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Why hasn’t NGO Monitor’s US fundraiser filed legally required public disclosures with Internal Revenue Service?

By Ali Abunimah | The Electronic Intifada | January 15, 2012

NGO Monitor, the far-right Israeli group that fashions itself as a transparency watchdog, suffers from a mysterious lack of transparency itself.

The legally-mandated public disclosures required of US nonprofits are nowhere to be found for NGO Monitor’s US-based fundraising arm known as REPORT.

Indeed, The Electronic Intifada has obtained an Internal Revenue Service document that shows REPORT was warned of the consequences of failing to file its public disclosures.

NGO Monitor has engaged in regular public attacks on The Electronic Intifada and on numerous Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish and other organizations it perceives as being hostile to Israel. The group has close ties to Israel’s government and military establishments.

NGO Monitor has also recently spearheaded an attack on the Center for American Progress, a think tank close to the Obama administration, alleging that bloggers employed there had made “anti-Semitic” statements (More background on NGO Monitor is available from the Institute for Policy Studies).

REPORT and American Friends of NGO Monitor

According to NGO Monitor’s website:

NGO Monitor receives significant financial support from Research + Evaluation = Promoting Organizational Responsibility and Transparency (REPORT) (Formerly AFNGOM), which provided a grant of $500,000 in 2010.

REPORT, formerly American Friends of NGO Monitor (AFNGOM) is recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

REPORT maintains a separate website on which it confirms that NGO Monitor is one of the three projects it supports.

Public disclosure requirements for US nonprofits

IRS Form 990, also known as “Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax,” is familiar to almost anyone who works in the nonprofit world.

It provides basic financial information about a nonprofit organization, how it spends its money, and it lists board members and the compensation of the highest paid employees. It also requires the organization to disclose whether it has engaged in lobbying activities among other information.

All 501(c)(3) nonprofits with receipts over $25,000 – except for religious organizations and certain state institutions – must file Form 990 and it is the only public report that such nonprofits are required to file.

NGO Monitor knows all about 990s as it spends a lot of time trawling through those of organizations it targets in order to look for information it can distort or use to attack them.

Given that NGO Monitor acknowledges it received a grant of $500,000 from REPORT in 2010, it would certainly have had to file a 990 for that year.

REPORT’s 990 forms unavailable through public databases

There are two widely-recognized sources for easily obtaining 990 forms for any 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization required to file: Guidestar and the Foundation Center.

The Guidestar page for REPORT indicates that the organization was recognized by the IRS in 2009, but there are no 990s available for either 2009 or 2010.

Similarly, a search on the Foundation Center, using either the name or the IRS identification number – known as an EIN – of REPORT (26-2971061) turned up no result.

The absence of a 990 for 2009 can explained by the fact that the organization was only recognized by the IRS in that year and did not have $25,000 or more in gross receipts.

But there should be a Form 990 for 2010. Where is it?

IRS warns REPORT in letter about failing to file

The Electronic Intifada has obtained a 14 October 2011 letter from the IRS to Harry Teichman, a board member of REPORT, whose name also appears in online databases as a tax lawyer. The letter is signed by Cindy Thomas, Manager of the IRS Exempt Organization Determinations unit. The letter begins:

This is in response to your Aug. 31, 2011, request for information regarding your tax-exempt status. Our records indicate that you were recognized as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code in a determination letter issued in April 2009.

Our records also indicate that you are not a private foundation within the meaning of section 509(a) of the Code because you are described in section(s) 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi).

What does this mean? Did Teichman inquire about the tax-exempt status fearing it had already been forfeited due to a failure to file a 2010 report? Was REPORT seeking some loophole through which it could avoid filing? Were the forms lost in the mail? We can only speculate. But what is clear is that as of January 2012, a Form 990 for 2010 is nowhere to be found.

It may be significant that the IRS letter warns REPORT of the consequences of refusing to file:

failure to file an annual information return for three consecutive years results in revocation of tax-exempt status as of the filing due date of the third return for organizations required to file.

REPORT and NGO Monitor

Guidestar does reveal that one Dov Yarden is the “chief executive” of REPORT. Dov Yarden is also the “Chief Executive Officer” of NGO Monitor, listed on its website just below its president, Gerald Steinberg.

REPORT exists chiefly to raise tax-exempt funds in the US and channel them to Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. So it should be easy enough for Gerald, a stickler for transparency so he claims, to ask Dov to immediately publish the 2010 990 form that the public is entitled to see, if it exists, or to file it with the IRS as required by law at once.

It’s time for NGO Monitor to practice a bit of the transparency it preaches to everyone else.

~

IRS Letter to REPORT available at source.

