UPDATE February 13, 2016
This describes the reaction of a non-US Person, listening to the stories of expats at a meeting designed for them to speak freely. It starts just a bit before the speaker describes his background which speaks to the degree of fear he had seen/experienced before he came to Canada, from government oppression.
Dr. Donald Young comments on A FATCA-Related Suicide Part II
Obviously I cannot comment on this matter without knowing more facts. I can only say that the situation that many Americans abroad experience due to FACTA and the threats made by the U.S. government will clearly have negative emotional consequences for many and at times severely so. I can attest to this as I have seen and treated it clinically. The possibility of suicidal thinking and behaviour comes as no surprise to me from a psychiatric perspective. The fact of being threatened by the strongest and most aggressive nation in the world is unsettling for even the most psychologically robust individual. Those prone to anxiety, depression, physiological responses to stress and other difficulties ( and this likely involves a quarter of the population at least ) will be all the more vulnerable to the irrational threats and demands of the American government. We are being threatened with economic ruin, branded as criminals and told we will be hunted down. This situation results in a prolonged degree of stress that will have deleterious emotional and often physical stress that will certainly take its toll.The fact that there are often no clear answers as to what to do or how to do it only worsens the emotional upset and results in a form of learned helplessness. We may well have just witnessed a tragic result of what the American government is doing to people who simply want to live in peace and leave their former country behind, assuming they ever even lived in it. And from what I can see there is no solution and no save harbour in sight.
Since the last post I have had more conversations with Jonathan’s Dad. He is a lovely gentleman, very intelligent, cultured and in spite of his loss, his anger, he remains quite matter-of-fact and determined to bring this story out. We have become fast friends, not unusual I believe, when you are tied to someone due to a traumatic event. We have all experienced that here; think of how few of us have actually met each other and yet we all know who tends to what kind of ideas, how to push each others’ buttons and so on. The last section of this post describes the immediate bonding that took place at the meeting where Dr. Young and John Richardson reached out to us, to try and help with our emotional and mental states and to steer with practical advice regarding filing and so on. Interesting how all of this has happened without having to pay for it. This is truly rather an amazing feature of this miserable situation we find ourselves in. How often does one receive so much without any expectation of money?
I asked if Jonathan had ever mentioned coming across other people online, since some have suggested there is something odd about his not reaching out, etc. He never mentioned anything about any groups etc. His Dad said he was very independent and just as his work involved solving a lot of problems, his approach was that he would solve this as well. One of the most unfair things about all of this has to be that there is no way to to find clear and definite answers. It must have been extremely frustrating for one as intelligent, dedicated and isolated (expat-wise) as Jonathan.
Jonathan’s Dad has written more that he would like to share. Some may find the first part of this description upsetting.
excerpts from:
LITVINENKO & FATCA, TRAILS of POISON
To the Editor, the Wall Street Journal
25th January 2016
On the afternoon of Saturday the 20th of June 2015 a young man was found dead, hanging from a tree in his garden. His wife had gone shopping. His young daughter, returning from school alone, saw him hanging there. She saw, she screamed. Her screams resounded throughout the neighborhood, bringing all the neighbors running. They saw the scene: it was utter, dreadful. The young girl’s father was hanging lifeless from a tree. His neighbors, who knew him well, removed him tenderly, taking him at utmost speed to the nearest hospital. But there was no breath in him: the hospital pronounced him dead. This was not a story local to the US. It happened at the young man’s home in Sweden.
Surely there’s no connection with Litvinenko? There is.
As may be remembered from his story, which is appended, Alexander Litvinenko’s freedom came after his escape from his work at the KGB while in transit through London. This was at a time after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He was given asylum in England. He found there a home as an expatriate. He became a British subject, and carefully obeyed all laws of his new country. He now lived peacefully in London with his Russian wife Marina. He felt himself comfortable enough under the redoubtable power and full protection of the Her Majesty’s Government to express his opinions freely. He also felt secure enough to write a book, even a book somewhat critical of his previous regime.
Nonetheless that foreign power, Russia, still felt it had dominion over him. Irritated by his remarks, it sent out its agents to silence him. Their modus operandi was this: They knew that the English, like the Russians, like to drink tea in the afternoon, so they laid a careful trap. They invited him, a former comrade, to partake tea with them. Suspecting nothing – he was in England, why should he? – he accepted. That fateful day came. They met for sushi and tea. Surreptitiously, he clearly forgetting all his customary caution and not looking, they slipped a small amount of white powder into his teacup. This powder was Polonium-210, highly radioactive and evidently (in this instance, as it must have been) tasteless. It does its lethal work imperceptibly, not taking much substance or much time to perform. Over a period of weeks his hair fell out, he became listless, bedridden. But he still retained control of his faculties. He knew what was happening, he was being slowly murdered, and he knew by whom, and why. It was by his old boss at the KGB, Vladimir Putin, who, as aspiring dictators do everywhere, felt compelled to crush any and all purveyors of criticism. He died in his bed in hospital on the 23rd of November 2006.
What is the connection to the young man in Sweden? There cannot be? But there is.
This young man was also an émigré to a distant land, but he went there not to escape terror but
to study. Born in California, he was an aspiring student at Cal Poly. Thence he was lured to the University of Uppsala in Sweden as a scholar. He wanted the adventure, he wanted to study biochemistry, and he accepted. He duly received his PhD, and went on to work in his field (which by then for him had expanded to brain chemistry, genetics, pharmacology and statistics) first at Uppsala and then at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. By now he was an expatriate. He became a Swedish citizen. He had gained a wife, two beautiful children, and had saved enough money (from a meager but highly taxed research salary) to buy a house. As he himself said, he was independent, successful and “living the American dream” – albeit in Sweden. He was enjoying genetics and had already published more than fifty papers in it. He was living there peacefully.
He was at the height of his career. Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?
Clearly, beginning at that time, there was a shadow coming over his happy existence. It could not have been suspected at that moment, but this terrible shadow, darkening every day, would eventually eclipse his life.
We would call each other. The scope of our conversations was universal, covering (besides work) art, music, religion and politics. We spoke every week or two about his life and family in Sweden. A large part of our conversations was about science and medicine. He was tremendously well-informed. I could not help it – I was so proud of his work, of what he was doing. I used to tell my friends, professors at Stanford, that he should come home and work with them.
He was also hugely compassionate, and belonged to Amnesty International.
He was artistic. He painted, sometimes he put a picture in an exhibition. He was musical, he composed. He was proud of it.
In our phone conversations we discussed (in detail) additions to his home. He said the Polish workers in Sweden were doing excellent work for him, in fact somewhat better than the Czechs
hired previously. We talked about his children, about his field-trips with them. He said he was playing soccer. He said he loved go running through the woods and across the fields at every chance he got.
We covered mathematics. He had always used statistics extensively in his work. He told me that his statistics from pharmacology could be used trade stocks. He said he was beginning to do this
quite successfully. But “the best opportunities are with American stocks. There are however problems there because of increasing restrictions on getting money into and out of the United States”. A few months later he told me it was impossible to do it anymore.
By mid-2014 he was saying: “I am having trouble with my bank. I have never had trouble before but now they are saying they don’t want my account because they have to continuously report my activities back to the United States. But since when does the IRS in the U.S.A. have anything to do with my accounts? I am a Swedish citizen. I have lived my entire productive life here – it’s been over twenty years. In Sweden I have already paid – bar none – the highest taxes in the world. I owe them nothing”.
Then it became more serious. Just four weeks before he died, he said: “I discovered today that my correspondence with my bank – only that correspondence, nothing else – has been tapped, someone is trying to either infiltrate or monitor my accounts.”
Then another phone-call, with a voice sounding utterly suicidal, he said: “I feel totally isolated. I am discovering I am not Swedish. I am mired in a situation about which I can do nothing. I have no protection under the laws of Sweden against the Government of the United States. I am trying give up my US citizenship. The Government of the United States has made that virtually impossible too. I feel absolutely sick.”
“Should I write to my congressperson?”
“No,” he said, independently: “I’ll take care of it myself.”
