U.S. fines 'human shield'
for 'breaking law'

She's been hailed as a heroine by some and condemned as a traitor by others, but according to the federal government, a retired Florida school teacher who spent three months as a "human shield" in Iraq is a criminal who owes $10,000 and faces up to 12 years in prison if she doesn't pay.

Faith Fippinger, 62, traveled to Al Daura oil refinery southeast of Baghdad in mid-February along with more than a dozen other anti-war protesters organized by the London group Human Shields. The demonstrators set out to position themselves at schools, orphanages and hospitals, and hoped their presence would deter the coalition from its invasion.

"It's a very dangerous place, and it is ill advised to go to the kind of area that Baghdad is right now with the regime and its activities – things like the fires, things like the bridges being rigged for demolition – it's not well advised. But people have their choices to make," U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks commented on the "human shields" at the time. "Regardless of who the civilians are, we'll take every effort to try to minimize the potential effects on them. That's the best we can do. Unfortunately, there may be civilian casualties in the prosecution of war."

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Soldiers of 2-69th Armor Battalion 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division are on the streets of North Western Baghdad on April 13, 2003.

WorldNetDaily reported that after Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced many protesters fled Iraq. Some reported being used by Saddam Hussein's regime and said Iraqi officials ordered them to deploy at water-treatment centers, bridges and power plants. Others said they came to see the war in a different light after spending time with the Iraqi citizens.

"Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq," 23-year-old Daniel Pepper admitted to the London Telegraph.

Another told the Washington Times the trip "shocked [him] back to reality." The Rev. Kenneth Joseph, an American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, said some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera told him they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start.

"They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny," the Times quotes Joseph as saying. "They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

In contrast, Fippinger said she was determined to lend a hand to civilians caught in the crossfire of an "unjust" war and stayed camped out at the home of an Iraqi family within the refinery complex.

Although she has no medical training, she told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune she volunteered at a nearby hospital for a week after the bombing started. She said during her tour of duty she collected amputated limbs for disposal, carried dead babies to a truck to be taken somewhere for burial and tried to comfort some of the injured civilians.

"I may never stop crying again for the rest of my life," Fippinger summed up the experience to the local paper.

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A letter from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control greeted Fippinger's May 4 return from Iraq. It warned she could be jailed for 12 years and fined $1 million if she worked for Saddam Hussein's regime while in Baghdad and asked her to explain her whereabouts, activities and expenses.

The letter accused Fippinger of breaking the law by traveling to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions that prohibited American citizens from engaging in "virtually all direct or indirect commercial, financial or trade transactions with Iraq."

In a five-page reply, a defiant Fippinger insisted her work was on behalf of the Iraqi people, not Saddam Hussein's "evil" regime.

"If it comes to fines or imprisonment, please be aware that I will not contribute money to the United States government to continue the build-up of its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction," she wrote. "Therefore, perhaps the alternative should be considered."

So far, the government has fined her $10,000 but the number may increase if Fippinger continues refusing to pay.

Treasury officials told the Associated Press the money will be drawn from her retirement paycheck, her Social Security check or any of her assets.

"She was in violation of U.S. sanctions," Treasury spokesman Taylor Griffin told the AP. "That's what happens."

Related article:

Human shields caught in crossfire