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Watchdog sues USAID after it failed to hand over documents detailing campaign to pump aid into Hamas-controlled Gaza and efforts to pressure Israel to end its war against Hamas.
Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon
The Biden-Harris administration is being sued in federal court for obstructing an investigation into its behind-the-scenes efforts to inject unprecedented amounts of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and pressure Israel to end its war against Hamas, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), a government watchdog group, sued the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday for failing to hand over reams of internal documents about its diplomatic campaign to pump aid into the embattled Gaza Strip—goods that have been stolen by Hamas and used to prolong its terror campaign. The agency stonewalled the probe for nearly half a year, resulting in the lawsuit.
The documents are key to understanding how USAID and its director, Samantha Power, conducted a diplomatic campaign meant to inject millions of dollars in aid into the Gaza Strip through organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which employed scores of Hamas militants, including those who participated in the Oct. 7 terror spree.
Power traveled to the Jewish state in February and publicly pressured Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “improve compliance with international humanitarian law,” suggesting the Jewish state was intentionally targeting civilian populations and trying to starve innocent Gazans. Those claims, amplified by outside advocacy groups critical of Israel’s war effort, anchored months of Biden-Harris administration pressure on Israel to end the conflict through a ceasefire.
CASA initially submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USAID on March 26, asking the agency to produce “all meeting requests, calendar entries, virtual meeting invitations, call logs, and any chats in the relevant virtual platforms pertaining to Administrator Power’s late February 2024 trip to Israel.”
Five months later, USAID has not handed over a single document, violating open records laws that require the federal government to comply with FOIA requests.
“USAID has not produced responsive documents to CASA, has not communicated to CASA the scope of the documents it intends to produce or withhold—along with the reasons for any such withholding—and has not informed CASA of its ability to appeal any adverse portion of its determination,” the watchdog group wrote, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Free Beacon. “USAID has not met its statutory obligations to provide the requested records, and it appears USAID does not intend to meet them absent litigation.”
As the U.S. government’s primary aid group, USAID was chiefly responsible for the $230 million Gaza pier that was shut down earlier this year after multiple failures. During the time it was operating, USAID relied on UNRWA for aid distribution, even after Congress banned U.S. support to the organization for its links to Hamas.
CASA is also interested in Power’s private communications with outside advocacy groups that have been leaning on the Biden administration to publicly break with Israel by ending critical arms shipments.
As part of the records request, USAID must disclose all communications Power may have had with American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Jewish Voices for Peace, among others. Each group has played a major role in orchestrating violent anti-Israel protests on college campuses and in American cities.
The communications could shine light on USAID’s false claims that Israel was engineering a famine in Gaza. Power, citing U.N. data and regional nonprofit groups, testified before Congress in April that famine was imminent. Those predictions turned out to be false.
CASA is also seeking all communications USAID and Power had with media outlets surrounding her February trip, including CNN, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and the New York Times. Many of these publications, most notably the Post, have come under fire for their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, publishing erroneous casualty figures and propaganda put out by Hamas.
The Biden-Harris administration has been known to collaborate with anti-Israel groups, including those behind efforts to pressure Israel into ending the war.
The Free Beacon first reported in May that the State Department was coordinating behind the scenes with Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights group that is highly critical of the Israeli government and has lobbied the Biden administration to cut off military aid to the Jewish state. Internal emails showed Biden-Harris officials working with DAWN to isolate Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank, an effort that resulted in unprecedented sanctions on Jewish citizens.
In April, meanwhile, the Free Beacon disclosed that Power refused to take a meeting with the Israeli ambassador during the country’s 2021 conflict with Hamas. At that time, Power said in internal government communications that she would not sit down with the Israelis until they inked a ceasefire with Hamas.
“Let’s revert after Gaza war (not before),” Power wrote in the margins of the memo prepared by her staff, who had recommended she take the meeting.
Power was instrumental in restarting American funding to UNRWA at the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration and continued to defend the group after it became clear its employees helped Hamas on Oct. 7. Donate to vital charities that help protect Israeli citizens and inspire millions around the world to support Israel too! Now more than ever, Israel needs your help to fight and win the war -- including on the battlefield of public opinion. Antisemitism, anti-Israel bias and boycotts are out of control. Israel's enemies are inciting terror and violence against innocent Israelis and Jews around the world. Help us fight back!
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