By Kenneth J. Theisen, 8/23/07
Maybe you just retired or recently graduated from
school. Maybe you are taking a leave of
absence from your current job. You want to devote a few years of your life to
work for a nonprofit or charitable organization helping people in another
country. But before you can do this you must be “screened” by the Bush regime
to ensure you are not a terrorist or associated with any terrorists.
According to a recent notice in the Federal Register, the
Bush administration wants to screen employees of nonprofit organizations that
receive U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds for “terrorist
ties.” The proposal will require that these organizations give the regime
information about key personnel, including phone and fax numbers, birth dates,
place or birth, e-mail addresses, Social Security number, gender, profession,
and other employment information. I
guess they need your telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address so that
the National Security Agency can monitor your communications under the recently
passed surveillance legislation.
The notice states the data collected “will be used to
conduct national security screening” to ensure these employees have no
connection to entities or individuals “associated with terrorism” or
“deemed to be a risk to national security.” This is an excellent
precaution as you never know when terrorists may infiltrate charities to feed
starving people or help build them a home.
They may dig a well to provide potable water stopping the spread of
disease. What if terrorists begin to
eliminate poverty? By all means we must
stop such activities. The new program
will be known as the Partner Vetting System (PVS).
How exactly PVS will work is being kept secret by the
administration, undoubtedly to foil clever terrorists. But failure to comply with the new rules could
result in a charity being denied USAID funding. The published notice says the
plan will be implemented on August 27, 2007.
If an agency is denied funding by USAID, the government will
not be required to inform the agency or charity why it was denied. That
information will be withheld since it is based on “classified and
sensitive law enforcement and intelligence information,” according to the
Federal Register. “USAID cannot
confirm or deny whether an individual ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ screening, [to
protect] counterterrorism and counterintelligence missions as well as the personal
safety of those involved in counterterrorism investigations.”
This latest “big brother” initiative should not surprise
anyone familiar with USAID. The U.S. government
does not provide aid to other countries because it is the international good
guy. Foreign aid is meant to advance the
interests of the Bush regime. The USAID website is quite clear that it serves
the interests of U.S.
imperialism. According to the site, “The goal in strategic states is to support
and help advance the U.S.
foreign policy objective that drives assistance to the country” For each
country, broad program goals and objectives are developed in close consultation
and cooperation between USAID and other parts of the Administration, as well as
with the Congress. Considerations include identifying the sorts of program
goals that will best serve the U.S.
foreign policy interests in the country”In FY 2007, USAID will support U.S. foreign policy goals with special emphasis
on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other front-line
states in the War on Terror””
For those in the Bush regime it is only logical that in
using “aid” in the “war on terror” that employees of charities be screened to
make sure they are “with us” in this war and not “against us.”