Charity Officials Press for Federal Antiterrorism Restrictions to Be Relaxed

Summary

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After years of raising concerns that the federal government's antiterrorism rules constrain charities from per- forming humanitarian work overseas and dis- suade Americans from giving, nonprofit officials are growing slightly more hopeful that some of those policies might be modi- fied. A group of charity leaders has been gathering with officials from the National Security Council and the Treasury Depart- ment since June for informal discus- sions about the laws, regulations, and guidelines enacted after September 11, 2001, to prevent charitable money from getting into terrorists' hands.

In late August, an appeals court ruled unconstitutional the Treasury Department's move in February 2006 to freeze the assets of KindHearts, a Muslim charity in Ohio, without obtaining a warrant or teEing the charity why the action was taken. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department would not comment on whether the agency plans to appeal, citing a policy of not commenting on the specifics of cases.

"Reassuring people takes time," says Mr. [Mohammed Alomari]. "You can scare them (in) one day, and it can take months or years to recover."

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Charity Officials Press for Federal Antiterrorism Restrictions to Be Relaxed

After years of raising concerns that the federal government's antiterrorism rules constrain charities from per- forming humanitarian work overseas and dis- suade Americans from giving, nonprofit officials are growing slightly more hopeful that some of those policies might be...

See the full content of this document

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