My son knew it – we talked about it – that the strictures of the US Government, acting through FATCA, were slowly strangling him to death. This was the very reverse of what was supposed to happen. This concerned me deeply . The Declaration of Independence stated: It is “self-evident, that all men …are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among which are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – that order presciently predates Maslow’s hierarchy.
The government of the United States, acting through FATCA, has reversed that exact order. In the period of a year or more FATCA steadily took away my son’s pursuit of Happiness by providing a set of incomprehensible tax instructions, with dire consequences for non-performance. FATCA then took away his Liberty by tapping his phone line: he lost the security of his home. And finally, incredibly, FATCA took away his Life because there was no escape from the dilemmas imposed upon him except by death.
FATCA is the Polonium-210 of the US Government.
Three weeks later my son was dead. The crushing burden of isolation by American laws at his home in a distant land was too much for him. His family was momentarily away, he went outside and hung himself.
At the moment of his death, and only then, did I realize FATCA’s full implications.
to be continued
*****
While we often seem to hear that people “write us off” as tax cheats or whiners etc, there are people who do realize, that “get it.” I know there is a description on a video describing the same impressions below but I have yet to find it. In the meantime, I think in addition to the support we are able to offer each other, perhaps we can remember that perhaps the more this problem is recognized, the more there may be support coming in the future.
An outsider’s report of the Toronto meeting June 15, 2013 “Traumatized by the IRS and US reaching into Canada?”
I have always been under the impression that many people sacrifice their lives, families, etc. in order to get into the USA and become American citizens; and I never imagined that anyone who has this “privilege” is willing to do anything and everything to renounce their U.S. citizenship.
Recently, I met a group of people in Toronto who were claiming that they have been traumatized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its rules. My understanding from this rule, The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), is? IRS requires US persons to report their financial accounts outside of USA.
At first glance this issue didn’t seem to be a problem with this issue?, and the first question that popped up in my mind was, why are these so called “US citizens” having problems complying with their civic duties; after all, Canadian citizens are also required to report their income, gains, losses, and assets to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Then, I realized that the IRS and some US officials are working with foreign governments and financial institutions to become a vehicle to disclose private and confidential financial information of their American citizens and clients to the IRS. Now, I am thinking, why should Canadian tax money subsidize collection costs of a foreign agency? Don’t we have enough challenges in Canada that need immediate attention?
However, the momentum of this meeting changed drastically after just a couple of minutes, when the first attendee stood up to introduce herself, giving her reasons to be there, instead of enjoying the beautiful and pleasant weather, that Saturday morning.
A mature lady from the front row stood up, and said that she left US in the sixties, and has been in Canada, her new home, ever since, and she obtained her Canadian citizenship in the early nineties. She and her husband, who passed away a couple of years ago, considered themselves as good citizens, who paid their taxes, obeyed the law of the land, and raised their children with the same values.
She seemed to be very upset, apprehensive, and afraid of her future in her retirement years. Apparently, she has been notified, some time within the last three years, that she must comply with the new US rules, and is about to lose her life savings, which by the way were earned in Canada, by her and her late Canadian husband over the last forty years to IRS, because she was born in United States of America.
The second lady introduced herself and said that she came to Canada about 35 years ago, worked here and raised her family. She emphasized that all these years, she has been in compliance with IRS and its rules and regulations. She and her Canadian husband invested in a mutual fund over years in Canada. She broke down in tears just after a minute, as she described that recently she also has learned about rather confusing FATCA rules that could drastically affect her family in her retirement years.
The rest of the attendees followed suit and one by one described their circumstances and expressed their emotions in different ways, a few cried heavily, some were very angry, and many were extremely attentive and laser focussed, grasping as much information as they could that could help their situations.
These strangers, who have never met each other in the past, started to bond with each other, engaging, sharing their experiences, describing the circumstances they were in, offering the knowledge they have obtained in the last few short years, etc. for 6 continued hours under one roof.
In my short life I witnessed many people from many walks of life who cried in public for different reasons: loss of health, loved one, home, asset, career, passion, etc. However, it was painful to observe experienced grown men and women succumb to the pressure of “what if IRS does…., what will happen to me and my family.”
