Israel Matzav

Bush administration crack down on terror connected NGO's aims at Hamas

The Bush administration has announced that effective Monday, all non-governmental organizations receiving aid from the US Agency for International Development will have to submit information regarding key personnel so that the government will be able to ensure that they are not connected with terrorist organizations.

The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected.

The plan has aroused concern and debate among some of the larger U.S. charitable organizations and recipients of AID funding. Officials of InterAction, representing 165 foreign aid groups, said last week that the plan would impose undue burdens and has no statutory basis. The organization requested that it be withdrawn.

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The Federal Register notice said the program could involve 2,000 respondents and "will become effective on August 27," the last day that public comments about it are to be submitted. Harry Edwards, a spokesman for USAID, said yesterday that the agency may not stick to that starting date, but he said the agency would not discuss the origins or any details of the program until the comment period concludes.

The program is described in the notice as the Partner Vetting System. It demands for the first time that nongovernmental organizations file information with the government on each officer, board member and key employee and those associated with an application for AID funds or managing a project when funded.

The information is to include name, address, date and place of birth, citizenship, Social Security and passport numbers, sex, and profession or other employment data. The data collected "will be used to conduct national security screening" to ensure these persons have no connection to entities or individuals "associated with terrorism" or "deemed to be a risk to national security," according to the notice.

Can you all guess who the real target of these new rules is? Yes, you got it, the 'Palestinians.'

According to the federal notice, the new system has its roots in a 2003 congressional amendment, attached to the foreign operations appropriations bill, that required the secretary of state to "take all appropriate steps" to ensure that U.S. funds involved in the West Bank and Gaza Strip program do not reach any person or group that is known or "there is reason to believe advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in or has engaged in terrorist activities."

A 2005 Government Accountability Office study of the West Bank and Gaza assistance program found inconsistencies in its implementation, particularly with AID's scrutiny of sub-awardees and consulting agreements. AID's office there responded by collecting more complete biographical data and verifying information provided by awardees.

AID officials told the GAO that six organizations that had been cleared to receive U.S. assistance were later found to have possible links to terrorists, including Hamas. One group never received any funds, three of the projects had already been finished, one contract was canceled, and the remaining one was cleared to continue after further investigation.

The problem in the 'West Bank' and Gaza is that many of the USAID programs there are channeled through UNRWA, the organization that has helped thousands of 'Palestinians' maintain their 'refugee' status for nearly sixty years. UNRWA is full of terrorists; in fact the organization has said in the past that they do not bother to screen for connections to terrorism and terrorists in hiring.

Kudos to the Bush administration for trying to stop funding 'Palestinian' terror(ists). Let's hope that their efforts are successful.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:44 PM