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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Judge Refuses to Declassify FBI Evidence in Muslim Charity Case

Mar 1, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Earlier this week in the case involving the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, declassified documents were found to be fabricated, and in response lawyers requested the declassification of thousands of other pages of FBI evidence. The LA Times reports that U.S. District Judge A.

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False Evidence Used Against Muslim Charity

Feb 26, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The LA Times reports that declassified government documents suggest the evidence used against Holy Land Foundation was fabricated by the government. According to a summary of surveillance, Holy Land's former executive director made explicit anti-Semitic comments. However, none of the quotes included in the summary were in the 13-page transcript of the conversation. Under the federal Classified Information Procedures Act, the defense attorneys are prohibited from sharing the material with their clients, and thus unable to prove that the statements were never said or misunderstood.

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Court Upholds Islamic American Relief Agency Asset Freeze

On Feb.13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court decision that allowed the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to freeze the assets of the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency. The court said the asset seizure was lawful because the court found the organization is an affiliate of a Sudanese group that was designated as a terrorist organization in 2004, making this the first case to allow such designation based solely on an alleged branch relationship. There was no finding that the U.S.

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Court Upholds Asset Freeze on Islamic Charity

Feb 14, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the Treasury Department's decision to freeze the assets of the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA (IARA), in Columbia, Missouri. In 2004 Treasury Department designated IARA as a supporter of terrorism, freezing all accounts, funds and assets of IARA in the United States. The Islamic charity was designated for ties to an affiliate of a Sudanese charity, Islamic African Relief Agency that was accused of financing al-Qaeda.

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Unusual Practices in Surveillance Program Lawsuits

Jan 26, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Today's New York Times addresses how complicated civil lawsuits are becoming regarding the domestic surveillance program. The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies. Judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the Justice Department to compose their decisions.

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TALON Database Report

Jan 17, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The ACLU has released the report, No Real Threat: The Pentagon’s Secret Database on Peaceful Protest, covering the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notices (TALON) database found to have recorded information about the activities of peaceful, anti-war organizations. The report reviews the documents the ACLU obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit last year. The ACLU is calling for Congress to hold oversight hearings to investigate the material obtained in the database.

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Date Mining Bill Introduced

Jan 11, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

Yesterday Senator Feingold introduced S.236, "a bill to require reports to Congress on Federal agency use of data mining." Senators Akaka, Leahy and Sununu co-sponsored the bill.

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GWOB Urges Treasury to Withdraw Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines for Charities

Dec 27, 2006 by Kay Guinane

Grantmakers Without Borders sent a letter to the Treasury Department on Dec. 22 strongly urging withdrawal of the third verson of its voluntary anti-terrorist financing guidelines. In a press release GWOB said:

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"Support the Nonprofit Call for Fairness"

Dec 21, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Third Sector New England (TSNE) is a 501(c)(3) that is dedicated to strengthening nonprofit organizations. TSNE is also apart of the signatories to the letter for Treasury Secretary Paulson asking that frozen funds belonging to charities designated as supporters of terrorism be released for charitable purposes. The letter makes no claim on whether the groups' designations were accurate, but calls for putting the funds to use as intended, charity. TSNE informs its members that as nonprofits they too can be apart of this effort to have the frozen donations released.

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Charities Call For Withdrawal of Anti-Terror Guidelines

Dec 19, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

BNA Money and Politics reports that the Council of Foundations sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson on behalf of the Treasury Guidelines Working Group. OMB Watch is apart of the Working Group, that is once again asking for the withdrawal of the Anti-terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities. This latest version released September 29, 2006, includes some of the group's suggested changes, but the letter expresses the consensus that numerous concerns remain. As the letter states, "the Guidelines significantly exaggerate the extent to which U.S.

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