Nonprofit Organizations and Counterterrorism Measures

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Fallout Continues from the Holy Land Foundation Case

Oct 24, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

With headlines mostly describing the confusion that befell the court room on Monday and a seeming defeat for the government, there are now many opportunities. For example, will more notice our concerns with the designation process of groups as terrorist organizations, and will more now pay attention to the problems with shutting down a charity before any criminal charges are brought and freezing all of its assets all with secret evidence? An opinion piece in the Washington Post by David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, identifies these concerns.

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No Conviction, Mistrial for Holy Land Foundation

On Oct. 22, a federal jury in Texas deadlocked on all charges against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and most of the charges against five of its leaders. All were accused of supporting terrorism. The former board chair and endowment director, Mohammed el-Mezain, was acquitted of 31 of 32 charges against him, with the jury deadlocking on the remaining charge. The government has indicated that it will retry the case.

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Nonprofits Briefed on Myths and Facts of the Financial War on Terror

Nonprofits concerned with the impact of counterterrorism programs on charities were briefed on the larger context of the "financial war on terror" by Professor Ibrahim Warde, author of the new book The Price of Fear, at an Oct. 19 luncheon in Washington, DC. Warde argued that the series of financial crackdowns initiated by the U.S. government since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have had virtually no impact on terrorism because they are based on a fundamental misconception of how terrorism works.

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Judge Declares Mistrial in Holy Land Foundation Case

Oct 22, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The biggest terror finance trial in U.S. history was declared a mistrial. The federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, once one of the largest Muslim charities in the U.S., ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to come to a unanimous decision on the 197 counts brought against the charity and five of its formers officers and supporters. There was a unanimous verdict only on one defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, Holy Land's original chairman and endowments director who was acquitted on all but one count.

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No Surprise: Senate Intelligence Committee Passes FISA Bill

Oct 19, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

With a vote of 13-2, the Senate Intelligence Committee passed the bill to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The measure does have retroactive legal immunity for telephone carriers and would not require the FISA court to issue a warrant for surveillance of a foreign suspect who might have communications with a U.S. resident, but the administration would have to submit its surveillance and minimization procedures to the court for approval. The bill would also sunset after six years.

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RESTORE Act Departs From House Floor

Oct 18, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Yesterday House Democratic leaders stopped floor action on HR 3773, the RESTORE Act, postponing a vote after a threatened Republican "motion-to-recommit" that could have destroyed the bill's chances. The motion would have taken the bill off the floor and sent it back to committee for an amendment ensuring the measure would not prohibit any form of surveillance of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda or any other designated terrorist organization. They plan to put off further action on the bill until next week.

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House Debating RESTORE Act for Vote Today

Oct 17, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

For 90 minutes this morning (Oct.17) the House will debate the RESTORE Act, HR 3773, the surveillance bill meant to fix some of the problems with the Protect America Act (PAA), amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Yesterday the Rules committee decided to go ahead with floor consideration of the bill without allowing lawmakers the chance to try to alter it. The only changes allowed have already occurred, with combining the two slightly different versions approved by the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees last week.

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Abstract: Humanitarianism and the Muslim World

This abstract summarizes the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance article Humanitarianism and the Muslim World, by Masood Hyder, who worked for the United Nations Food Programme (WFP) for over twenty years. The article points out that the majority of those receiving humanitarian assistance worldwide are Muslim. However, treating aid recipients as an undifferentiated mass has resulted in less effective aid delivery and further strained the West's relations with the Muslim world. The article sets forth the following arguments:

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Activists Denied Entry into Canada

Oct 12, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, and Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel, have been arrested in the U.S. while protesting the Iraq war which placed their names in an FBI-run database, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Canada relies on the database to screen visitors and when the two women visited the country in August, they were told they would have to apply for "criminal rehabilitation" and pay $200 if they wanted to visit again.

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More Detail on Yesterday's House FISA Hearings

Oct 11, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Significant amendments were voted on yesterday during both the House Judiciary and Intelligence mark up hearings on HR 3773, the Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007 (RESTORE Act) a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The passage of these measures ultimately improved the bill. During the Intelligence Committee hearing, Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) offered an amendment, which passed, with four provisions. The amendment would: