New 21st Century Regulatory Risks

Talking Points: America's response to 9/11 and the new War on Terror, the Patriot Acts and the destruction of offshore money centers and financial privacy have increased the government threat to your existing wealth. Learn how many former asset protection products and strategies actually now increase the risk to your wealth rather than diminish the threat. Warning: the old style asset protection mistakes of failure to report and tax evasion may be discovered thus making the old-style measures counter-productive to your liberty and to your assets.

Following the horrendous 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration issued executive orders to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Broadened the definition of terrorist. This gives the president, or anyone so designated by the president, the right to label any individual or organization as a "terrorist" without a court order, evidence or additional proof. This immediately freezes the assets of the person or entity in question. Please note in the future the new definition could be expanded to cover liberal, anti-war advocates, or traditionally conservative groups and individuals.

2. Closure of U.S. financial markets to 'suspect' institutions. Washington can close U.S. financial markets and dollar clearing to any country or banking institution that they claim to have facilitated terrorist transactions or even maintained any terrorist funds involved in any such acts even if the institution or nation was unaware of such activities. Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?" Read The Inadequate Due Diligence Case Study The URL is
http://web.archive.org/web/20040211194843/http://www.swissgnomes.com/book/casestudy/cs-10.htm

3. The option to end all private contracts with 'suspect' terrorists. Finally they now have the option to end all private contracts involving such persons or organizations labeled as terrorists. Although these new executive orders were issued in the aftermath of 9/11, innocent American and foreign investors have much to fear from excessive use and threats from these actions. The problem is unpopular or non-establishment political organizations and individuals can now be labeled as a terrorist and once under federal investigation all assets can be frozen and unavailable for investment, liquidation or use in legal actions to defend them from potential false charges or to unfreeze the assets.

This financial freeze is further complicated by the fact that individuals, including U.S. citizens, can now be subjected to indefinite detention and jail time without the right to the courts, the benefit of counsel, or even being charged with a crime. They may also be imprisoned and held incommunicado without the right and opportunity to contact their family, loved ones, supporters or even a lawyer. The courts have generally held in the past that these types of unconstitutional infringements are legal by the president during times of war. The fact that the United States has not been in a legally declared war since 1945 doesn't appear to have impressed the "rubber stamp" Supreme Court.

Some readers will say this is just fear mongering and the president of the United States would never use an Executive Order to take our wealth or property unless the nation were in a major crisis situation. Well, tell this to the people of Southern Utah. They are very much aware of the Clinton Executive Order which the President used to create the 1.7 million acre Escalante-Staircase National Monument in Utah without any consultation with the Utah Governor, their members of the Senate or House of Representatives. As you can now see the precedent has been established to use this power even in everyday policy matters.

The power of Executive Orders and the Patriot Act make the United States a risky place for American and foreign investors (especially Arab nations and/or private investors) to hold their wealth. For example, law enforcement can now apply for wiretaps and surveillance against innocent American citizens using the conditions once required for foreign intelligence work. If a government agent wants to wiretap you, all he has to indicate is that one of the purposes is to gather foreign intelligence and the tap is in place without review, constitutional protections or any reason to question illegal activities.

This current War on Terror and Washington’s foreign policy means the United States will remain in a terrorist war with the related costs, threats and attacks on our liberty for many years to come. This will translate into more national or financial emergencies which will continue to threaten our remaining liberties and, not to mention, the narrow thread by which the Constitution hangs.

On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, simply known as the Patriot Act.

Here are just a few of the provisions of the Patriot Act that can negatively impact your life, liberty and wealth.

This legislation makes it very easy for the Treasury to confiscate the assets of foreign and American investors with U.S. bank and brokerage accounts. It allows the government to immediately seize the property of any individual, organization or country that attacks the United States. Note, this is the most threatening provision of all to foreign investors because who is to judge the country or organization behind the next terrorist attack? As more documents are now being released we're not 100% sure who was behind the 9/11 attacks and the government isn't willing even now to make most of the findings on the investigation public.

For example, bin Laden, who obviously hates the Saudi establishment and government, could launch an attack that might appear to be from certain rogue elements in the government of Saudi Arabia thus giving our government the right to confiscate Saudi public and private assets. Given this situation it is not too far fetched to consider other governments and peoples who would benefit from the financial collapse of Saudi Arabia and many other Arab nations.

The same could be said for organizations and individuals on the far left and right spectrums of American politics. What if the political establishment or rogue insiders choose to target an innocent domestic group in order to destroy their wealth and political power. Foreign governments and citizens, as well as non-establishment Americans have much to fear from the threat of fabricated attacks, false blame and the resulting confiscation of assets.

Provides law enforcement the right to conduct "roving" electronic surveillance of suspects instead of specific computer terminals or telephones. Now instead of having to request permission investigate suspicious activities, law enforcement has a free hand to snoop at will. Here again, this shows how much our former constitutional and Bill of Rights protections have fallen by the wayside in the War on Terror.

