Biden-Harris Administration Stonewalls Investigation Into Massive Aid Going to Gaza

The Biden administration has been pumping huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. This aid is being sent behind the scenes; the amounts are not made public. Congress did not give its approval for such amounts of aid, so much of which — as everyone now knows — ends up with Hamas, that routinely steals aid meant for all the people in Gaza. Now the USAID Agency is being investigated for its role in delivering such aid, but instead of handing over records requested by a government watchdog group, the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) about the huge amounts of American aid going to Gaza (and therefore, in significant amounts, to Hamas), the USAID is stonewalling, and refusing to hand over documents requested by the investigators. More on this stonewalling can be found here: “Biden-Harris Admin Sued for Stonewalling Gazan Aid Probe,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, August 27, 2024:

The Biden-Harris administration is being sued in federal court for obstructing an investigation into its behind-the-scenes efforts to inject unprecedented amounts of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and pressure Israel to end its war against Hamas, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), a government watchdog group, sued the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday for failing to hand over reams of internal documents about its diplomatic campaign to pump aid into the embattled Gaza Strip—goods that have been stolen by Hamas and used to prolong its terror campaign. The agency stonewalled the probe for nearly half a year, resulting in the lawsuit.

The documents are key to understanding how USAID and its director, Samantha Power, conducted a diplomatic campaign meant to inject millions of dollars in aid into the Gaza Strip through organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which employed scores of Hamas militants, including those who participated in the Oct. 7 terror spree.

One would like to speak truth to Power, the director of USAID, who has long exhibited a deep animus toward the Jewish state. Under her direction, USAID has conducted a campaign to persuade other state actors to donate to UNRWA, despite the stunning information that at least nine UNRWA employees took part in the Hamas atrocities on October 7, at least 100 UNRWA employees are members of Hamas, and 10% of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza have close ties to Hamas. This information has had not the slightest effect on her enthusiasm as a fundraiser for UNRWA, directing hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid to the group, and urging other governments to do likewise.

Power traveled to the Jewish state in February and publicly pressured Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “improve compliance with international humanitarian law,” suggesting the Jewish state was intentionally targeting civilian populations and trying to starve innocent Gazans. Those claims, amplified by outside advocacy groups critical of Israel’s war effort, anchored months of Biden-Harris administration pressure on Israel to end the conflict through a ceasefire….

Her claim — that Israel must “improve compliance with international humanitarian law” — was both unnecessary and insulting. Israel has facilitated the entry of hundreds of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza. 40,000 tons of that aid came from Israel itself. It has built nine field hospitals in Gaza. It has done everything it can to minimize civilian casualties, through its elaborate system of warning Gazans to move away from areas, and buildings, about to be targeted. Already by March, the IDF had dropped nine million leaflets, sent sixteen million text messages, and made fifteen million robocalls, all to warn Gazans to move out of harm’s way. No other army in the history of warfare has done that. No wonder that British Colonel Richard Kemp has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world,” and West Point professor of urban warfare John Spencer said that that “Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in history — above & beyond what international law requires.” Someone should speak the truth to Power about these judgements. And while they are at it, they should let Power know that the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in Gaza is approximately 1:1. That statistic needs to be understood: the UN itself has said that in all of the wars fought since 1945, the average ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths has been 9:1. In Afghanistan, the Americans brought that number down to 4:1, and in Iraq, to 3:1. But no other army has come close to the 1:1 ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths that Israel has achieved in Gaza.

What does USAID, and its unpleasant, overbearing director, Samantha Power, have to hide? Why can’t they supply the records that under the law, they must produce? Why have they not handed over even a single document? Why is the Agency, why is Ms. Power, violating the law, and why hasn’t there been any outrage expressed by Congress — or in the media — on this incredible, inexplicable, stonewalling? There are many things the Biden-Harris administration has to answer for in their inept and dangerous Middle East policy. This is not the least of them.