Probably FATCA was originally designed for those are involved with offshore tax evasion, and recover unpaid federal taxes, however, watching these people and their suffering tells me that there has not been sufficient consideration in recognizing different scenarios, or communicating with the public. I guess when there is a fire, wet and dry burn together.
We live in a violent world, and violence manifests itself into a variety of shapes and forms. Some of us are born to survive and some are here to fight with those who abuse their power. Either way there is a hefty toll has to be paid: financially, emotionally, and socially. Those who have the privilege of designing and deciding on policies that affect a significant portion of population should consider how their actions contribute to human progress.
Then there is the question of how much value a government allocates to patriotism. All these attendees expressed their genuine devotion to the idea of America and being American patriots, However many of them seriously consider the option of renouncing their citizenship, mainly because of the shortcomings of the present US administration. Neither money, nor force can replace the value of loyalty of citizens to their land and identity. Can a government afford to lose its most valuable assets – Its citizens!
This is the third in a series ““A #FATCA Related Suicide”:
Perhaps After Reading This You Could Suggest a Title for This Post: A FATCA Related Suicide Part I
A FATCA Related Suicide Part II
A #FATCA- Related Suicide Part III – Litvinenko & #FATCA, Trails of Poison
Thanks for posting Dr. Young’s comment, Patricia. He describes my emotional-psychological state exactly: I was one of the ‘at least’ 25%. I didn’t have the benefit of psychotherapy to deal with the stress, and I remember the fear of being threatened and ‘hunted down’ by the US. Constant adrenal stress, sleeplessness, you all know what it’s like. I had the good fortune to find this group, and in several ways, both practical and emotional, you supported my through that terrible time. I’m free, and the feeling walking out of the Embassy here in London on the day I renounced was wonderful. Eventually my ‘papers’ arrived from State, and my exit tax return was filed and accepted. If (and it’s a big if for some) you are in a position to renounce or relinquish, I can’t recommend it more highly. Thank you all.
A very sad story. My heart to those affected by this injustice.
I have lived in Switzerland for the last 12 years. 20 years ago while living in the states, I was certified as physically disabled service connected US veteran. I was then awarded a disability pension, a pension that is free of all taxes.
I then decided to retire to Switzerland with a Swiss lady I knew. We eventually got married. She works 50-80% for her government and has a masters in economics and finance. I’m at home most of the time either dealing with my disability or helping maintain our small flat. I’m sort of a disabled house husband! I do sometimes get help from fiends to clean or move things around.
Eleven years go by, three weeks ago I get a letter from my financial institution telling me I have to conform with the Treasury Department and IRS laws and give all my financial information to Swiss institutions as well as the government here.
My immediate thought was, “…hey! I’m being paid by the Treasury department and my only income (disability pension) is totally tax free!” Moreover, it’s not big by any standard and living here I have to pay taxes on that non taxable pension! AND! Anytime I needed representation for matters concerning my pension or health benefits, there was none. Congress people would run the other way, the embassy gives me the runaround and anyone else in the US government seemed like they didn’t care.
Well, I looked over all the paperwork my financial institution sent. One was from the IRS (W9), the other two from the bank. One was a “Release From Bank Client Confidentiality…to ANY third party, including the US Government, the other was a “Declaration to Certify Compliance with Tax Obligations“.
I came to the conclusion that I would sign the latter and include a formal and legal letter explaining why I believe I should not sign the other two. The one I signed, I have no problem reporting any income that may be taxable. I do have a problem with the other two documents for reasons of my constitutional rights of privacy, the right of innocence and probable cause, and I feel these rights are being smashed to smitherines. I also mentioned the fact that, despite me loving my country, putting my life on the line for it (and would do it again) FACTA is impinging on the sovereignty of a nation, and duly describe it in legalese.
I have many other worries and much anxiety every day because of this senseless law. A law that’s costing billions to run and only reaping millions.
