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

Colbert on the Protect America Act

Mar 10, 2008 by Kay Guinane

Stephen Colbert explains why the Protect America Act should pass to give telecommunications companies immunity for illegal wiretapping in this Colbert Report segment AT & Treason. For a serious update, see the Feb. 20, 2008 OMB Watcher House Forces Expiration of Protect America Act and the Advocacy Blog Charities and Security section.

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FISA Moves Into Next Week

Mar 7, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Politico reports that House Democrats are planning to send a modified bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) back to the Senate. "The first title of the modified bill is expected to reflect proposed compromises already reached with Senate negotiators regarding the surveillance program.

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Two Muslim Charities Demand Correction of Wall Street Journal Article

Feb 29, 2008 by Kay Guinane

On Feb. 23 the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article Islamic Charities Draw More Scrutiny, that described the government's ongoing program to shut down charities it suspects of having ties to terrorist organizations. After summarizing a sequence of government designations of U.S. charities as supporters of terrorism, the article says, "Two other charities, Kinder USA and Life for Relief and Development, remain under investigation but have denied any ties to terrorism."

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Help Stop Immunity for Telecommunications Companies!

Feb 21, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

People For the American Way (PFAW) has a petition that will be sent to Congress urging the rejection of retroactive immunity for telecom companies that assisted with the warrantless wiretapping program. Click here to sign the petition. PFAW has also just completed a "video compilation of activists across the country that sent in video testimonials opposing immunity. The Senate passed a bill last week to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that includes retroactive immunity, but the House has so far refused to give in, which is why this petition is so important.

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Rally in Maine Protests Homegrown Terrorism Bill

Feb 21, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

S.1959, the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" was the subject of a protest in Portland Maine. Sponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the bill would set up a government commission to study U.S. based terrorism. The commission would examine and report on what the bill calls "violent radicalization," "homegrown terrorism" and "ideologically based violence."

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Judge Rules that Treasury Must Release Some Documents on Watch List

Feb 21, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California ruled that the Treasury Department must release to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area documents detailing complaints from people who claim they were wrongly placed on a terrorist watch list. The lawsuit challenges Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), seeking further information about how Treasury manages its list of 6,000 suspected or known terrorists and others, called the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.

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House Democrats Hold Out For Conference, while GOP Walk Out To Protest

Feb 15, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

Revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) remain at a stand still. The House turned down a 21 day extension of the temporary Protect America Act, law governing electronic surveillance, with a 229-191 vote. Rather than taking action on the Senate's bill that would provide retroactive immunity for companies, House Democrats will let the law expire holding firm for a conference of the bill. The President asserts that this will put our nation at risk.

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Senate Passes FISA Bill Protecting Phone Companies

Feb 13, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

As expected, the Senate passed a measure to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), S.2248, granting retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped with warrantless surveillance. After weeks of debate and votes on amendments, the bill remains basically the same as it did when passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. None of the amendments passed that would have in any way reduced executive spying powers.

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FISA Bill Moves Along Without Changes

Feb 8, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

Even though they gave themselves more time to consider amendments, none of the amendments offered to improve S.2248 have passed. Two amendments offered by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) failed. One was meant to block "reverse targeting," which is when a foreign subject is the surveillance target while in actuality the intended target is in the U.S. The second amendment would have given the FISA court the ability to prevent the government from using information about Americans when obtained in a way that was later decided as illegal.

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Charity Charged with Violating Economic Sanctions in Grants to Orphanage

The Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA-USA) and five of its leaders have been charged with engaging in prohibited transactions with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan rebel leader who was designated as a terrorist in 2003. IARA-USA, which was shut down in October 2004, was funding an orphanage in the Shamshatu Refugee Camp in Pakistan that is located on land belonging to Hekmatyar. The defendants are not charged with supporting terrorism. The leaders, along with a former member of Congress, Mark J. Siljander, have also been charged with misappropriating funds from a federal grant to pay for Siljander to lobby for IARA-USA's removal from a Senate list of organizations suspected of supporting terrorism. The trial is scheduled for November.

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