U.S. Government Offers Help Distributing Donations as Antiterror Measure

August 19, 2008

U.S. Government Offers Help Distributing Donations as Antiterror Measure

Donors who want to provide aid in areas of the world threatened by terrorism should consider forming partnerships with the U.S. government to distribute their money, Patrick O’Brien, assistant secretary for terrorist financing with the U.S. Treasury Department, told a meeting of charity leaders on Friday.

Speaking at a day-long conference for Arab and Muslim-American charity executives, Mr. O’Brien cited as a model a partnership announced on August 1 between American Charities for Palestine and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

American Charities for Palestine, a nonprofit organization in Washington, will raise money from American donors who want to assist people in the Palestinian territories. USAID will then help the charity direct its contributions to projects in the region.

“Essentially, this type of partnership allows individual U.S. donors to tap into the government resources and distribution networks, thereby leveraging counterrorism mechanisms only available to the government,” said Mr. O’Brien.

Mr. O’Brien also urged charity leaders to consider adopting guidelines created in 2005 by the Treasury Department to prevent the exploitation of charities by terrorist groups. The guidelines, which are voluntary, suggest that charities collect information on grant recipients and key staff members and check this information against terrorists lists maintained by the Treasury Department.

Efforts to ‘Refine’

Many nonprofit leaders have raised concerns about the guidelines, saying they are impractical and threaten the independence of nonprofit organizations. Mr. O’Brien acknowledged these criticisms and said the Treasury Department would continue to work with charities to “refine” the anti-terrorism measures.

While the attention of charity leaders has focused on the threat of donations being channeled to terrorists, Mr. O’Brien said the Treasury Department was also concerned about other ways in which nonprofit groups are being exploited by terrorists.

Many of the charities that Treasury has designated as supporting terrorism provide charitable services, he said, but they are also being used to build support for terrorist groups and recruit new members.

“Many of these charities do provide actual services, as well as support terrorism,” said Mr. O’Brien. “It is this aspect of the threat that underlines our voluntary guidance covering the vetting of key employees and grantees of charities working in high-risk areas against lists of designated terrorist organizations, entities, and individuals.”

Mr. O’Brien also encouraged nonprofit organizations to develop their own measures for preventing terrorism. He praised a recent accreditation program for Muslim charities developed by Muslim Advocates, an advocacy group, and the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, a watchdog group.

“We strongly support this effort and it is our hope that this type of program will be embraced by other groups and that the original scope will be expanded to also cover terrorist-financing issues and preventive measures for charities working in high-risk regions,” said Mr. O’Brien.

— Caroline Preston

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