I’m going to fight this till the bitter end. In Switzerland, suicide is legal and with the depth of my disabilities I have that option. Will I take it? I came close before FATCA. I can’t say it’s off the table, but thank God I’m a fighter. And I believe for every problem there’s a solution.
With my legal studies over the last 30 years and with some help, I have an idea that, if implemented, would change the whole scope of us expatriates living in another country.
If anyone wants to listen and evaluate or help, I’m open. My idea is doable within the laws of the USA and constitution. Fell free to contact me thru here. I’ll keep an eye open!
Now I wait for my banks response. Maybe even the US Government threatening to lock me up for the last few years I have on this planet because I wouldn’t give up my natural rights.
Thank you for reading my long comment. The story preceding mine seriously shook me up. I feel so bad for the family. I felt I had to do something.
Thank you again.
LRJR
@Luigi
I admire your spirit and courage, but I am afraid that if you do not sign the W9 and the ‘Release From Bank Client Confidentiality…to any third party’, the bank will simply close your account. The last report I heard was there were only 3 banks in Switzerland accepting/keeping US tainted persons. Those are Credit Suisse, UBS and Post Finance and they demand all 3 documents.
Can you mange without a bank account? Can your wife receive your pension payments into her account?
I think your only option is to sign or take Swiss (or another citizenship if possible) and renounce.
@Luigi
I just re-read your post. I do hope that your plan does not involve putting your own life on the line in any way. NOTHING is worth that. We can all find a way through this.
Patricia, if he isn’t already reading these posts, please let Jonathan’s father know how grateful we are that he is sharing his son’s story, as appalling as it is. I hope he sends copies to the White House and every member of Congress. I hope the WSJ prints it. My heart goes out to this man.
Luigi, welcome to this forum, and welcome to this fight (if welcome is the right word!) Many of us are approaching our fifth anniversary in the “trenches”. I know that’s not very encouraging but I can tell you that you have found a community of people who understand and share your anger and sense of betrayal.
@Patricia
My condolences to Jonathan’s father. Having contacted my representatives in Washington about the problems ordinary people face with FATCA, I completely understand why Jonathan felt so betrayed.
@Luigi
Please don’t commit suicide just because of FATCA. If your U.S. citizenship is causing you that level of stress, it is definitely time to start planning to leave it behind. Just do what you need to do in the meantime. I can’t see the U.S. trying to lock you up because that would really make them look bad.
From a Canadian Spouse affected by FATCA (me):
TO ALL FOREIGNERS AND AMERICANS WHO AGREE WITH FATCA.
The fact that the UNITED STATES government; this so called bastion of “freedom” (read sarcasm) went and put this man through hell to the point where he chose to end his life angers me to no end. Obama put his signature on FATCA and made the decision to apply excruciating pressure to expats to the point where this man couldn’t function any longer and chose to end it all. Do not tell me that Obama is “the best president you’ve ever seen” or give me the jingoistic tripe that the USA “is the best country in the world”. If you agree with FATCA; you share in the blame for this man’s death. If you agree with OBAMA’s policy of targeting expats; YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!!
Condolences to all of Jonathan’s family, including his father now telling his son’s story. Has he heard back from any of HIS US government representatives to the letters he has written, other than the non-response of the first one we read from his Congresswoman’s office?
We must gather strength and stay strong in this fight. Excessively costly though litigation may be, fighting our governments who use our tax dollars for their side, we are almost ready to commence in court with the Canadian case. Please help if you can.
This story should also be covered by Forbes. Today there is a link in the media blog: http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/02/18/dear-mrs-obama-why-i-gave-up-my-u-s-citizenship/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160218#5b26eac84429. Mrs. Obama’s husband and the government under him has not listened.
Will Mrs. Obama reply to today’s letter at Forbes and would she to one regarding Jonathan Prince, US slave who dared leave the *homeland* to live in Sweden? Perhaps she can explain to Jonathan’s family and us why such slavery still exists in *The Land of the Free*.
There are many Jonathan’s out there, in Canada and around the world. Jonathan is probably not the first nor will be the last to take his own life in response to the ostracization and punishment FATCA and CBT bring to its citizens and their families. Every nation that agreed to allow this to happen within its own borders HAS BLOOD ON ITS HANDS!
