September 16, 2007

Andrew R. Romagnuola, Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation
151 Patton Avenue, Suite 211
Asheville, NC 28801

Re: USA vs. 515 Concord Ave (Robert Clarkson), Docket # 8:07-cr-0536

Dear Agent Andy:

Our groups do not have any disputes with the FBI. We advocate serious tax reform and naturally meet resistant from the employees of the tax bureaucracies. I merely use the IRS as a whipping post as I cope with the trauma of my war time experiences.

Your FBI agents seized the Patriot Network inventory of books and videos to harass and burden a political organization. You had no legitimate law enforcement purpose for the search warrant. You agency wanted to destroy a political organization that the FBI had determined was wrong. However, you have no authority under the law to make such a determination nor to attack political organizations. The Patriot Network is protected by the First, Ninth and 10th Amendments of the US Constitution.

As you know, the promoter case in Greenville is over. The Judge issued an injunction under IRC §6700 against me that halted me from doing those activities which the court determined were incorrect. Since the federal judge has made a determination, the FBI does not need to make one. Apparently the FBI feels that the federal judges are incompetent and do not know how to carry out their lawful functions.

Those activities of mine which you disagree with were subject to the DOJ original petition for injunction against the PN. However, the DOJ withdrew most of their objections to my activities. Your agency is attacking me for the same activities that the government attorneys considered not wrongful. Apparently the FBI also feels that the DOJ Attorneys are incompetent and do not know how to carry out their functions.

Incidentally, the federal Judge and the Department of Justice have statutory authority from Congress to enjoin business organizations that deal with fighting income taxes. The FBI has no authority whatsoever for their action against me.

All the facts in this case point to one conclusion: This is a dismantlement project of the FBI. No evidence whatsoever exists that connects me to your possible legitimate investigation in Asheville on banking instruments.

You took my inventory, you took blank stationary, and you took cash money. How could these be relevant to an investigation? In opposition to a court order, you retained my cash, checks, and account sheets. These are necessary to operate a political organization but have no bearing in any criminal case.

The FBI has no authority under the law to dismantle or harass political organizations. Soon the federal court will be asked to make a decision as to whether the facts in this case show that you had a legal criminal case against me or whether this was simply a political harassment or dismantlement case.

As your people have probably told you, this case is headed toward litigation. Your actions will soon be scrutinized by the federal judiciary. Also, I have a right for damages under the Privacy Act, the Civil Rights Act, etc. If you desire to resolve this case administratively, return my property and have your attorney contact me.

As you saw in the news-media, the FBI in Boston just paid out over a hundred million $$$ in damages, plus receiving adverse publicity.

Apparently a number of political groups are using facsimiles of US currency as a tool to disseminate their ideas. If this is illegal, please let me know so I can pass word to them. Then they will stop their illegal acts. You seized my pass the bucks (little green dollars). If those are illegal, please let us know so we can stop distributing them.

If anything in the above descriptions of events and facts is incorrect, please let me know within 10 days. If you do not disagree in writing, I will assume that you are agreeing with these events as described in this letter. Please send me any disagreements that you have with any prior letter of mine. If you do not disagree in writing, I will assume that you agree to my account of these facts.

Finally, you did not return to me my mementos and souvenirs that I brought home with me from South East Asia. These are classified as war trophies and I have a legal right to keep them in my home even though they have the appearance of something I am not suppose to have. I like to show these to interested people and young fellows. This helps me in my recovery from traumatic events and these items mean a lot to me. I earned (the hard way) the right to display my war trophies.

Yours,

Robert Clarkson

PS: Attached is an article about a religious group circulating religious tracks similar to greenbacks. The Secret Service confiscated their inventory. No charges were brought against them, and I understand the inventory was returned.

5. Secret Service hounds creative evangelists

Introduction:

Living Waters Publications had a brilliant idea — designing an evangelical tract in the form of a greenback in a fictitious denomination, i.e. one million dollars. These were to be left on sidewalks for the public to pick up. We tried this in a less elaborate form in the Populist Party of New Jersey years ago, and it surely did not originate with us.

Apparently bank employees don't know that real million-dollar bills do not exist. When someone took one of the tracts to a bank, it absurdly became a federal case starring the Secret Service!

The Secret Service's duty is "the prevention and investigation of counterfeiting of U.S. currency and U.S. treasury bonds and notes." Clearly, only a fool would think that's what Living Waters is trying to do.

