Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA)
Inside Liberty Watch Today - Aug. 29, 2005

You probably already knew that the government has a claim on a share of your income. Now consider the news that the U.S. Government has the authority to seize your gold and silver, as well as anything else that can be considered a financial instrument. 

A little known piece of legislation; the Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA), which became law back in 1917 during WWI (the war to end all wars), gives the federal government the power to seize private financial assets, according to the Treasury Department's Sean M. Thornton, chief council of the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Act applies during declared wars, and from 1977's International Emergency Economic Powers Act it can be applied without declared wars. 

Congress enacted the TWEA during WWI to, in Thornton's words, "prevent certain transactions that might be of advantage to an enemy during wartime." 

In correspondence with Chris Powell, the Secretary Treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, Thornton wrote: "If during a time of war, the president expressly chose to restrict the hoarding of gold and silver, he could do so." Thornton went on; "the president has broad powers to regulate property in which there exists a foreign interest. Consequently, the president may restrict shares in any company owned by foreign persons consistent with the purposes of any declared emergency." 

Yahoo Finance reports that while the TWEA "authorizes the government to interfere with the ownership of gold and silver particularly, it also applies to all forms of currency and all securities." Also, "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," Yahoo reports, "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." 

One must remember that when TWEA was enacted in 1917, the country was on a gold standard and the nation's coinage was silver. Thus, "restrict the hoarding of silver and gold" essentially meant the president could take people's savings. 

Each day provides the opportunity for another emergency to be declared. All the president needs to do, is proclaim that a state of emergency exists and what bigger one could there be than the possibility that the government runs out of money and nobody will lend it any more. Then, presto, the government "could expropriate [your assets] instantly and far more broadly without any of the due process extended to parties in eminent domain cases," Yahoo explains. 

But; "In the establishment and implementation of sanctions," the Treasury's Mr. Thornton writes, "the U.S. Government is always mindful of the domestic impact of restrictions meant to serve national security and foreign policy purposes." 

That's comforting, the government is "mindful." 

Doug French, Liberty Watch Columnist

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