Human shields get a bill

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

The Treasury Department is imposing $10,000 fines on Americans who defied U.S. sanctions and traveled to Iraq last winter to act as human shields, The Washington Post reported this week. “Choosing which laws to abide by and which to ignore is not a privilege that is granted to anyone,” a Treasury spokesman said. The government is using customs records and other documents to track down around 20 American protesters who stationed themselves around Iraq in an attempt to stop the U.S. from going to war. Faith Fippinger, a 62-year-old retired schoolteacher, announced on CNN that she would not pay. Ryan Clancy, 26, said Treasury officials who contacted him seemed ready to negotiate. “I told them I had a suggestion for them,” he said, “but it didn’t have anything to do with giving them money.”