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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Summary of Treasury's May 2007 Senate Testimony on Charities and Islamic Extremism

On May 20, 2007 the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on "Violent Islamist Extremism: Government Efforts to Defeat It." Chip Poncy, the Director of the Department of Treasury's Office of Strategic Policy, for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, testified about counter-terrorist financing strategy and explained outreach efforts to engage the Muslim and charitable communities. Mr.

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Allegations of Terrorist Ties to Nonprofits Must Stop

Jun 14, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Kay Guinane, Director of Nonprofit speech rights, had this blog appear in The Hill's Congress Blog. This posting highlights the letter that OMB Watch and other organizations sent to Treasury Secretary Paulson in response to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report that claimed charities are a "significant source of alleged terrorist activities." The letter states;

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Charities Respond to Treasury's Overbroad Allegations of Terrorist Ties

On June 8, charities wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Treasury, Henry Paulson, to express their concern about continuing statements from Treasury that allege charities are a significant source of terrorist financing.

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"ACLU Marks Fifth Anniversary of Ashcroft Surveillance Guidelines; Report Calls for Guidelines to be Changed to Prevent FBI Abuse"

Jun 6, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

On May 29, in accordance with the fifth anniversary of the FBI's 2002 revised Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Terrorism Enterprise Investigation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released the report, "History Repeated: The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement." The report provides a review of FBI spying along with what the ACLU has gathered from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The press release, quotes ACLU Legislative Counsel Marvin Johnson;

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GWOB Releases Letter to Treasury Dept

Jun 1, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Grantmakers Without Borders released a letter to Secretary Paulson about the Treasury Department's Risk Matrix for the Charitable Sector. As a major philanthropic network with over 130 organizations worldwide, GWOB has taken issue with the Treasury's "formulaic chart of ambiguous factors" which asks grantmakers to classify each grantee as "high", "medium" or "low" risk.

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Troubling Report Recommends Increased Watch List Use to Check Nonprofits

May 30, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) function to identify instances in which charitable organizations may be linked to terrorist-related activities.

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IRS Urged to Use Terror Watch Lists to Check Nonprofits

When it comes to the effectiveness of using watch lists to identify terrorist threats, theory and reality yield very different results. On May 21, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a report criticizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for not using the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center's (TSC) consolidated watch lists to check nonprofit tax filings for possible matches to suspected terrorists.

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Treasury Sued to Release Documents on False Positives in Terrorist Watch Lists

May 23, 2007 by Kay Guinane

On May 16 the Laweyrs Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area filed a complaint against t he U.S. Department of Treasury in federal court to force compliance with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on inquiries about names on the terrorist watch list. In its press release the group origninally filed its FOIA request in August 2005, and noted:

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US, EU Grantmaker Groups Publish Accountability Principles for International Philanthropy

May 23, 2007 by Kay Guinane

The Council on Foundations (COF) and the European Foundation Center have published Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy, the result of a two-year consultative process of grantmakers and stakeholders from four continents. The COF press release announcing the document says: Voluntary and aspirational, the Principles and accompanying Practices aim to guide and support funders in making better decisions in pursuing their international missions and objectives, and to provide a framework that will encourage and assist more foundations to get involved internationally....

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Muslim Charity Files Libel Suit over Allegations of Terrorist Ties

KinderUSA, a U.S. charity that provides humanitarian aid to children in war zones, including Palestine, filed suit April 26 against the author and publishers of a book that ties the group to terrorist organizations. The libel suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages and other relief, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court after the publishers refused a request to discontinue distribution.

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