(Washington Times) Joel Mowbray - Key congressmen are pushing the Obama administration to complete its investigations of the Turkish charity that sponsored the Gaza flotilla for its possible ties to terrorism. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard L. Berman (D-Cal.) and Ed Royce (R-Cal.), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs terrorism subcommittee, sent a letter last week to the Treasury Department stating that publicly available information "strongly supports designating" as a terrorist entity the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). They relied mostly on the group's reported connections to Hamas and al-Qaeda, which predated the flotilla incident. Designating the Turkish IHH as a "Global Terrorist" would help thwart its ability to assist terrorists. It would be shut out from the U.S. financial system, and it could not work with U.S. charities, nongovernmental organizations or governmental agencies, nor could it raise money in the U.S. It would also send a signal that the U.S. supports the Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza and that efforts to break it will not be taken lightly.
2010-08-13 09:39:03Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive