MEF Sues DHS for Hiding Information on Its Funding of
Islamists
News from the Middle East Forum
May 1, 2017
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In July 2016 then-DHS Secretary Jeh C. Johnson
assured lawmakers that CVE grant applicants would be carefully vetted.
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Philadelphia –
May 1, 2017 – The Middle East Forum has filed a lawsuit against the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to secure the release of documents
related to the Obama administration's Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)
grant program.
The grant
program, which began last year, is intended to assist "efforts at
the community level to counter violent extremist recruitment and
radicalization to violence," but MEF was concerned about U.S.
Islamist groups – themselves radicals – receiving CVE funds. Indeed, grant recipients have included the
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), an organization with ties to the
Muslim Brotherhood and a long history of sanitizing Islamist
terrorism.
On January 10,
MEF filed a detailed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with DHS
seeking documents about the selection criteria and specific decisions in
awarding CVE grants. The request indicated that the documents are mostly
located at the DHS Office for Community Partnerships (OCP), headed by
George Selim.
Having failed to
receive even a response to its request within the 20-day period mandated
by law, MEF contacted DHS. Finally, on March 23, DHS FOIA officer Ebony
Livingston informed us that the request had been routed to the Federal
Emergency Management System (FEMA), which found no pertinent records.
On April 26, MEF
filed a lawsuit alleging that DHS violated the law by not only failing to
produce the documents, but failing even to conduct a search for the
documents.
The complaint, prepared by attorney Matt
Hardin, a specialist in FOIA litigation, seeks injunctive relief
compelling DHS "to search for and produce all records in its
possession responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request."
"We filed a
detailed FOIA request, specifying the documents we were looking for and
where they likely were," said MEF Director Gregg Roman. "DHS
not only failed to produce the documents, it failed even to conduct a
search and closed our case without bothering to tell us. This is not just
unacceptable but illegal."
The case has been
assigned to Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the United States District Court
for the District of Columbia. It bears noting that Judge Lamberth
previously handled FOIA litigation concerning former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's emails.
"The CVE
program should be canceled altogether," said Sam Westrop, director
of MEF's Islamist Watch project. "And
guidelines should be put in place to make sure that extremist groups like
MPAC never receive taxpayer money to counter extremism."
The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based
think tank, is dedicated to defining American interests in the Middle
East and protecting America from Islamist threats. It achieves its goals
through intellectual, activist, and philanthropic efforts.
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