On July 24, the Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO) of Dearborn, MI, was added to the Department of Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for alleged ties to Hezbollah. As a result, the group's assets have been frozen and U.S. citizens are barred from conducting any transactions with the organization. The office of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization was also searched and files removed, but the organization was not designated as a supporter of terrorism and continues to operate. The designation and raids occurred the same day as opening arguments in a high profile criminal trial involving a Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation. It appears the government relied on information from a former Treasury official whose credibility has been challenged in at least two instances. The Treasury Department's press release said GCO functioned as a "Hizballah" front organization, reporting to the leadership of the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon. It went on to say, "Hizballah recruited GCO leaders and has maintained close contact with GCO representatives in the United States. GCO has provided financial support to Hizballah directly and through the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon. Hizballah's leaders in Lebanon have instructed Hizballah members in the United States to send their contributions to GCO and to contact the GCO for the purpose of contributing to the Martyrs Foundation. Since its founding, GCO has sent a significant amount of money to the Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon." A spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit told USA Today that "JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] removed paper files from GCO office but no arrests were made." It appears the government relied on information provided by a controversial former Treasury official, Matthew Levitt, who has made broad allegations about ties between Islamic charities and terrorist organizations, often without citing supporting sources. Levitt is the director of the Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence and Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Over a two-year period, he testified in congressional hearings three times and repeated the same information about GCO and other charities. In the transcript of an April 2005 House International Relations Subcommittee on Europe hearing titled "Islamic Extremism in Europe," Levitt stated, "According to a declassified research report based on Israeli intelligence Hezbollah also receives funds from charities that are not directly tied to Hezbollah but are radical Islamist organizations and donate to Hezbollah out of ideological affinity. . . . The report cites many such charities worldwide, including four in the Detroit area alone: The Islamic Resistance Support Association, the al-Shahid Fund, the Educational Development Association (EDA) and the Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO)." The testimony was repeated in a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on May 25, 2005, titled "Terrorists, Criminals and Counterfeit Goods" and a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe hearing on June 20, 2007, titled, "Adding Hezbollah to the EU Terrorist List." Levitt's testimony cites a June 2003 study from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of the Center for Special Studies (CSS) in Israel. According to its website, the center is an "NGO dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the Israeli Intelligence Community" and focuses on issues concerning intelligence and terrorism. Because current law does not allow GCO to see all the evidence against it, or to present evidence on its own behalf, the accuracy of the CSS information used by Levitt is not likely to be tested. Levitt's credentials as an expert have been challenged on at least two occasions. Kinder USA filed a libel suit against him and Yale University Press in May over allegations in Levitt's book about Hamas that Kinder USA has ties to terrorism. According to the Dallas Morning News Levitt's testimony as an expert witness in the current criminal trial of leaders of the Holy Land Foundation was challenged by defense attorneys, who noted that he did not visit grassroots charities in the Palestinian territories he claimed have ties to Hamas, and instead relied on second-hand sources. The JTTF raid on the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization seized files, but the group was not designated as a terrorist organization and its assets were not seized. The Detroit Free Press reported that Al-Mabarrat has a significant presence in the community through fundraisers and the placement of donation boxes at Dearborn mosques and restaurants that read, "Orphan's happiness depends on your donation." The raid left many Muslims in the Dearborn area "confused about the government's actions. Al-Mabarrat is still allowed to operate, though agents hauled away its documents and computers, making it difficult to function."