Absolutely.
And, why will none of our government representatives communicate with us, effectively reply to our questions? Really, after we elect them (which suggests other questions we need to ask ourselves), they are useless, morally bereft and negligent in their duties to represent their constituents. Will you hear from your latest letter, bubblebustin? I hope so but…
RE: “TO ALL FOREIGNERS AND AMERICANS WHO AGREE WITH FATCA”…
“YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!!”
Here’s a great letter written by a Canadian to Mrs. Obama:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/02/18/dear-mrs-obama-why-i-gave-up-my-u-s-citizenship/#5a32f9df4429
I thought of writing to the USA first lady myself. But sadly, at this point, trying to change anything in Amerika seems like a waste of energy from my perspective. So I focus on Canada, my new homeland.
My response to Obama and his money-grubbing minions is two raised middle fingers. My wife and I are going to go through the rest of our lives not conceding to the United States on anything. If they want our money. Come n’ get it. We don’t recognize or acknowledge our children’s right to US citizenship and choose Canadian Citizenship. And my wife will get her Canadian citizenship.
There’s only one way to get rid of these bastards and that’s unilateral renunciation or suffer great financial loss while trying to get rid of it the other way.
Luigi
I just read your statement of how FATCA is affecting you.
There is something I am compelled to point out to you as as fellow veteran of the US military.
Unlike with Social Security payments to those living outside the US that continue after someone has renounced, it is my understanding that the hard-earned pensions from military service do not continue to be paid upon renunciation of US citizenship.
(It would be oh so wonderful if I am actually wrong here, but I don’t think I am.)
The reason has something to do with the way a soldier who retires from the service is somehow still classified as “active” in some capacity at least as it relates to pension and citizenship…and the fact that they don’t pay anyone who is not considered “active” under this part of the pension system…and renouncing makes one “no longer active”.
So in order to keep the disability payments it’s highly likely that renouncing US citizenship will not work out for you from a financial standpoint if that is all the income you have and you cannot afford to live without it.
But because I am not a lawyer, whether I’m right or wrong, please make sure that whatever you do, you seek competent legal counsel from someone who is intimately familiar with military veteran issues. Because if you have been determined to have a service-connected disability, I think the US Government should continue to pay you for life, as that was what they promised when you signed on to fight for them. Don’t give those suckers an excuse to weasel out of their promises to you unless it is the only way you can obtain peace of mind.
Just my 10 cents (inflation).
@GetMikey and Luigi
Thanks for your input
Found this info re military pension entitlements on renunciation
http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/documents/fmr/archive/07barch/07b_06_Feb09.pdf
@Calgary411
Sorry, I didn’t realize that you had posted the Forbes “Dear Mrs. Obama …” letter already. It would be very interesting if she replies.
PS
I heard from my MP’s office thanking me for letting me know that I’ve offered myself as a witness in the ADCS lawsuit.
Luigi, As far as I know. They cannot take Social Security because it is not connected to the Military, but they can and will take away Military Retired Pay and VA Veteran’s Disabled Benefits.
I would suggest that you find out about Swiss Government Disability and see if you can get covered under them as a Swiss citizen.
And brutal as this suggestion is; start budgeting for your future and figure out how low you can go to survive monthly along with your wife. Good luck, you’ll need it.
Jonathan’s death has made me hate the homelanders and as the spouse of an American citizen,
I’m in the same boat, viewing from the outside looking in as my wife panics over what Obama did to us as a family. My wife makes $11,000 an year and I’m disabled but not on disability or welfare (I still work as a photographer – building up my portfolio) We budget carefully and try to survive on as low an income as we possibly can. But I’ll be damned if the US Government drives us to the point of sacrificing our lives. The US can go to hell.
Thank you Mike! Yes I’m aware they stop paying if I renounce but I also thought social security was lost too. (I’m eligible but have yet to apply since I’d rather be 100% remunerated instead of 75/85%).