Requires all trades and businesses to report cash transactions greater than $10,000 to the Treasury and to explain the "suspicious transaction." If the feds decide to consider anything an American citizen or foreign investor does as a "suspicious transaction", note that all persons are subject to investigation and the threat of having their assets frozen without being convicted or even prosecuted for a single crime. Again, today you are guilty until proven innocent and during this period of a simple bureaucratic mistake or false charges your assets can be frozen, all aspects of your business, financial and personal life can be delved into and your property and portfolio assets confiscated.

Gives the IRS the right to share tax data with other outside investigators. The Patriot Act makes any pretext of remaining personal or financial privacy just pure wishful thinking. It ends restrictions on domestic investigations if the feds claim the investigation involves national security. This act allows real or contrived claims of national security, which do not have to be backed up with evidence, to be used by the feds to nullify any remaining shreds of privacy, constitutional or civil liberty protections.

Allows enforcement agencies and the police the right to obtain e-mail message information and review your browsing patterns and Internet sites you look at without a wiretap order. Your rights of privacy and protection against unreasonable search and seizure have just evaporated since 9/11.

“Our most basic freedoms as Americans – privacy in our homes, persons, and possessions; confidentiality in our financial and medical affairs; openness in our conversations, telephone, and internet use; unfettered travel; indeed the basic freedom not to be monitored as we go through our daily lives – have been dramatically changed.” 1
--Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)

This new Act boasts an extended list of dangerous and unconstitutional powers from warrant less searches to federal information databases containing groups on the left and right concerned about individual privacy and liberty.

"Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts, but this must happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it; or if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately." -- Machiavelli

Now moving on to the scary world of Presidential Executive orders. First, there are plenty of websites and rightwing conspiracy organizations constantly warning about the many Presidential Executive Orders currently threatening the Constitution and allowing the President and the feds to run unchecked over our constitutional freedoms, financial rights and civil liberties.

Frankly most of this prior to 9/11 has been more doomsday mongering and scare tactics by writers, editors and others marketing to Americans concerned about big government than any real threat. But like everything else in the United States today, these former trumped up concerns are now real threats to your liberty and wealth. With the power of Executive Orders, the president can basically rule the nation by executive decree in times of severe emergency as the presidential powers are quite broadly defined by the Constitution. According to our reading of the Constitution, it does not define or limit the power of the president to rule by executive order except in the larger context of the Constitution in general and we all know what the average politician or bureaucrat in Washington thinks or knows about the Constitution, nothing!

Today with threats of terrorist attacks and the possible use of weapons of mass destruction, Presidential Executive Orders are a real threat. They are simply quasi-dictatorial powers given to the President for appropriate use in times of national emergency like war or the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although illegal because they bypass the right of Congress established by the Constitution to make laws, they would be a necessary government emergency action during a real crisis - if they were only used for this situation.

What really happens are these orders are published in the Federal Register and after 30 days they become law just as if they had been passed by Congress. Be aware that all of these types of non-constitutional actions including Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, Presidential Declarations, and Presidential Decision Directives are considered executive orders and some have been sealed and aren't even publicized to Congress.

Here is a partial list of some of the original executive orders that have been issued by presidents of the United States. They provide unprecedented authority at the president's disposal, that he can enforce during a national crises. He can declare a national emergency for any reason whether the American people or Congress agree or not. This frightening power gives the president the unlimited power of a dictator in the event of a real or contrived crisis situation. You can see the potential for tyranny here if these unconstitutional powers are used in the wrong way and remember the president would also have total control of the armed forces to enforce executive orders.

Order #	Authority Granted to the President
10995	Right to seize all communications media in the United States
10997	Right to seize all electric power, fuels and minerals, both public and private
10999	Right to seize all means of transportation, including personal vehicles of any kind and total control of highways, seaports and waterways
11000	Right to seize any and all American people and divide up families in order to create work forces to be transferred to any place the government sees fit.
11001	Right to seize all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private
11002	Right to force registration of all men, women and children in the United States
11003	Right to seize all air space, airports and aircraft
11004	Right to seize all housing and finance authorities in order to establish "Relocation Designated Areas" and to force abandonment of areas classified as "unsafe".
11005	Right to seize all railroads, inland waterways, and storage facilities, both public and private
11051	This gives the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning the right to put Executive Orders into effect in "times of increased international tension or financial crisis."
11490	Enforces Presidential power over all US citizens, businesses and even houses or worship during "an emergency".
11921	Allows the feds to seize control over education, welfare, mechanisms of production and distribution, energy, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money to and from American financial institutions and to do this under total or partial censorship of the press.
12919	Provides the president the authority to seize and allocate all public and private materials, services, facilities, food, farm equipment, fertilizer, construction materials, energy and all forms of civilian transportation.
13010	Orders the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assume control over all government agencies during an emergency.
13011	Created a national information system to control all U.S. citizens by linking data from all government agencies into a single database.

These directives are additional presidential dictatorial powers that do not even have to be published in the Federal Register and are not a matter of public record. Most of these concern national security and are used to provide guidance on these issues to the National Security Council (NSC) hence most are classified.

What should concern Americans and foreign investors in the USA are two relatively recent PDD’s, which are linked to Executive Order 12919 above as they relate to "services". Services sounds innocuous enough until you realize they include telecommunications, energy, finance, transportation and all emergency services.

