It is no secret that the Obama administration sought to downplay the threat of Islamism, and even to co-opt some Islamist movements to promote its agenda. In its foreign policy, the administration expressed support for Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, while domestically, the White House invited Islamists to design the government’s Countering Violent Extremism program. It is difficult to argue that these efforts were the product of anything but great naïveté and political dogma. Is it possible that this combination extended to deliberately funding an al-Qaeda affiliate?

Sam Westrop, whose investigative research was used for the video, is the director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.

He writes (in part, but the whole article is well worth reading for more detail) at National Review:

The Middle East Forum has discovered that the Obama administration approved a grant of $200,000 of taxpayer money to an al-Qaeda affiliate in Sudan — a decade after the U.S. Treasury designated it as a terrorist-financing organization. More stunningly, government officials specifically authorized the release of at least $115,000 of this grant even after learning that it was a designated terror organization.

The story began in October 2004, when the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Khartoum-based Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), as a terror-financing organization. It did so because of ISRA’s links to Osama bin Laden and his organization Maktab al-Khidamat (MK), the precursor of al-Qaeda.

According to the U.S. Treasury, in 1997 ISRA established formal cooperation with MK. By 2000, ISRA had raised $5 million for bin Laden’s group. The Treasury Department notes that ISRA officials even sought to help “relocate [bin Laden] to secure safe harbor for him”. It further reports that ISRA raised funds in 2003 in Western Europe specifically earmarked for Hamas suicide bombings. …

Despite this well-documented history, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in July 2014 awarded $723,405 to World Vision Inc., an international evangelical charity, to “improve water, sanitation and hygiene and to increase food security in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.” Of these funds, $200,000 was to be directed to a sub-grantee: ISRA. …

Mark Smith, World Vision’s senior director of humanitarian and emergency affairs, wrote to USAID, stating that the Islamic Relief Agency “had performed excellent work” for World Vision in the past, and that “putting contractual relationships in limbo for such a long period is putting a significant strain” on World Vision’s relationship with the Sudanese regime. Smith also revealed that World Vision had submitted a notice to OFAC indicating its “intention to restart work with [ISRA] and to transact with [ISRA]” if OFAC did not respond within a week. …

Then, incredibly, on May 7, 2015 — after “close collaboration and consultations with the Department of State” — OFAC issued a license to a World Vision affiliate, World Vision International, authorizing “a one-time transfer of approximately $125,000 to ISRA,” of which “$115,000 was for services performed under the sub-award with USAID” and $10,000 was “for an unrelated funding arrangement between Irish Aid and World Vision.” …

Obama-administration officials knowingly approved the transfer of taxpayer dollars to an al-Qaeda affiliate, and not an obscure one but an enormous international network that was often in the headlines. …

Now we know that the [Obama] government deliberately chose to transfer at least $115,000 to ISRA after confirming that it was on the terror-designation list. In other words, an al-Qaeda front received taxpayers’ money with the apparent complicity of public officials. 

US Diplomacy explains: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. Government that works closely with the State Department and receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State.

Obama’s State Department apparently shared his view that the US needed to be humbled and Islam exalted. Hence his government’s promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood followed by its even more outrageous submission to the demands of the Iranian theocracy. Both policies were enthusiastically implemented by former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. And no doubt there are “deep state” operatives still inside the Department who even now, with (Trump-loyal) Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, remain faithful to the Obama sentiment.

The excellent Middle East Forum (MEF), under the presidency of Daniel Pipes, carries out wide, deep, totally reliable research on Islamic terrorism and terrorists.

It is also an active force to be reckoned with. 

The MEF organized a 25,000 strong protest in support of Tommy Robinson, and plans more rallies and other actions to gain his release from prison.

On July 8^th, 2018, MEF Director, Gregg Roman, issued this statement as a press release from their HQ in Philadelphia:

Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned English counter-Islamist activist, journalist, and book author, justifiably titled his autobiography Enemy of the State, for he has long been a target of the U.K. authorities impatient with his criticism of Islamism.

The Middle East Forum (MEF) is helping Robinson in his moment of danger. It does so in the context of its Legal Project which since 2007 has defended activists, journalists, politicians, et al. who face harassment, fines, or imprisonment because of their views concerning Islamism and related topics.

