Plan for Terror Screening of Aid Groups Cut Drastically

Washington Post ^ | August 30, 2007 | Walter Pincus

[3AngelaD]

The Bush administration has decided to sharply scale back its plan to screen U.S. foreign aid contractors around the globe for potential terrorism connections, deciding instead to begin with a pilot program involving aid recipients in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip...

The decision... was made after lawmakers and several large aid organizations said that the global screening requirements were onerous and unwarranted. An official of the U.S. Agency for International Development had earlier promised to defer the program, which was to have taken effect Monday.

The global screening program...would have required that all nongovernmental organizations seeking funds from the agency provide detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates...

That information was to have been reviewed by intelligence and law enforcement agencies...to ensure that there were no connections with individuals or groups associated with terrorism or threats to national security....

The...idea grew out of a congressional amendment in 2003 that required the secretary of state to "take all appropriate steps" to ensure that U.S. funds in the West Bank and Gaza do not reach any person or group that "advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in or has engaged in terrorist activities."

...a report by Palestinian Media Watch that Al-Quds Open University -- a U.S. aid recipient -- "hosts branches of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations." The organization said the university had received in $100,000 in 2006 in "in-kind" aid from USAID, and it also complained that USAID planned to provide $2.4 million in scholarships for about 2,000 Palestinian students without a guarantee that recipients are not "members of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad student unions, have participated in their events, or have given any support to Hamas or Islamic Jihad, including voting for them in the council elections."

[3AngelaD]

The decision, announced Tuesday at a meeting of U.S. officials and representatives of nonprofit groups, was made after lawmakers and several large aid organizations said that the global screening requirements were onerous and unwarranted. OUR requirements for them to get free money are "onerous and unwarranted"? And we go along with this despite an order by Congress? Our government can't figure out a way to stop funding terrorists? Something wrong with this picture.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No doubt there are some young Saudi lads looking for “work.”

[Blue Turtle]

excuse me...did they say “unwarranted” ? does anybody remember 911 !?

[KingSnorky]

Huge mistake. Ask the British what happened recently when the government’s National Health Service hired foreign Muslim physicians without adequately screening them.

[MrEdd]

Unwaranted

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

They should check for both terrorists and fraud because the most people running USAID are crooks that take big kickbacks to sign off charges!

[3AngelaD]

Really! But next time, WE are supposed to pay for it instead of the Saudis.