Terrorists Exploit Suffering to Profit from Foreign Aid

The more food aid was sent, the richer the terrorists got and the worse the famine became.

By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first order of business was taking the Houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations. That 2021 decision helped lead to the Red Sea crisis today.

Only four days after being confirmed, the State Department announced that “undertaking an expeditious review”, Blinken had decided that it should be legal to fund the Islamic terror group.

The State Department claimed that it was lifting the terror ban on the Houthis, despite “their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens” because of “the humanitarian consequences” that would take place in Yemen.

Now, even in the midst of the Red Sea crisis, the Biden administration has refused to put the Houthis fully back on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, instead, it listed them under the much weaker Specially Designated Global Terrorist category which does not ban providing material support to them and has delayed imposing even these sanctions for 30 days.

During this 30-day period, the Biden administration will listen to complaints and demands from aid groups “crucial to facilitating humanitarian assistance and the commercial import of critical commodities in Yemen.” Special licenses, similar to those allowing USAID and its partners to do business with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Hamas in Afghanistan and Gaza, will be issued to aid groups working with the Houthis. And extra loopholes will be introduced to aid the Houthis.

Even if the sanctions finally take effect on Feb 16, they will protect not only “food, medicine, and fuel” but also “personal remittances, telecommunications and mail, and port and airport operations.” Meanwhile, the Houthis will be cutting off traffic and shipping through the Red Sea.

How are a group of terrorists able to keep attacking ships and not be listed as terrorists?

During the Trump administration, Iran and its leftist allies initiated a disinformation campaign claiming that the Saudis and the United States were guilty of causing a famine in Yemen.

This lie was picked up and promoted by pro-terrorist and simply clueless politicians.

In December 2021, fifteen senators demanded that the Biden administration force an end to the Saudi campaign against the Houthis. The signatories included Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Pat Leahy, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and a number of others. They insisted that the Houthis receive fuel, claimed that 230,000 Yemenis had died during the war, and warned that Yemen was facing a famine.

The same lies that had been used to save the Houthis and enable them to blockade the Red Sea would be used by many of the same politicians to protect Hamas from Israel’s campaign.

The truth was that the Houthis, much like Hamas, had manufactured the famine by seizing food.

Nearly three years before Sen. Warren and others were spreading these lies, an AP investigation had already revealed that the Houthis were taking and reselling UN food aid.

In one Yemeni province, 65% of residents faced food shortages, even though the UN had sent enough food to feed a million people. The Houthis imposed “taxes” on aid workers and then used the food to feed their own terrorists or resell it to finance their operations.

The more food aid was sent, the richer the terrorists got and the worse the famine became.

The Houthis understood that the best way to profit and end the attacks against them was by causing a famine. And that, with the complicity of politicians like Sen. Warren, is what they did.

Hamas had been doing the same thing even longer, seizing food and medicines, and then blaming Israel for shortages of both. No amount of “humanitarian aid” sent into Gaza was ever enough because it was pilfered, resold or repurposed for its terrorist operations.

After the Oct 7 massacres, Hamas allies used the same playbook that had worked in Yemen to force Israel to end the siege of Gaza and allow in massive amounts of foreign aid. The Biden administration had assured Israelis that the aid would not go to Hamas, and yet numerous videos show that the terrorist group continues to seize the incoming aid at gunpoint.

Even back in 2021, the State Department had asked for exemptions in Gaza because, in their own words, “we assess there is a high-risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza.”

In Afghanistan, the Taliban and even Al-Qaeda are continuing to benefit from our foreign aid.

The Biden administration has bragged about sending over $2 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover to help with their “humanitarian crisis” including a “famine”. Providing humanitarian aid has required the administration to seize money from 9/11 victims, print money for the Taliban, and issue licenses allowing transactions with the Taliban and the Haqqani Network which has been closely interlinked with Al Qaeda.

Our food aid goes through the Taliban. And the Taliban use aid to pay salaries and those Afghans who want a share of the food aid have to register and work for the Jihadist group.

USAID is aware that the aid we send is being seized by the Taliban because it commissioned a report which warned of “the Taliban’s growing tendency to attempt to increasingly control delivery” and that “the Taliban appear to view the UN system as yet another revenue stream, one which their movement will seek to monopolize and centralize control over.”

But Afghanistan under the Taliban was always facing famine. During the summer of 2001, the UN and international agencies were warning that Afghanistan needed more international aid or five million people faced starvation. The problem went away once the Taliban were defeated and came back when they returned to power. The famine problem is really a terrorist problem.

Terrorist sympathizers claim that fighting Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan, Gaza or Yemen causes famine. The truth is that Islamic terrorists cause famines when they seize power.

Anyone who truly cares about famines in these places wants the terrorists to be defeated.

But most politicians who cry about the famines that terrorists strategically manufacture to extract money and political support from civilized nations don’t care about hungry people. Much as Hamas, the Houthis and the Taliban exploit hungry people, so do politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren who use the famines to prop up Islamic terrorists.

The lies that they tell finance the terrorists who cause the famines and then engage in terrorism.

Foreign aid to Afghanistan before 9/11 helped finance international terrorism. Foreign aid to Gaza before Oct 7 helped build up the Hamas war machine that killed over 1,000 people. The relief and aid provided to Yemen allowed the Houthis to launch their Red Sea blockade. And now the Houthi blockade is preventing actual humanitarian aid from passing through.

Fighting terrorism doesn’t cause famines, letting them remain in power does. Famines end when terrorists are defeated while humanitarian aid to terrorists actually causes famines.