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The Real Story Behind Homeland Security’s Power to Confiscate Safe Deposit Boxes

(1-30-06) Homeland Security has begun exercising its new power to 'identify' the contents of your safe deposit box. This news should be seen in the context of the many rumors floating around on the internet. The so-called temporary re-authorization of the PATRIOT I and II legislation included the power, which gives the Department of Homeland Security an unprecedented power to 'identify' assets held in citizens'
private safe deposit boxes. This, by the way, was in the so-called fine print, which people didn't notice at first. This is an unprecedented power for any government to have. In fact, no so-called democratic government has had this power since Germany from 1934 to 1945...

In 1934, under the German Bank Security Enhancement Act, the German government gained the authority to seize the contents of citizens' safe deposit boxes, as was done in most countries, including this one. No longer was that power consolidated within the German finance ministry, but now it was a new and more sinister power wherein the German government had the ability to seize contents of safe deposit boxes for 'political reasons.' This is precisely what has now happened in the United States.

Many people don't know that the U.S. Treasury Department always had regulatory authority over safe deposit boxes. Since 1933, the Secret Service has had the power to invade and seize certain financial assets from people's safe deposit boxes. This power came from the Gold Confiscation Act, and that is where the original power comes from for the U.S. Treasury to do this via the Secret Service.

When the so-called $10,000 reportable limit (i.e., U.S. Treasury Form 4789) came into effect in 1942, that power of the Secret Service was expanded to what has been called "invade and seize" the contents of citizens' safe deposit boxes. But the assets were limited to gold bullion and/or bullion coins, currency in the amount above $10,000 and, in certain circumstances, diamonds, un-mounted cut diamonds, that which could be transported discreetly across international borders without any declaration necessary, and, in some cases, without any taxes being paid.

[So, can they still seize gold today? What about e-gold, etc.?]

Now, the original power for this came from the War Powers Act in 1942 and, indeed, was incorporated into the Seditious Publication and Utterance Act of 1942, (an act which was brought back in force by the Bush Regime in 2002) wherein the TreasuryDepartment had requested and suddenly gained this newfound power regarding the search and seizure of private safe deposit boxes. It was originally done to ensure that so-called enemy aliens, or those believed to be sympathetic to Japan or Germany, were not hiding assets in safe deposit boxes that they were using to secrete across international borders in order to aid and abet the enemy or the allies of the enemies of the United States and, further, were maintaining no assets for payment or disposition within the United States to 'enemy agents.' That’s where the power, by the way, originally extends from.

However, this is a vast expansion of the existing power, so that for the first time (and this is what's so dangerous about it) the power is being transferred from the U.S. Treasury Department to Homeland Security. The only time this had really ever been exercised, by the way, was in criminal and financial crimes, the criminal cases mostly involving tax evasion. That’s the only time this power had ever really been invoked by government. Or as the laws began to change in 1980's when there were cases proffered wherein there was automatic confiscation of assets, such as major felony drug cases, wherein there would be automatic confiscation of assets.

What is dangerous about this is that this is yet another power grab by Homeland Security on behalf of the executive branch of government. What is different about it is that it vastly expands the power of government to 'identify' assets. This does not specifically expand search and seizure, but it is the power to identify. This is something that has
never occurred before.

The Department of Homeland Security is then attempting to identify all citizens holding gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion and/or bullion coins, or currency above the amount of $10,000, as well as certain classifications of diamonds and cut gemstones in their safe deposit box, towards a prelude to the re- institution of a greatly expanded confiscation act. They’re not going to seize anything now because they don’t have the power, because there is no confiscation act in place. So once they identify your assets inside the safe deposit box, they’ll have a list. That list will then go to the U.S. Treasury Department. Any asset confiscation is still going to remain within the domain of the U.S. Treasury Department, as it did in 1933.

Homeland Security has that power to confiscate now, but now it is different. Homeland Security is thus saying -- Not only are we acting as a super-agency on the behalf of the U.S. Treasury to identify assets using 'PATRIOT Act emergency powers', but now we are doing this without any judicial procedure. In other words, Homeland Security would have the power that the U.S. Treasury Department does not have – namely, to identify and to invade citizens' safe deposit boxes for the purposes of asset identification without judicial procedure. That is a power the U.S. Treasury Department has never had. The only agency currently that would have such power would be Homeland Security. It would have to be an agency with specifically designated PATRIOT Act powers.

What I think is most sinister about this is that the power that the Department of Homeland Security has sought and now has is to link citizens’ political beliefs and behavior to potential asset forfeiture.

There is precedence for this in other countries, by the way. What this means, very simply, is that, if you are identified as a seditious citizen -- if, for instance, you publicly criticize the regime outside of a free-speech zone or if your citizen security threat profile, which is an E-classification number, is above a certain number, then you would be placed on a special list.

