I don't think it matters whether Tony donated to the Mercy outfit or not. As the DoJ is finding out, many of the charities had internal personnel skimming money from the donors or, where the whole operations themselves were suspect, they were misrepresenting the fund's mission to donors.
United Way, Microsoft and American Express, for example, gave money to HLF/Holy Land Foundation. The US has since frozen the HLF accounts and has indicted several founders.
Likewise, Compaq and Microsoft also made donations to Benevolence International Foundation, another group shut down by the US.
Are these companies "terrorists" because they got hoodwinked into giving money to terrorist support groups? Only when the dots are drawn with PugsLogic.
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in.rediff.com
Prosecutors allege that Arnaout directed his charity to commingle millions of dollars of donations to hide the true purposes of the money. The charity's suburban Chicago headquarters was raided and its assets frozen in late 2001 as part of the US-led campaign to choke off funding for militant groups after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, confirmed that it had given about $20,000 in matching contributions.
"Upon learning of this organisation's suspicious activity in December 2001, we immediately suspended donations," said a Microsoft spokeswoman.
A spokesman for Hewlett-Packard, which now owns Compaq, confirmed the donations.
"Between March 1999 and October 2001, Compaq provided about $2,400 to the Benevolence International Foundation as part of its employee matching gift program," a spokesman said.
"Based on the charter of the foundation and the foundation's 501-C3 nonprofit status from the US government, Compaq determined that this organisation was humanitarian in nature.
Once the 501-C3 status was revoked in 2002, the organisation was no longer eligible for matching funds under the Compaq employee matching gift program." |
