MEF Chief Editor Jim Hanson joined FOX Business to discuss the DOGE Subcommittee hearing about USAID funding that benefited terrorist allies and possibly designated terrorist groups. Gregg Roman, MEF’s Executive Director, gave testimony and answered questions about MEF’s report that found more than $122M in USAID grants went to terrorist affiliated or adjacent groups.
Transcript:
ROMAN: And we have identified over $122 million, which has ended up supporting radical organizations or even directly bankrolling organizations which are considered to be terrorists by the government.
FOX: That was USAID’s former acting chief operating officer and a top Middle East expert testifying that USAID ended up sending your taxpayer money. Somehow it ended up with terrorists in Gaza, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. It was up to 122 million. It could be more.
Let’s bring in former Army Special Forces veteran Jim Hanson. Jim, this sounds so over the top to be true. What do you make of this?
Hanson: You know, we’ve all watched Elon Musk’s Doge team dig up fraud, waste and abuse all over the government. And it’s easy to mock lesbian dance troupes and transgender operas but the very idea of our tax dollars going to fund terrorist groups is intolerable.
On the second day of the administration, the Middle East Forum sent in a report that detailed that $122 million that Greg Roman was talking about when he testified, and apparently that caught the attention of Elon’s Wunderkinds, and they dug into it USAID, and now we’re seeing the results. There may be criminal charges coming out of this.
FOX: Interesting. And Jim, report says that less than a week before Hamas’s brutal 10/7 attack on Israel, USAID gave more than to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. But take a listen here to the accusation that Biden unplugged the vetting mechanism-- stop that-- that would have prevented terrorists getting taxpayer money.
Let’s get your reaction to this, please.
Primorac: We had a regulation before we left in the last administration that anybody who touches money in countries where there’s terrorists, those names have to go through databases, terrorist databases. That was overturned by Biden.
Roman: Let’s use Gaza as our case study, 2 billion in American taxpayers’ money to Gaza since October 7th, when Hamas invaded southern Israel. It should have been vetted against the special designated terrorists from the State Department and from other treasury organizations.
Waivers were granted because they said that there was an emergency used to have that money come in to Gaza. thereby jettisoning the usual typical screening procedures. As a result, 90% of aid that was going from the United States by way of its agents in Gaza ended up in Hamas-controlled areas.
And this is ridiculous. Essentially, what the assistance to Gaza did was underwrite the ability for Hamas to survive until the ceasefire was just passed a few weeks ago. There was no strategic thought for it, and there was no screening.
FOX: You know, what is your reaction to that? Why did Biden unplug and stop the vetting mechanisms for that? And was there this attitude in the Biden White House that, well, more of taxpayer money will stop terrorism? Really?
Hanson: There was nothing about the Biden administration’s policy towards the war in Gaza that made the slightest bit of sense. This is hard to see as anything but malfeasance. As Greg pointed out, they removed any ability to look to see where the money was going.
And we’ve heard of other reports now where $34 million in cash went into Gaza, and USAID claimed they had eyes on it once it went in and knew where it went, and apparently they did not. So there’s more to come.
And the information we’ve had thus far has come from open sources. Now we’ve asked the Justice Department, through the State Department and through the DOGE subcommittee, to open an investigation and look at who has violated both the Material Support for Terrorism, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Sanctions Against Designated Terrorist Entities statutes.
There are criminals who need to be brought to justice because of this.
FOX: It’s just so shocking this is going on just a generation after 9-11. Jim Hansen, thank you for your service to America.That was a great interview. We’ll stay on the story.
