Senators call for investigating Muslim charities
Regional-USA, Politics, 1/15/2004

In what will clearly to tarnish broadly the image of Islamic charities and chill their activities and their contributors, the US Senate Finance Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for its records on more than two-dozen Muslim charities and organizations as part of an investigation into possible links between nongovernmental organizations and terrorist financing networks.

"Many of these groups not only enjoy tax-exempt status, but their reputations as charities and foundations often allows them to escape scrutiny, making it easier to hide and move their funds to other groups and individuals who threaten our national security," Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking Democrat Max Baucus said in a December 22 letter to the IRS, the United States' federal tax-collection agency.

The letter, which was made public in a January 14 Finance Committee news release, includes requests for the organizations' tax returns, donor lists, applications for tax-exempt status, and all materials from examinations, audits and criminal investigations.

An attachment to the letter names 25 specific organizations, including Global Relief Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation, Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The senators additionally ask for IRS information on all charities, foundations and tax-exempt organizations that have been designated since September 11, 2001 as having links to terrorist networks by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Grassley and Baucus asked the IRS to deliver the requested information to the Senate by February 20.

The senators said their request was based on the Finance Committee's status as having "exclusive jurisdiction" in the Senate over tax matters.

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