Commentary by Kay Guinane: FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight

A May 28 story in the Los Angeles Times, reports that the Obama administration is in the process of overhauling  U.S. counterterrorism strategy by shifting primary responsibility to law enforcement rather than intelligence agencies and the military. This could lead to fairer treatment of charities accused of terrorism by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which operates under the same principles of secrecy and absolute power as the CIA when it comes to shutting down charities. 

On May 17, 2009, the Des Moines Register reported that they obtained confidential documents that show an FBI informant infiltrated an anti-war group that met in Iowa City before the September 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC). Additionally, an undercover sheriff's deputy from Minnesota travelled to Iowa to attend an anti-war conference and collect information on a group planning to protest at the RNC in St. Paul. The documents raise concerns about whether the FBI was attempting to suppress political dissent and activism. 

On May 27, 2009, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis sentenced Shukri Abu Baker, the former chief executive of the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, to 65 years in prison for his role in funneling more than $12 million to Hamas.  Abu Baker is one of five defendants who were found guilty on 108 counts by a federal jury in Dallas in November 2008. All were part of the now defunct Holy Land Foundation, which was once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S.