The U.S. government needs to stop sending money to charities that align themselves with America-hating terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Officials also need to do a better job of documenting who is getting money from U.S. taxpayers. That is the message Gregg Roman, the Middle East Forum’s (MEF) newly appointed executive director, gave to the House Oversight Committee’s Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee on February 26, 2025. The subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), is investigating mismanagement of funds by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“I’m here because there’s a fox loose in the henhouse of our foreign aid system—a system intended to uplift lives abroad—that instead has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to radical, terrorist-linked organizations,” he said. More than $122 million found its way from USAID coffers to organizations aligned with foreign terrorist organizations over the previous 12 years, Roman told the subcommittee.
Bureaucrats think they know better.
“There’s a gap in vetting and enforcement allowing funds to move both directly and indirectly to extremist-linked groups. You have to have a pipeline where all the money that’s coming out of U.S. government coffers is traceable exactly to which organization and subgrantee it goes to,” Roman said. “If you have one dollar touch one individual, that individual or that organization has to report back to be compared against U.S. vetting databases before a check is cut to them.”
The problem of money going to bad actors goes way beyond lack of vetting, Roman told the subcommittee. “This was no mere oversight. It points to a broken system that handed cash to a future terror-financing entity,” Roman said.
World Vision a Problem
Relying on almost a decade’s worth of MEF research, Roman provided information about the terrorist-connected charities that USAID funded. World Vision, a charity founded by American Evangelicals in the 1950s as part of an effort to stop the spread of Communism in the developing world, is one of the worst offenders, Roman indicated.
“This major evangelical NGO has received nearly $2 billion from USAID. But in 2014, World Vision facilitated a $125,000 grant to the Islamic Relief Agency,” Roman said, adding that under pressure from World Vision, USAID gave funds to the Al-Qaida-linked organization, even after a whistleblower raised red flags about the grant.
USAID Funding Hamas Affiliated Charities
USAID also poured money into charities in Gaza with links to Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre, Roman added. MEF research reveals that Bayader Association for Environment and Development received sub-awards of $900,000 from USAID between 2016 and 2023. The last disbursement came on Oct. 1, 2023, six days before the attacks. Bayader’s 2021 annual report acknowledged regular meetings with the Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Social Affairs, and Ministry of Agriculture, the MEF report said.
Another recipient of USAID funding, the United Friends Association, was vocal about its Hamas association and invited Hamas figures such as Mustafa Sawwaf, who calls “Israel’s disappearance ... a necessity [according to] the Koran,” and Mohamed Abu-Shekian, a senior Hamas leader who praised the “strikes of the mujahideen” in a statement to public employees in Gaza.
“Bayadar cozies up to senior members of Hamas, like Abdul-Salam Haniyeh, the son of slaughtered Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, credited as one of the planners of the October 7th attacks on Israel, which killed Israelis and American citizens. Meanwhile, UFA officials have called for their lands to be “cleansed from the so-called impurity of the Jews,” Roman said.
‘Islamophobia’ Charge No Longer Effective
Roman noted how Islamist groups had maligned MEF and other organizations, branding them as “Islamophobic” to keep people from paying attention to USAID’s misallocation of funds. He also told lawmakers that the USAID has obstructed efforts to determine where taxpayer money is going.
“For 18 months we have been trying to get information about a grant made to what we believe is a Hamas affiliate and . . . the Freedom of Information officer at USAID has stonewalled me,” Roman said. “Bureaucrats think they know better.”
Such revelations were met with suspicion and anger by some members of the subcommittee, with U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) accusing its chairperson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, of peddling “new conspiracy theories” about US foreign aid, adding that, “the dismantling of USAID is just another part of the Republican’s chaotic foreign policy and pro-dictator agenda.” Greene seems unbowed by such criticism, announcing that her committee will likely file criminal referrals over the malfeasance at USAID.
The goal is not to shut down foreign aid, Roman told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) after his testimony, just to make sure it is distributed properly and subjected to oversight. “We believe in strategic foreign aid that genuinely serves American interests and security objectives while ensuring taxpayer dollars never reach those who wish us harm,” he said. “The congressional hearing represented a crucial step toward establishing proper accountability and transparency in our foreign assistance programs,” Roman said.
Pro-Hamas protests since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre in Israel, combined with Trump’s victory, have completely changed the political climate from where it was five to ten years ago, when MEF warnings about problems at USAID got sympathetic hearings, but little action. MEF analysts have worked tirelessly for years to warn officials about USAID funding of terrorists. Just recently, MEF published, “Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID,” which details the terrorist-aligned charities that received USAID funds.
Roman’s electrifying testimony gave new energy to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency efforts to document waste and abuse of taxpayer funds and ultimately reduce government spending. Musk himself highlighted video of Roman’s testimony on X, the social media website he owns. Moreover, his testimony was cited in dozens of news articles in the U.S. and the rest of the world, marking a high point for MEF’s campaign to draw attention to public funds going to Islamist organizations.