In Memoriam: Former Idaho Rep. George Hansen
Liberty Minute August 18 2014
George Hansen spent most of his public life as either a politician, or a political prisoner. Both of those roles were defined by Hansen’s implacable and uniformly commendable hostility toward the criminal syndicate and secret police organization called the Internal Revenue Service.
In 1979, Hansen published a slender but comprehensive book entitled To Harass Our People documenting the crimes and abuses committed by the IRS. Five years later he was prosecuted and convicted under the Ethics in Government Act for trivial violations of technical financial disclosure regulations.
He spent more than a year in prison, during which time he was singled out for hideous abuse. This included “Diesel Therapy,” a form of torture in which he was shackled hand and foot for up to 20 hours a day and shuttled from prison to prison in a bus by the US Marshals Service.
Once in federal prison he was forced to work in conditions involving prolonged, unprotected exposure to toxic chemicals. He suffered severe, irreversible damage to his legs, shins, teeth, and bones, as well as several vital organs.
The Supreme Court overturned Hansen’s conviction in 1995, but it couldn’t repeal the unjust punishment inflicted on him through the vindictive sadism of the Regime he had offended.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
