IPS News reports; "The U.S. government's anti-terrorist financing programmes are based on the 'guilt by association' tactics of the McCarthy era and have had a widespread negative impact on U.S. charities, critics say. That is the view of Kay Guinane, director of the Nonprofit Speech Rights Programme . . . Guinane told IPS that government actions have resulted in programme cutbacks and increased fear of speaking out on important public issues."

The article quotes our April 1 press release following the Senate Finance committee hearing on anti-terrorism financing. "The organisation accused Congress of continuing 'an unfortunate pattern of insufficient congressional oversight of anti-terrorist financing programmes, neglecting to address the unnecessarily harsh impacts the programmes have on U.S. charities and philanthropy."

During the April 1 hearing, the opening statement of the committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT), referred to failed criminal prosecutions of charities suspected of having ties to terrorism, asking if the prosecutions "were off base" or if the government should "do a better job of monitoring these organisations?"

Georgetown University law school professor David Cole, told IPS, "The 'material support' principle is 'guilt by association' in 21st-century garb, and presents all of the same problems that criminalising membership and association did during the Cold War. . . . He recommends that the Treasury Department be required to permit closed charities to direct their collected funds to charities mutually approved by the frozen charity and the government;" which is a plan of action that OMB Watch has been advocating for.

On April 1, OMB Watch issued a press release objecting to a Senate Finance Committee hearing on anti-terrorism financing. During the hearing, Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) referenced a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released May 2007 that suggested the Internal Revenue Service should screen U.S. charities against terrorist watch lists. Last June OMB Watch wrote to Treasury opposing the continual accusation that charities "are a significant source of alleged terrorist support."

The OMB Watch press release states; "We call on the committee to remedy this error of omission by holding an oversight hearing into the damage to humanitarian aid and other charitable programs caused by current Treasury policies and procedures."

During Baucus' opening remarks, he noted; "the Acting Commissioner did not give me a lot of confidence that the administration is being aggressive enough in establishing links between nonprofits and terrorism financing." A BNA Money and Politics ($$) article also records the opposition of OMB Watch to checking the watch lists for charities with connections to terrorism.