Administration's Upcoming Shift on Counterterrorism Strategy Should Include Fairness for Charities
by Suraj Sazawal, 5/29/2009
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.
The article describes the "global justice initiative" as a "work in progress" that shifts counterterrorism programs from the military/clandestine CIA-based regime, which has had little accountability, to one based in the Department of Justice and FBI.
"[s]ome senior counter-terrorism officials and administration policy-makers envision it as key to the national security strategy President Obama laid out last week -- one that presumes most accused terrorists have the right to contest the charges against them in a "legitimate" setting.
The approach effectively reverses a mainstay of the Bush administration's war on terrorism, in which global counter-terrorism was treated primarily as an intelligence and military problem, not a law enforcement one. That policy led to the establishment of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; harsh interrogations; and detentions without trials.
The "global justice" initiative starts out with the premise that virtually all suspects will end up in a U.S. or foreign court of law."
The investigation and sanction of charities by OFAC operates on the same premise as the military-based system. It is based on secrecy and affords no rights for charities accused on supporting or engaging in terrorism. Under the "global justice" initiative charities should have the same protections as individuals, including an opportunity for review before an independent judicial body.