Now, among the risks that you would face under the law would be asset forfeiture. There is a direct linkage of securing assets for the state by those who would be potentially seditious towards the state.

This is what I think is the dangerous and unprecedented part of this power: We are taking this power beyond the realm of finance, where it always existed before, a citizen's financial behavior, as it were. If the citizen is charged with tax evasion, the U.S. Treasury always had that power, since 1933 anyway, to seize contents of safe deposit boxes on behalf of the government of the United States. But that power was specifically limited, the power to seize by the U.S. Treasury Department was specifically limited to financial action.

In 1934 the law in Germany was changed to allow asset forfeiture of all of those who were charged or would be charged with sedition against the German State. PATRIOT I is heavily modeled after the German Security Enhancement Acts of 1934 and `36. The reason why the Bush Cheney Regime wants the power is approximately the same reason, that is: to transfer assets to the State through all those citizens that are potentially seditious or that harbor sedition. To use John Ashcroft's words – those citizens who harbor seditious notions toward the state.

This is what is unprecedented about this power, at least in the United States: The Regime has now been effectively given the power to financially penalize citizens based on their political beliefs and action. Before, it was only for financial crime.

This is a whole new expansion of the law and it is extremely dangerous because it is a weapon. Unlike the Treasury Department, Homeland Security can use this power without judicial procedure. This means they can go directly into the bank where your safe deposit box is and command the bank officer in charge of safe deposit boxes to open it.

The power now exists, but it is only a temporary power since it is included in a bill which is a temporary re-authorization. What all the internet chatter is about is that Homeland Security is going to attempt to make the power permanent by slipping the request into a renewal of PATRIOT I that is much less politically contentious.

All U.S. banks have already been sent a preliminary circular from the Federal Reserve, wherein this new power has been noted. However, it's unlike the chatter around the Internet that every bank is going to have a Homeland Security agent on its premises. That’s nonsense, and everyone should understand that.

The exact mechanics of this is that the Department of Homeland Security would designate an agent to act on its behalf within the bank -- whatever officer of the bank is in charge of safe deposit boxes.

Not only do they become an agent of the state, but they become a political agent of the state. As opposed to a financial or treasury-empowered officer dealing in potential financial crime. This is a very important distinction. In other words, they go beyond a de facto financial officer representing the state's interest, to being an actual political agent of the state.

We find out that even under the renewed Inform On Your Neighbor program, if somebody informs on you under the new Justice Department reinvigorated, repackaged act because you're seditious and they say, "Hey, where's your American flag and we haven't see you do your Heil Bush," you could face immediate asset confiscation, i.e. the contents of your safe deposit box.

Remember what is different. This is the difference. There is no judicial procedure. Let me repeat – there is no judicial procedure.

Under the existing 1933 and 1942 revised and expanded authority, it was still necessary for the Treasury Department to get a writ or a warrant from a federal judge, once the safe deposit box was seized, or initially sealed. They couldn’t even seize the content; they would just seal it. You, the owner of that safe deposit box presumably had some avenue of judicial relief. You hired a lawyer, you went to court, you made the government prove its claims.

This entire procedure is thus extra-judicial. By taking this into the political realm and by making these political asset confiscations, the PATRIOT Act limits your ability to defend yourself. If you have assets confiscated from your safe deposit box for a political reason by Homeland Security, the burden of proof is on you because Homeland Security had no requirement to seek any type of a writ or warrant in a court of law. It has no requirement to spell out any judicial complaint, so you don't even know what the complaint is. The complaint is secret, but, if it’s coming from Homeland Security, you obviously know what it's all about.

The entire nation is thus being moved towards a Kafka-esque and Orwellian environment. The only right of redress a citizen has is to go before the new supreme national security court. Forget about the judicial procedures you thought existed. They exist no longer under this regime, as the Supreme Court keeps telling everyone who keeps bringing challenges to the PATRIOT Act powers before it --We no longer have venue. You have to go to the new secret supreme national security court.

The only right of relief you have is to petition that court with a claim that you are not seditious. And on the other side of that is the Office of Internal Security, which has already submitted your citizen security threat profile, which has every publication that you subscribe to, every seditious or anti-government web site that you have searched or been on, everything that you have ever said in public, radio shows you've listened to or called up on. Everything is already there. You're already classified. What you have to do is disprove the classification.

Now it has become: "Citizen, how do you plead? Are you pro-Bush or are you seditious?"

You're not even being given the choice between: "I'm pro-Bush" and "I'm anti-Bush." Now, under the PATRIOT Acts, it's no longer whether you're pro- or anti-Bush. It's either you're pro-Bush or you're seditious.

This is the politicalization of the judicial process and it has already occurred. This is the politicalization of what was once a financial mechanism. And this should send a warning to all citizens.

The reason for this newly gained power by the Department of Homeland Security is essentially to identify assets -- gold, silver, platinum, palladium, etc. -- prior to the re-institution of some sort of confiscation act.