January 15, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

US army chief to visit Israel over Iran

Press TV – January 15, 2012

Amid increasing threats against Iran over its nuclear program, US Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has planned to visit Israel next week.

Dempsey is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs Ehud Barak, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, and other defense and intelligence officials on Thursday, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday.

The visit comes while American officials are “increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran,” the Wall Street Journal said on Saturday.

US President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have warned Israeli leaders about the “dire consequences of a strike,” to stop Tel Aviv’s unilateral attack against Iran.

The US has privately sought assurances from Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they won’t take military action against Iran.

But the Israeli response has been noncommittal, according to US officials.

Despite warnings to Israel, Washington is seemingly preparing for another war in the Middle East as it has stationed 15,000 troops in Kuwait and has moved the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

Earlier this month, Gen. Dempsey also confirmed that war plans against Iran are going ahead.

“My responsibility is to encourage the right degree of planning, to understand the risks associated with any kind of military option, in some cases to position assets, to provide those options in a timely fashion. And all those activities are going on,” he said.

Mounting pressure against Tehran came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran of conducting activities related to developing nuclear weapons before 2003, adding that these activities “may still be ongoing.”

Iran dismissed the allegation as “unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure mostly by the US.”

Iran argues that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

January 15, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Syrian President Issues General Amnesty for Unrest Crimes

Al-Manar | January 15, 2012

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree in which he granted amnesty for crimes committed during unrest in the country over the past 10 months.

President Bashar al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 10 for the year 2012, whereby a general amnesty is granted for crimes committed in the context of the events taking place since March 15, 2011 till the date of issuing the decree”, the official SANA news agency reported on Sunday.

“The decree includes the crimes related to the laws on peaceful demonstration, carrying or possessing unlicensed weapons and ammunition and draft evasion”, the agency added.

SANA has also said that no one can benefit from the decree unless he turns himself in prior to January 31st 2012.

January 15, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Ballot Access Concerns

Open Letter to the New York Times

By Ralph Nader | January 10, 2012

Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. followed his declaration in the New York Times in late December that ballot access for voters “must be viewed not only as a legal issue but as a moral imperative” with a lawsuit to block an allegedly discriminatory South Carolina law. Too bad he does not feel the same way about state ballot laws that obstruct access for candidates who are not members of the Republican-Democratic Party duopoly.

Decade after decade, state laws have erected many barriers against the rights of Third Party and Independent candidates to achieve ballot status, challenge this duopoly and give voters more choices.

Neither a smug Congress nor the federal executive and judicial branches have advanced any comparable rights for candidates as they belatedly have with voter rights. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have repulsed efforts to seek federal relief from draconian state ballot hurdles.

At the least, Congress should replace the 50 different state requirements for candidates seeking federal office with one uniform federal ballot access law closer to the far more accessible standards for candidates in all other western nations. The value of candidate rights and voter rights are mutually reinforcing.

January 10, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

China rejects US limits on Iran trade

Press TV – January 10, 2012

China has rejected the US trade restrictions on Iran’s oil industry, saying it has nothing to do with Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

A Chinese deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, said on Monday that Beijing is against mixing the issues with different natures, rejecting linking Iran’s nuclear program to trade.

Tiankai made the remarks on the eve of a visit by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to seek Beijing’s support for anti-Iran sanctions.

“The normal trade relations and energy cooperation between China and Iran have nothing to do with the nuclear issue… We should not mix issues with different natures, and China’s legitimate concerns and demands should be respected,” he said.

Tiankai went on to say that Beijing supports nuclear nonproliferation efforts but believes Iran is entitled to develop peaceful nuclear energy, and called for talks between Iran and the West in order to build mutual trust.

“We believe… the normal economic ties between countries in the world and Iran should not be affected,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said China is against unilateral sanctions against Iran, noting that dialog is the only way to resolve the remaining issues over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

“China opposes placing domestic law above international law and does not favor unilateral sanctions against other countries,” he said.

The unilateral sanctions on Iran have led to a clash of interests between Washington and its key commercial partners, including China.

Iran exported about 622,000 barrels of oil per day to China in November, maintaining its place as the third largest crude supplier to the East Asian country.

January 9, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Fordo atomic site runs under IAEA watch

Press TV – January 10, 2012

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says all of the country’s nuclear activities, including those at Fordo enrichment site, are under the supervision of the UN atomic body, Press TV reports.

“This site [Fordo] was declared more than two years ago and since then the agency is continuously monitoring… all the activities,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Press TV late on Monday.

Soltanieh made the remarks after some Western sources reported the start of enrichment activities in Fordo, located in Qom province, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of capital Tehran, claiming that the work is being done without informing the IAEA.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that Iran’s enriching uranium to 20 percent at the Fordo site was “a further escalation of their ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations.”

However, IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that all nuclear material “remains under the Agency’s containment and surveillance” at Fordo.

Soltanieh also rejected France’s claim that the enrichment work at Fordo violates international law, saying that the Islamic Republic needs the 20-percent-enriched uranium for the production of nuclear fuel plates required at the Tehran Research Reactor for producing radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday, saying, “This new provocation… leaves us with no other choice but to reinforce international sanctions and to adopt, with our European partners and all willing countries, measures of an intensity and severity without precedent.”

However, Soltanieh highlighted that “Every step we have taken so far and every step we will take in the future has been and will be under the IAEA containment and surveillance,” adding that “now with the 24-hour [surveillance] cameras and inspections, the enrichment activities in Natanz and Fordo are under the control of the IAEA.”

On Sunday, August 21, 2011, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoun Abbasi, announced the Islamic Republic has started transferring the centrifuges of its Natanz nuclear facility to the Fordo atomic site under the supervision of the IAEA.

The US and its allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and have pressured the UN Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions against the country.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran insists it is entitled to utilize nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

January 9, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Arab League Ministers Assess Syria Mission in Cairo Meet

Al-Manar | January 8, 2012

Arab League foreign ministers gathered Sunday to discuss and assess their Syria mission amid a wide criticism for their performance.

The ministerial committee on Syria was to meet in Cairo, where the Arab League has its headquarters, to be briefed by the head of the mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, according to AFP.

The Arab League ruled out considering a withdrawal of observers. “The option of suspending the monitors’ mission is not on the table and the mission will continue as more Arab nations are sending experts to join the mission,” the League said.

The head of the League will recommend beefing up the mission, which currently has 165 observers, said Ali Erfan, a senior adviser to the Arab League chief. Arab League officials have consulted with the United Nations about the situation in Syria, he said.

Led by Qatar, an Arab League committee on Sunday was to review a report about the mission.

Dabi, a Sudanese former military intelligence chief, said it was too early to judge the mission. “This is the first time that the Arab League has carried out such a mission,” he told Britain’s Observer in an interview. “But it has only just started, so I have not had enough time to form a view.”

The Arab League has admitted to “mistakes” but defended the mission, saying it had secured the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of tanks from cities. It said rather than pull out, it planned to send more observers. “No plan to withdraw the observers is on the agenda of the Arab ministerial committee meeting on Syria,” the bloc’s deputy secretary general, Adnan Issa, told AFP on Saturday.

Sunday’s meeting comes as heavy clashes broke out before dawn between the Syrian army and deserters, leaving 11 of its soldiers dead, according to human rights activists.

January 8, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Dutch Church abused 1000’s of children

Press TV – January 1, 2012

Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years by priests and other Roman Catholic religious figures, a new report says.

The report, which is based on a survey of more than 34,000 people, said it could identify 800 Catholic clergy and other church employees guilty of sexually abusing children in the 40 years from 1945 and that more than 100 perpetrators were still alive.

According to the probe, the abuse ranged from “unwanted sexual advances” to rape, while the number of victims who suffered abuse in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000.

Dutch bishops apologized to the victims and said they were filled with “shame and sorrow” over the Commission’s findings, which was led by a former education minister Wim Deetman.

“The Dutch Catholic Church knew what was happening and tried to resolve the problem,” but the appropriate actions were never taken, Deetman told a press conference in The Hague.

Recently the Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by numerous revelations of child sexual abuse at the hands of priests around the world.

Investigations have shown that clerics have sexually abused children in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium in the past decades and that the church has often covered up the abuse, protecting pedophile priests.

In 2004, a criminal inquiry established there were 4,400 paedophile priests in the United States between 1950 and 2002, putting the number of their child victims at 11,000.

Ireland, one of the most staunchly Catholic countries in Europe, has seen a series of crises, leading Pope Benedict XVI to publicly rebuke its bishops for a “breakdown of trust”.

A total of 14,500 Irish children are reported to have been victims of abuse by clergy.

January 1, 2012 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

TSA Funding Up in 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act

By Mickey McCarter – HSTODAY – 12/29/2011

Although overall appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are down slightly this year from Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) remains a consistent winner in the battle of the budget.

In the FY 2012 consolidated spending act (Public Law 112-074) signed by President Barack Obama last Friday, TSA received about $7.85 billion, up $153 million from 2011. TSA and US Customs and Border Protection, perhaps two of the three most visible DHS agencies along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, both received increases although the total DHS budget dropped to $39.6 billion in base discretionary funding in FY 2012, down about $111 million from last year.

The TSA funding included several hundred million dollars for 250 additional advanced imaging technology (AIT) devices — the whole body imagers that scan air travelers for any contraband concealed on their bodies. The additional funding came from a congressional conference committee that approved TSA plans to move forward with deployment of the AIT machines despite a House vote on June 2 on a spending bill that would have denied TSA the money for the devices.

