Worker’s Peace Mission Puts Government Job on the Line

The career of a high-ranking Treasury Department employee could become the first civil service casualty of the Persian Gulf War, government officials suggest.

Anthony Lawrence, an economist at the Treasury Department, criticized the U.S. government in an interview broadcast Tuesday from Baghdad by CNN. The 44-year-old Washington resident, who traveled to Iraq with a peace group a week before the war began, denounced the war as “an imperialistic attempt to wrest the oil resources of this region.”

Lawrence, the father of an Army soldier in Saudi Arabia and also of a Marine serving in Japan, said he encouraged his sons to join the armed forces because the nation “needs a strong military.”

But he added: “My sons did not volunteer to go halfway around the world and kill Arab people in a war of aggression.”

The Treasury, where Lawrence holds an upper-level job with a pay range of $60,000 to $80,000, took a dim view of his unauthorized trip to Iraq.

“He is on a non-pay status,” said department spokesman Roger Bolton. Asked about Lawrence’s future in government, Bolton replied: “That will be addressed when he returns.”

Bolton noted that Lawrence may have violated sanctions imposed by the Treasury on Aug. 3, the day after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

“If he has spent any money in Iraq, that’s a violation,” Bolton said.

Although Lawrence is not being paid, Bolton said he is not on leave. When civil servants leave their posts without permission, the government’s standard practice is to place them on leave without pay, pending a hearing.