What people think is it's simply going to be the 1933 Act re-amended. I doubt it. It’s probably going to be a whole new act in furtherance of the U.S. Treasury Department’s goal to identify citizen owners of gold, silver, platinum, palladium bullion, and currency above $10,000, which is also being done at the request of the U.S. Treasury.

Remember we have talked before about the expansion, or the new, more powerful U.S. Treasury Form 4789, now called 4789-D, or the so-called pink or extended form. This is being specifically done to prevent citizens from moving more than $10,000 (it used to be $30,000). You can not lawfully move out of the United States more than $10,000 worth of gold, silver, platinum, palladium and/or bullion coins and/or cash.

There are even signs at the airport now that if you have more than $10,000, you must declare it. You're getting reminded of this in a way that citizens have never been reminded before.

This is, A), to further increase the U.S. Treasury’s capacity to identify bullion-holding citizens and cash-holding citizens, and, B), and more sinister, I think, is to change the power to seize the contents of citizens’ safe deposit boxes from a financial venue into a political venue, wherein the right of redress of citizens is virtually nil.

People should be reminded. Just look at the U.S. Treasury end of this and combine this with the Treasury’s new-found power under PATRIOT II -- more specifically, the Secret Service’s new-found powers to invade and seize the contents of U.S. citizens’ foreign safe deposit boxes, without judicial procedure in that foreign country. Remember the part in PATRIOT I (even George Bush said this) that the United States now declares
unilateral worldwide jurisdiction.

This is part of what you are seeing. When he said that he was referring to political Internet content, but it also has related to many other things, including the assets citizens hold abroad.

What this does now is absolutely preclude any ability of a citizen to hold bullion discreetly in the United States. This closes the door on that. And you can’t transfer it out of the country either. I think it furthers the Bushonian agenda on this issue, which is effectively telling American citizens that if you wish to hold gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion and/or bullion coins for whatever reason, the only way you can now do so is to forfeit your U.S. citizenship and to hold those assets outside the United States.

Having a primary residence in a third-party nation-state and holding a safe deposit box in what’s called an adjunct nation-state -- not even that protects you anymore. You cannot be a U.S. citizen and hold assets discreetly anywhere on this planet now.

In conclusion: This is being done for 2 reason -- to increase U.S. Treasury Department's identification of holders of bullion and to politicize asset confiscation in this nation, which will empower government, more specifically the Department of Homeland Security, to seize your assets if you are declared to be a seditious citizen, a citizen who does not support the regime, or a citizen that is disloyal. In other words, the war against American citizens has been accelerated.

When George Bush made that gaffe several weeks ago about "we must maintain the war on terror," he was right.

Terrorizing American citizens is what this has been all about from the beginning. But when George Bush says: We must maintain the war on terror, what do you think he's talking about? He's talking about the war that the regime has declared against the people of the United States. And its principal tools are not missiles and tanks; they are the PATRIOT Acts.

When you read the internet rumors about Homeland Security agents raiding banks, that’s nonsense. None of the stories on the Internet were giving you the real flavor behind the reasoning, and how dangerous it really is. This is simply the politicalization of asset confiscation.

And, by the way, this is the exact same power to seize the assets of citizens based on political belief that was contained in the 1965 Soviet Internal Security Enhancement Act, on which the PATRIOT II Act is principally based.

Remember, PATRIOT I is substantively based on the German security acts of 1934 and '36. The PATRIOT II, however, is almost verbatim, and we’ve mentioned this before, version of the 1965 Soviet Internal Security Enhancement Acts, which also, for the first time in the Soviet Union, linked this idea of asset confiscation for political motives. These are "good" totalitarian precedents for the PATRIOT Acts.

When Attorney General Gonzalez tells us not to worry, that there is much both legal and historical precedence for the PATRIOT Acts, he's absolutely right! But you don’t hear him go on to specify where upon rests the history. Perhaps Attorney General Gonzalez, every time he assures citizens that there is legal and historical foundation for the PATRIOT Acts and their powers, he should then remind citizens where that legal and historical authority comes.

Hey! If you don't know your Nazi and Soviet history, you're out in the dark.

* AL MARTIN is an independent economic-political analyst with 25 years of experience as a trader on NYMEX, CME, CBOT and CFTC. As a former contributor to the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors, Al Martin is considered to be a source of independent analysis for financially sophisticated and market savvy investors.

After working as a broker on Wall Street, Al Martin was involved in the so-called "Iran Contra" Affair as a fundraiser for the Bush Cabal from the covert side of government aka the US Shadow Government.

His memoir, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider," (http://www.almartinraw.com) provides an unprecedented look at the frauds of the Bush Cabal during the Iran Contra era. His weekly column, "Behind the Scenes in the Beltway," is published weekly on Al Martin Raw.com, which also publishes a bimonthly newsletter called "Whistleblower Gazette."