Michelle Nunn, the Democratic Party candidate for the Senate in Georgia, is on the defensive over revelations from a leaked campaign strategy memo that her charity assisted Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA). The Israeli government reportedly banned IRUSA’s parent group, Islamic Relief Worldwide, for financing Hamas but the organization says its operations have not been shut down.
Nunn’s strategy memo was published by National Review Online, which referenced the Clarion Project‘s research on IRUSA in its coverage of the document.
The memo identifies potential vulnerabilities in Nunn’s campaign, such as “service award to inmates, terrorists” by the Points of Light charity when she was its CEO. The charity was originally founded by former President George H.W. Bush in 1987.
The memo does not state which “terrorists” the charity may be criticized for working with. However, National Review reported that the charity’s IRS Form 990s from 2008 and 2011 show Points of Light awarded a grant of over $33,000 to IRUSA.
Nunn’s campaign is downplaying her former charity’s links. It claims that there was no direct funding and the relationship was limited to vetting IRUSA for EBay. Points of Light had a program named MissionFish that approved charities for EBay so they could receive donations from auctioneers.
Notably, the Nunn campaign is not defending IRUSA. The documented extremist ties of the charity cannot be credibly disputed. And the evidence existed prior to her appointment as CEO of Points of Light.
In 2006, Israel arrested the project director of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRUSA’s parent organization) for allegedly financing Hamas. The Israeli Defense Ministry says he admitted to working with Hamas operatives and entities in the Palestinian Territories and Jordan. Evidence on his laptop provided further evidence linking IRW to Hamas.
The Defense Ministry statement reads in part:
“The IRW provides support and assistance to Hamas’s infrastructure. The IRW’s activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are carried out by social welfare organizations controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives. The intensive activities of these associations are designed to further Hamas’s ideology among the Palestinian population.”
The Nunn campaign’s defense misses the point.
Under her helm from 2007 to 2013, Points of Light approved of a charity accused of financing Hamas. The issue of whether there was direct financing from Points of Light to IRUSA is secondary. The degree to which she was involved in approving of IRUSA is unknown, but she can be faulted for failing to set a standard that prohibited assistance to Islamist groups with links to Hamas.
The National Review‘s report also has new evidence of IRW’s links to terrorism.
Eliana Johnson writes that a former Israeli intelligence official asserts that IRW’s Palestine director, Muneed Abugazaleh, met with the brother of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in April 2012. This individual, Omar Shalah, is also a PIJ leader and runs the Riyad al-Saleheen Charitable Society, a PIJ front.
A documentary on the Muslim Brotherhood by French director Michael Prazan says that IRW was founded by two members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. A Brotherhood leader denies that his organization has links to IRW, but a Brotherhood “militant in the field” named Hatem Atteya says differently.
“Regarding the international organization, we have Islamic Relief, based in London,” he answers.
As mentioned before, Israel reportedly banned IRW this month but IRW says its operations continue. IRW staunchly denies having links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
IRUSA is legally independent of IRW but they are still a single unit. As Clarion‘s profile of IRUSA explains, IRUSA transferred $4.8 million, $5.9 million and $9.4 million to IRW from 2007-2009. The group’s 2010 financial report says, “The majority of IRUSA’s programs are administered through grants with [IRW].”
The leadership is interlocked. IRUSA CEO Anwar Khan’s website bio says he “began working with Islamic Relief Worldwide” in 1993. The chairman of the board, Mohamed Amr Attawia, “currently serves on the Islamic Relief Worldwide Board of Trustees.”
The revelation that Nunn’s former charity assisted the extremist IRUSA organization is another wakeup call that politicians from both sides of the isle are not fulfilling their duty to carefully vet the organizations that they associate with and support.
