JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS [JPKE]
> Economics Department -- 523 SMC
> University of Tennessee
> Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0550
> email: Pdavidson@xxxxxxx;   phone: (865)974-4221;    fax: (865) 974-4601
> home phone:(865) 573-9160
> http://econ.bus.utk.edu/Davidson.html