USAID Archives - Dr. Rich Swier

Is USAID still operating under a terrorism funding exemption license?

The Biden administration has rolled out some new sanctions on Hamas and other terrorist groups.

“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

“We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding,” he added.

Among the individuals targeted includes Khaled Qaddoumi, described as Hamas’s liaison to the Iranian government, as well as a number of Iranian military members who trained Hamas militants.

Also sanctioned was the Al-Ansar Charity Association, which the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-affiliated militant group.

The Biden administration and Democrats have been reluctant to sanction the IRGC, these sanctions target some IRGC figures. And while this is good, Biden announced $100 million in aid to Gaza going through USAID. which, according to a statement by Samantha Power, will work with “our trusted UN, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Red Crescent partners are ready to distribute to those in need.”

The Red Crescent locally has a history of terror ties. There’s nothing trusted about it. Or the UN.

Rep. James and the House Oversight Committee are asking some tough questions.

In a letter to USAID administrator Samantha Power, Republicans on the oversight panel led by chair James Comer (R-Ky.) requested that by Nov. 7 the agency provide materials showing how it has assessed the risks that aid could be diverted.

“It is vital to fully account for U.S. funds intended for humanitarian purposes to ensure they do not directly or indirectly fund terrorism,” the GOP lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Axios.

Among the documents requested are any reports since 2020 detailing aid that was or could be diverted by terrorist groups and the assessments of a USAID body that oversees risk management.

That is crucial because, documents have revealed that the State Department knew already that it’s high risk.

In 2021, State Department officials warned that “there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza” and asked for a special exemption from sanctions on funding terrorists.

In 2022, Biden met with Palestinian Authority terror leader Mahmoud Abbas and boasted that, “I reversed the policies of my predecessor and resumed aid to the Palestinians — more than a half a billion dollars in 2021.”

Samantha Power and USAID aren’t denying that Hamas can benefit, only offering a toothless warning.

“We have been clear that any interference by Hamas will jeopardize the continuation of that life-saving assistance,” a USAID spokesperson told Axios.

Note the language carefully. Not ‘cut off’, “jeopardize”. What does jeopardize mean? Absolutely nothing. Biden has made it clear that Gaza aid is a priority. It’s not going to be cut off. Samantha Power offers no meaningful and clear consequences for cutting off the aid. And you can’t sanction Hamas and fund Hamas at the same time.

The real tell will be the information that Rep. Comer is searching for and the question of whether USAID to Gaza is still operating under a special terrorist funding exemption license.

If it is, that’s an admission that we’re still funding Hamas.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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ISRAEL AT WAR The View from Israel

Anyone wondering what Donald Trump would do to fill the pro-life promises of his campaign didn’t have to wait long to find out! In his first weekday on the job, the new White House started turning the page on eight deadly years of the Obama administration. After two terms of shipping American dollars to overseas groups like International Planned Parenthood, this president wasted no time pulling the plug, flipping the script on the pro-life Mexico City policy that Obama suspended.In a policy dating back to every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan’s, Donald Trump continued the tradition of blocking even a single U.S. cent from going to foreign groups that perform or promote abortion in other countries. But the administration wasn’t done. To the cheers of pro-lifers, this White House took a giant leap forward from even Presidents Bush and Reagan. For the first time ever, the administration didn’t just bring $600 million in taxpayer funding under the authority of the pro-life rule, but $8.8 billion from the Departments of State, Health and Human Services, and Defense. That’s almost 15 times more money flowing through the abortion ban than President Bush’s policy!

Liberals were apoplectic. The U.S. is ending its global health outreach, they cried! People are going to die without America’s help. As usual, it was fake news. President Trump didn’t zero out international aid — he expanded it. For once, hurting, sick people don’t have to compete with the abortion lobby to get real care. Dollars that would have been spent propping up the culture of death are finally going to projects that improve lives – not take them. But don’t take our word for it. Take the State Department’s.

A year into the Left’s sky-is-falling predictions, this new approach to foreign aid is working. And well. In a report just released by Secretary Rex Tillerson’s agency, the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance is having the desired effect. Not only is it helping to tear down the financial stronghold that groups like Planned Parenthood have on other nations, but it’s sending a message to the world that America recognizes that all human beings have inherent worth and dignity. If President Trump wanted to discourage international abortion, liberals say he has. A former member of USAID’s population fund, lamented the “huge, huge chilling effect” the White House’s policy is having on abortion activism. “I would say, yeah, unfortunately, it does work.”

If there’s one thing both sides can support, it’s that the Trump administration has managed all of this without any disruption to our aid — one of the Left’s biggest (and unfounded) complaints. Liberals were sure that organizations all around the world would end their partnership with the U.S. government if they had to abide by the new pro-life rules. Hardly. Out of the 733 groups that provide foreign aid, only four refused to comply – including (not so surprisingly) abortion giants Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International. So far, they’re the only ones more interested in destroying humans than helping the ones in need.

Meanwhile, if anyone’s opinion matters, isn’t it the people we’re trying to serve? After two terms of hitting other countries over the head with abortion propaganda, a lot of nations are relieved by the change. From the Philippians to Latin America, our neighbors have cheered the move. Carmel Nisha Pius Franco, director of a pro-life organization in India, pointed out:

“Indian women need life, dignity, education and empowerment, not abortion. We have been exploited through decades-long population control propaganda which has resulted in at least 300 million abortions (16 million abortions being performed in India in just one year) and dangerous sub-replacement fertility rate. Americans do not want their hands in the blood of innocent children killed in India. Yes, we need to deal with development issues, but not by killing our children. Thanks to President Trump for setting things right …”

The message from this White House is simple: promoting health means protecting life. And years from now, who knows how many children will be alive to prove us right?

Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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