ACCG Contests Forfeiture of Baltimore Test Case Coins

ACCG Answers Forfeiture Complaint

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2013/06/accg-answers-forfeiture-complaint.html
by Peter Tompa

The ACCG has filed an answer to the Government’s complaint seeking forfeiture of the coins minted in Cyprus and China that were imported for purposes of a case to test regulations imposing import restrictions.   That lawsuit was dismissed, but an appellate court indicated that the ACCG could still press a particularized challenge to the Government’s claim that the imported coins are subject to import restrictions.  The Answer disputes that the ACCG’s coins are subject to forfeiture, arguing  that the subject coins are not treated as “archaeological objects” under applicable law and that the Government has no probable cause to believe that the coins were “first discovered in” and “subject to the export control” of Cyprus or China, a prerequisite for the restrictions to apply.   A copy of the ACCG’s answer can be found here.


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COMMENTARY 
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These coins were imported to initiate a test case in order to determine whether the secretive and in many respects contrary to law procedures followed by the State Department's bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs were justifiable.

The initial effort to have the Federal Court in Baltimore hear the ACCG's preliminary action failed after being taken all the way to the Supreme Court.

However, the forfeiture action must be tried. As part of the discovery process, the ACCG expects to bring to light the innumerable questionable and in some cases unethical proceedings of the bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and particularly the role played by Executive Director Maria Kouroupas.

If, as the ACCG expects, it is determined that the bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has proceeded in an unjustifiable and contrary to law manner, it is reasonable to expect that the Memoranda of Understanding restricting import of ancient coins will be vacated, and that the bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will be ordered to conduct its affairs in a more transparent manner, specifically fulfilling many reporting and disclosure responsibilities it has heretofore ignored.




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FBI Monitors Peter Tompa

Breaking News: CPO Subject to Government Surveillance?

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2013/06/breaking-news-cpo-subject-to-government.html
by Peter Tompa

Breaking News:  Arthur Houghton has uncovered this shocking information which I publish in full.  I direct all inquiries to him.  I would have not believed it myself, save for all the recent revelations of Government misconduct at State, the IRS and NSA:  

 

Peter, it has come to my attention that the FBI, Criminal Justice Information Systems, has begun to surreptitiously monitor your blog and in particular the several exchanges that we have had in recent days.  I have this information from sources that are internal to the Bureau and that I do not wish to reveal further -- but I can say that they are firm and incontrovertible.    It is a remarkable event, unparalleled in my experience, but consistent with what we now know about the monitoring of US citizens by our national security services.

The fact that this information should become known to us, moreover, should be an extreme embarrassment to the Bureau -- even a breach of security.  I submit that the Department of Justice Inspector General should be asked to investigate who is doing the monitoring, whether they have been authorized to do so and if so by whom, what legal authority lies behind it, and whether there are others, perhaps many others, who are being subjected to the same secret surveillance.

Would you be good enough to let me have your thoughts on this?

Many thanks,

Arthur

 

 

 

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 COMMENTARY

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This is shocking news indeed.

 

The State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has had an obsessive focus on secrecy for a long time. One wonders whether they have become so far detached from reality as to regard the efforts of the ACCG to expose their illegal and unethical actions as a breach of national security? 

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