House Republicans included the restriction in their bill not out of a sense that the devices are too intrusive — an idea championed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) — but rather out of an estimation from Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, that TSA could withstand a cut in funding for the devices while they adjust to fielding and upgrading previously funded devices, which sometimes stood unmanned at US airports in 2011 due to a lack of staff to operate them.

The Senate sought to sustain funding for the AIT devices in a DHS appropriations bill introduced in September, and the Senate view clearly carried the day in conference committee negotiations between the two chambers.

In addition to the AIT devices, TSA received funds for 140 new behavior detection officers, 12 additional multi-modal Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, 20 additional explosives detection canine teams, and 53 air cargo security staffers.

The 2012 consolidated spending law directed TSA to report on its strategy for achieving 100 percent screening of US-bound international air cargo, a requirement set by the Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act (PL 110-53).

TSA Administrator John Pistole has been emphasizing TSA’s commitment to screening high-risk international air cargo in recent months despite an assurance that the agency would achieve 100 percent screening in the near future. Pistole recently revised his estimates to say TSA would not achieve 100 percent screening of US-bound international cargo for several years. The agency met a deadline to screen 100 percent of domestic air cargo in 2008.

The law further told TSA to produce a five-year strategic investment plan for passenger-screening technology as well as spending plans for checked baggage equipment, checkpoint security technology and air cargo security.

TSA also must improve training and outreach to meet the needs of populations that face unique screening challenges such as some disabled travelers, comply with privacy and civil liberties laws when screening passengers, and review its complaint process.

The consolidated spending law allocated TSA a total budget of $7.85 billion but about 2.3 billion in fees such as the aviation security fee offsets some of that funding.

The base funding of roughly $5.5 billion provided $4.1 billion for screening operations with $543 million specifically funding explosives detection systems. It also funded about $205 million for checkpoint support and $1.1 billion for aviation security direction and enforcement.

Moreover, a major initiative to upgrade the Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing system throughout TSA received about $164 million for the modernization and consolidation of the agency’s credentialing efforts.

TSA also got about $1 billion for transportation security support and intelligence collection activities and another $966 million for the Federal Air Marshal Service.

The spending bill restricted TSA to hiring no more than 46,000 full-time transportation security officers or airport screeners or the part-time equivalent of that number.

December 30, 2011 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Two Thirds of U.S. Foreign Aid is Really Military Aid

By David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | December 26, 2011

When some Americans complain that foreign aid is wasting taxpayer money abroad that could be put to better use at home, they may not realize that today’s version of foreign aid isn’t what it used to be. Call it the Pentagon-zation of U.S. foreign assistance.

Until a few years ago, the State Department was the leading U.S. government agency when it came to doling out foreign aid. But beginning in the second term of George W. Bush’s presidency, and continuing through the Obama administration, the Department of Defense has surpassed the State Department in supporting foreign initiatives, most of which have been military oriented.

December 30, 2011 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Arab League Observers Hold Talks in Homs

Al-Manar | December 27, 2011

Arab monitors visited  Homs on Tuesday. Syria’s third largest city that has witnessed fierce clashes between security forces and militants.

The Arab League mission met Homs governor Ghassan Abdel Al, Syria’s Dunia television reported.

The mission also due to travel to the central city of Hama and Idlib in the northwest, close to the border with Turkey, the television added, without giving a timetable.

The head of the mission, Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said that the authorities were so far affording every assistance.

“Till now, they have been very cooperative,” Dabi told AFP.

Last week Syria signed with the Arab League a protocol in which it permitted the observers to examine the situation in the country.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said the observer “mission has freedom of movement in line with the protocol”. Under that deal, the observers are to be banned only from sensitive military installations.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for a halt to violence and the release of detainees.

For his part, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate his government’s contention that armed terrorists are behind the violence.

December 27, 2011 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Mr. Ghannouchi Goes to the Washington Institute

By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | December 24, 2011

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the think tank created by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to “do AIPAC’s work but appear independent,” recently hosted Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia’s an-Nahda movement, the main benificiary of the Arab Spring “revolution” in Tunisia. Perhaps fortuitously for Mr. Ghannouchi, WINEP’s tape recording of the event “ran out and was not replaced” before he was asked by “the Institute’s senior research staff and several select, invited guests” questions about the issue that most concerned those present:

During this part of the seminar, Mr. Ghannouchi stated that an-Nahda opposes the inclusion of a prohibition on normalization with Israel in the Tunisian constitution, which he said was not the proper vehicle for addressing the issue.

December 23, 2011 Posted by aletho | Aletho News | Leave a comment