One of two Muslim relief groups whose assets have been frozen by the US Treasury Department learned its fate only hours before from a newspaper reporter, a lawyer for the Global Relief Foundation said on Saturday. Pursuant to a treasury department order released on Saturday, all financial assets and all records of both Global Relief Foundation and benevolence international foundation were seized, under suspicion they may be funding terrorists abroad.
“‘The New York Times’ knew before we did it is supposed to be treason to leak that kind of information,” Roger Simmons, hired in mid-October by the Chicago-based Global Relief, said by telephone. “Founded in 1992 by Mohammed Chehade, Global Relief has grown into a five million-dollar-a-year organization with 10 employees that seeks to do better where evil has been wrought,” Simmons said.
Just because they have Arabic names doesn't mean they are evil people. They are very good people. Both agencies finances were frozen under the October 1 patriot act, which gives sweeping new powers to federal law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism, including internet surveillance and roving wiretaps. The law also empowers the federal bureau of investigation to gather domestic intelligence, and charges the US Treasury with building a system to gather financial intelligence that can be accessed by central intelligence agency agents. Bureau Report