Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum, immediately identified what went bad with Americans giving foreign aid during his testimony before the House Oversight’s DOGE Subcommittee on Wednesday.
” This is a problem that began under the Obama administration and was exacerbated under the Biden administration”, Roman testified. A government that is so insulated that it doesn’t always distinguish between terrorists and teachers has been creating a trouble in both of these administrations.
According to Roman,” there’s a fox drop in the henhouse of our foreign aid system– a system intended to improve lives overseas, that has rather funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to extreme and terrorist-linked organizations.” The subcommittee recommended that the Department of Justice file a legal referral for USAID’s failure to stop terrorists from obtaining American taxpayer dollars.
The now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development ( Middle East Forum ) revealed findings from a year-long study earlier this month that included an evangelical Christian organization that helped facilitate a$ 125, 000 sub-grant to a Sudanese terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden.
The christian non-governmental firm claimed in 2018 it had no understanding of the al-Qaeda network’s terrorism ties. In 2010, two people of Islamic Relief’s U. S. tree pleaded guilty to money-laundering, embezzlement of public money, crime, and other fees. Six years earlier, the Treasury Department designated Islamic Relief as a terror-financing business.
National Review summarizes the results:
One organization, World Vision, was given$ 200, 000 in taxpayer money to point toward the Islamic Relief Agency a decade ago. Of those cash, a$ 125, 000 sub-grant was approved by the Obama administration. A journalist came forth to reveal the poor relationship between the two organizations.
Despite the controversy, World Vision obtained$ 200 million in approved grants from USAID next month. Since 2008, it has received an estimated$ 2 billion.
Also, Helping Hand for Relief and Development received a$ 78, 000 USAID grant in 2023 yet after USAID’s inspector general launched an investigation into a previous offer. The group held ties to Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a designated terrorist organization that played a role in the 2008 Mumbai massacre.
The Unlimited Friends Association, a Hamas-affiliated charity known for its pro-violent antisemitism, and Helping Hand have teamed up with it.
Another Hamas-tied group, Bayader Association for Environment and Development, received its last USAID grant on October 1, 2023, just before the October 7 terror attack on Israel. Bayader previously featured senior Hamas officials, including the son of the late Ismail Haniyeh, who orchestrated the October 7 massacre.
Other examples of aid groups involved in funding terrorists, sometimes knowingly, include the American Near East Refugee Agency, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and Tides Foundation.