I’m not going to renounce. I’m going to fight it, even if I have to do it alone. I’ll fight it to death. I won’t give up. I have a Swiss wife to protect from this unfair, horrible law. She’s been negatively affected due to my anxiety from this as well. And knowing that the US government may worm their way in to take her hard earned money because of my citizenship is in itself unnerving, to put it lightly.
I self studied law in my spare time, worked as a volunteer with some outstanding human rights attorneys. The FATCA law is one of the most incomprehensible mix of words I’ve ever read, in the sense it wasn’t thought out about the ramifications it’d have on the common person trying to make a real living or who has retired. Law writing was originally purposely made difficult to understand and read. The reason goes back a couple of hundred years when lawyers were paid 25cents per word for their work. Lawyers wanted to make as much money as possible, so many words to get say something that would normally take a few became the norm (true story).
I’m getting carried away with my words, forgive me.
The bottom line is that we, the expats living a lawful life need to bond together and fight this. I’ll do it alone if need be, but a large mass of rocks moves fast and strong compared to one pebble.
We need to lobby congress and elect representatives for all expats. There’s nine million of us here not being represented. I can personally attest to that!
Thanks for yours and everyone’s time. And again, my heartfelt condolences to the family this thread was about. I’m still grieving for them.
May God bless them all.
Luigi
Hi Heidi,
Unfortunately, I did my years without reenlisting. So I’m not retired from the military, tho I am eligible and receive medical, disability pension and other benefits afforded to honorably discharged military people.
Thank you anyway for your suggestion.
Luigi
Muzzled no more:
Thank you so kindly. Allow me to be one of the many branches of your tree to fight strong from these trenches you mentioned.
And Heidi…thank you for your concern. Like I said, it’s legal here but I want to fight this. Including my health.
To others, thank you for your ideas and encouragement. I suddenly don’t feel alone in this. That in itself is a great relief.
Thank you all
bubblebustin,
I’m glad your MP’s office extended the courtesy of acknowledging your letter letting them know that you’ve offered yourself as a witness in the ADCS lawsuit.
It is very hard for me to read John’s letter about his son so it must have been exponentially harder for Jonathan to struggle in relative isolation with the impossible situation he found himself in. Please let there be no more “solutions” such as this. We’ve got to find a way to stop the US juggernaut even if, by definition, that means unstoppable.
To me, the Litvenenko story is not nearly as important as Jonathan’s story but I’d like to point out that with all stories that light up the mainstream media there are equal and opposite versions which should at least be considered.
http://russia-insider.com/en/litvinenko-wasnt-poisoned-putin-he-was-likely-smuggling-polonium-killed-him/ri6096
@ Luigi
Please don’t even consider the “solution” you have hinted at. You ARE a fighter and the main thing is to not be a lone fighter. We are slowly putting together a group of fighters which welcome your presence and your thoughts so hang in there and let’s see what develops from the coming legal challenges and the continuous attempts to educate the masses, the media and the politicians.
“I discovered today that my correspondence with my bank – only that correspondence, nothing else – has been tapped, someone is trying to either infiltrate or monitor my accounts.”
This is really frightening if true.
“I feel totally isolated. I am discovering I am not Swedish. I am mired in a situation about which I can do nothing. I have no protection under the laws of Sweden against the Government of the United States. I am trying give up my US citizenship. The Government of the United States has made that virtually impossible too. I feel absolutely sick.”
I feel such deep sorrow at what has happened to him. CBT and FATCA were so overwhelming that he was unable to consider suing the Swedish government. This makes me all the more angry with those psychopaths at the US Treasury.
Luigi: You most definitely are not alone and you never will be. We are here for the duration, whatever that may be. And now we are stronger because you have joined us!
I have been away from this for a few days. So much to comment on but very little time to do so.
I know for myself that the dawning apprehension that I am not protected at by the rule of law is a truly traumatic experience. A life changing one at that.
I am now trying to work towards escaping my USC. The question remains, “to where do I escape?”. As I type this, I realized that this is a bigger and deeper question than I first thought. As noted before, becoming a nonUSC does not mean one is no longer a “US person for tax purposes”. So, for me to become Japanese is not the end point, just the beginning.
More later