Best of all, this agency is part of Homeland Security! Gee, isn't it good to know that our government is really on top of things, rooting out the most heinous enemies of America 's peace and tranquility — you know, like evangelicals using play money to reach people with the Gospel?

Will the Secret Service next go after Parker Brother's for all the play money they've printed in the 70-year history of the Monopoly game? We like Living Waters Publications' derring-do and its choice to take this crisis as a blessing and breakthrough.

So far the embattled tracts are still being freely circulated and the government's case has collapsed. Article that follows has been condensed.

Secret Service agents seize thousands of $1 million bill gospel tracts

http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Jul06/Art_Jul06_07.html 

DENTON, Texas Secret Service agents showed up at the office of Great News Network in Dallas, Texas June 2 and demanded their entire stock of $1 million gospel tracts, which are produced by Ray Comfort's ministry, Living Waters.

The tracts are used by Comfort and his co-host Kirk Cameron and have been promoted on their national television program, “The Way of the Master.”

Since the seizure, demand for the tracts has escalated, with half a million of the tracts sold in one day. Initial reports after the bust, indicated that the Secret Service may also pay a visit to Comfort's national offices in Bellflower , Calif. and confiscate their entire stock.

According to officials, someone in North Carolina took one of the $1 million tracts to a bank and tried to deposit it into their account, Christian Worldview Network reported.

Secret Service agents threatened the Denton employees with arrest for counterfeiting and seized 8,300 gospel tracts designed as "million-dollar bills."

Three Secret Service agents visited the Great News Network offices asking staffer Tim Crawford if he was responsible for printing "the million-dollar bills," according to a WorldNetDaily.com report.

The conservative Internet news service said Crawford suggested they talk to his boss, Darrel Rudus, the founder of the organization that trains evangelists from around the country in the techniques of witnessing their faith. Rudus' organization, like others nationwide, distributes the tracts as part of its evangelism outreach. They are printed by Living Waters, which prints millions of them annually.

By telephone, Rudus offered his opinion that it was impossible to counterfeit something that wasn't real—a $1 million bill, WND reported.

The agents explained that a woman in North Carolina had attempted to deposit one of the $1 million bills in her bank account. The address of the Great News Network was on the back, prompting the Secret Service visit, according to WorldNet Daily reported.

The news report said that before he got off the phone, Rudus was convinced the agents were going to drop their demand for the Great News Network's tracts.

Arrest threatened

But later, he said, the agents again demanded them from Crawford, threatening him with arrest for "concealing evidence." Rather than face arrest, Crawford turned over the approximately 8,300 million-dollar tracts the group had stored. The agents left a receipt and their business cards.

Comfort told WND he was stunned by the action of the Secret Service and expects agents to visit his California offices soon. He said he has no plans to abandon the use of the tracts, which are among the most popular of the many his organization distributes.

"I'm not going to stop printing them," Comfort said. "How can you possibly counterfeit something that is not real—a $1 million bill?"

One side of the tract is designed like an imaginary $1 million bill. The other side has the gospel message written around the border. It also includes this slogan: "The million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven? Here's a quick test.” The note goes on to explain the salvation message. It concludes with, “Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it."

The tracts are also clearly marked on the front: "This bill is not legal tender."

Rudus said he won't be deterred from distributing the tracts in the future.

Brian Fahling, senior Trial attorney of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, is representing Comfort and has advised his client not to turn over any more tracts without a federal warrant.

"It is abundantly clear to anyone with a modicum of common sense that the 'bills' are not made with an intent to defraud, but rather, they are distributed with the intent to reveal the Truth (the Gospel message is written around the border on the back of the bill),” the attorney said. “No thinking person could believe the bills are real. If the Secret Service does not cease from this intrusion upon the free speech rights and free exercise rights of Ray Comfort and others, that agency will be explaining its outrageous conduct to a federal judge."

Despite the forfeiture, the publicity has driven sales to a frenzied pace, turning the entire episode into a blessing.

"So we are now going for the biggest print we have ever had—over a million and a half, and if the Secret Service do show up and seize them, we stand to lose millions," Comfort said. A separate order of 100,000 limited edition Secret Service bills have also been ordered.

"But this is a Christian ministry and we render to 'seizures' the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. We will then leave it to the courts to decide what belongs to whom."

For more information, or to order the million dollar tract or any other of the many evangelistic resources, visit, living waters.