MEF is sponsoring and organizing the second “Free Tommy Robinson” gathering in London on July 14. MEF previously provided all the funding and helped organized the first “Free Tommy Robinson” event held June 9 in London.

MEF, along with a coalition of UK advocacy groups and international figures will assemble to advocate for Mr. Robinson’s release and demand greater protections for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom. MEF is arranging for U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar (Republican of Arizona) to travel to London to speak alongside the Dutch political leader Geert Wilders, and others.

The latest incident began on May 25 with Mr. Robinson reporting on a rape-grooming trial involving Muslim defendants in Leeds, England, for which he was arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to 13 months prison, and jailed – all in the course of a few hours. To make matters worse, he was tricked out of the right to confer with counsel. Now, he has been moved to historically violent Olney prison, where he is a potential target of Islamist gangs.

“The police allow rape gangs to operate for decades but swoop down within minutes on Tommy Robinson for a peccadillo,” notes Forum president Daniel Pipes. “We worry that his life is now in immediate peril.”

Forum director Gregg Roman adds: “Western democracy requires a robust public discussion of Islam – including terrorism, terrorist funding, Islamism, immigration and related matters – not its suppression. No matter one’s views of Mr. Robinson, all decent people must support his right to discuss controversial matters without fear of arrest, secret trial, and imprisonment.”

The Middle East Forum is aiding Mr. Robinson’s defense in three main ways:

• Legally – By using Legal Project monies to fund his legal defense.
• Diplomatically – By bringing foreign pressure on the UK government to ensure Mr. Robinson’s safety and eventual release.
• Politically – By organizing and funding the 25,000-person “Free Tommy” London rally on June 9 and now the July 14 protest, also taking place in London.

The Middle East Forum promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects the Western civilization from Middle East threats.

For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman, Director
[email protected]

The rally was held, although the Muslim mayor of London ordered the Metropolitan Police to ban two proposed demonstrations. One of them was pro-Trump, as the US President was visiting Britain at the time and was being subjected to much spiteful denigration, in part by a  permitted anti-Trump rally. The other was pro-Tommy. The two marches were scheduled to converge on the MEF-organized rally.The potentially massive turnouts for both were more than the Enemy-in-Charge could stomach.

Also, Geert Wilders, who is under death-threat by jihadis, was prevented from coming to London to speak at the rally by the pro-Islam authorities refusing either to let his own bodyguards be armed or to supply local armed guards to protect him. He had spoken at a pro-Tommy rally a month ago on June 9 – so effectively that the Theresa May police-state would not allow an encore. (We posted his June 9 speech here.)

The persecution of Tommy Robinson by the British government has become an international scandal.

Tommy tells the truth about Islam, and the European governing globalists who invited millions of Muslims to settle in their countries cannot stand it. So they shut him up behind bars. Then President Trump tells them the same truth, and they cannot put him in prison or clap their hands over their ears and shout “La-la-la”.

Tommy Robinson    President Trump

Strange that a working-class prisoner in Britain and the president of the United States should be allies. But they are, and they know they are. President Trump’s ambassador to the UK complained to the British ambassador to the US about the injustice meted out to Tommy. 

The president and the prisoner serve the same cause: the protection of Western civilization, under attack by the savage force of Islam intent on its destruction. 

*

Probably because Tommy’s case has become an international scandal attracting the attention of the president of the United States, it is now being put in the hands of the highest judge in the Kingdom.

The [British] government had delayed the court date for Tommy’s appeal from July 10 to July 24, making him rot in solitary confinement for two more weeks. Well, that date has moved again, but it is now sooner:

Tommy Robinson’s appeal will now be heard on July 18.

[And] there is a new judge.

The first judge appointed was Lord Justice Brian Leveson, the head of all criminal justice in the United Kingdom.

But now there are a panel of three judges, presided over by Sir Ian Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

It would be as if, in the US, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States were personally hearing the case

So Ezra Levant reports. He adds:

Tommy has asked me to personally come to London to attend at court. 

He doesn’t trust the mainstream media to report fairly on his case. And I agree.

Sir Ian Burnett, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

*

Update July 18, 2018:

The decision on Tommy Robinson’s appeal against a conviction for contempt of court, expected today, has been delayed, but will be revealed “by the end of July”.

So yet again Tommy waits in jail.