President Clinton signed both Presidential Decision Directive #62 concerning "Combating Terrorism" and #63 which relates to "Protecting America's Critical Infrastructure".

It is important to remember that both of these two directives were issued prior to 9/11 but would come into action if, as we believe, Islamic terrorists launch a successful WMD attack against New York City and our financial infrastructure. PDD #63 established National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) which includes the FBI, Secret Service and all other federal agencies.

This directive gives the control of all “critical infrastructures” from telecommunications (including regular and express mail, phones, e-mail and the Internet and provides for the interception and monitoring of all such communications), energy, transportation, and, do not forget, banking and finance to the NIPC. Even private businesses involved in critical infrastructure will be "strongly encouraged" to share information with NIPC. Everything is then reported directly to the National Security Advisor thus making the information and records classified.

The stage is now set for the implementation of a total police state in America. All that needs to happen is another major terrorist attack.

"The people will never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
-- Edmund Burke

Let's take a brief look at just a few provisions of the Patriot Act of 2001 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Although the stated reasons for these extreme measures directed against financial privacy and individual liberty may be founded upon the premise of defending our nation in the current war on terrorism, there are no guarantees that future politicians or our present political leadership will stay within the guidelines. As Americans, we have already seen our rights and liberties reduced to a mere fraction of what we once valued and defended. All government attacks on our freedoms have been based on good intentions and framed with worthwhile lofty goals but the outcome has always been the same - more government and less liberty.

These reactions to Islamic terrorism have the potential of turning our once free nation into a total police state with unlimited powers, force and 21st century technology in the hands of unscrupulous politicians. One more terrorist attack against a major target and/or our financial infrastructure will create a domino effect of existing police state rules and the activation and enforcement of earlier emergency decrees and executive orders. (Read the recent comments made by Gen. Tommy Franks - Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack) The URL http://web.archive.org/web/20040212131949/http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml At this point it will be too late to move funds outside the United States or defend one's property and assets as our financial freedoms and civil liberties will be held hostage by a threatened political establishment.

If past actions are any indicator of a reaction to future a future terrorist attack then expect the blame and responsibility for increased government controls and restrictions to be blamed 100% on the enemy rather than admitting that this is the high price of empire. I fear our former great republic has succumbed to the same allure, global force and grandeur of earlier empires around the world and we will pay the same price. Our wealth, our investment portfolios and our liberties will be curtailed, taxed and utilized to prop up both the politicians and the financial establishment. Every American citizen with savings and investments may find a portion of their wealth plundered or lost to guarantee the survival of our financial infrastructure and establishment.

If you don't want to use your savings and wealth to support politicians, special interests and foreign policy demands that will have helped to bring the war on terror, more terrorist attacks and a future financial crisis on our nation, then get a percentage of your wealth out of the United States while you still have the opportunity.

In reviewing the legislation, executive orders and presidential decision directives already on the books, your wealth and liberty is open and exposed to destruction at the hands of Islamic terrorists and our government reaction to the next attack. Get your money out of the country before the country gets your money out of you. This is a ticking time bomb and neither our government nor American investors have any power over when it will go off. But when it does, your freedoms and financial actions will be significantly curtailed for a long period of time. Take action now before it is too late!

¹ Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), The Homeland Security Monstrosity, November 19, 2002

http://web.archive.org/web/20040212131949/http://www.antiwar.com/paul/paul54.html

Executive Orders and National Emergencies: How Presidents Have Come to "Run the
Country" by Usurping Legislative Power http://web.archive.org/web/20040212131949/http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-358es.html A fair review of Presidential Executive Orders from The Cato Institute. A warning to our readers, there is a ton of extreme and very paranoid information on the web about the horrors of Presidential Executive Orders. Note, I believe that except during brief times of national emergency, these type of non constitutional and non democratic actions are wrong but they could create a real problem for your wealth and liberties during a real or fabricated extreme national emergency.

Ready.gov http://web.archive.org/web/20040212131949/http://www.ready.gov/ A Homeland Security federal government propaganda site promoting the loss of your freedom and liberties under the guise of protecting us citizens from terrorism. All I can say is if you believe this garbage then I have a bridge in New York City, (still standing for now) for sale at a real cheap price. Sort of like the new owners of the World Trade Center and their insurance policy written several months before the 9/11 tragedy but we will not go there in this online book for obvious reasons.

Authority Granted to the President

1 Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), The Homeland Security Monstrosity, November 19, 2002

http://web.archive.org/web/20040212131949/http://www.antiwar.com/paul/paul54.html

Real Estate Presented By Ronald Holland Your mountain home & lot expert for the Wolf Laurel, Preserve & Wolf Ridge Resort areas. Toll Free: (888) 541-1738 Office: (828) 689-5058 Fax: (828) 337-9571

¹ Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), The Homeland Security Monstrosity, November 19, 2002

Real Estate
Presented By
Ronald Holland
Your mountain home & lot expert for the Wolf Laurel, Preserve & Wolf Ridge Resort areas.
Toll Free: (888) 541-1738
Office: (828) 689-5058
Fax: (828) 337-9571