Sam Westrop recently published a report on USAID an organization that has apparently funneled millions of dollars to radical and terrorist organizations in the name of humanitarian aid. This exposé was done with extensive research conducted by Westrop and his colleagues over a period of two years. Trump administration took strong action in response to this report. In this interview, author and columnist Arun Anand speaks to Westrop about this expose and related issues.

Arun Anand: What is the status of USAID right now? As you know, one of your colleagues has also given a briefing to Congress during a congressional hearing. So, what exactly is the status of USAID right now? Whether it has been dismantled, is it in the process of being dismantled, or is it undergoing restructuring in wake of the report which the Middle East Forum had published under your leadership?

Sam Westrop: Well, the Trump administration appears to be moving forward with plans to formally abolish it. There are certain congressional requirements and subsistence-level activities that what remains of USAID must continue carrying out. So, at the moment, I believe the Trump administration is moving toward maintaining it with a staff of just a dozen, maybe 15 people. But yes, the aim is to abolish it. The idea is that lots of the functions of USAID, everything from the funding to the role of USAID as a soft power organization—will now be subsumed by its parent organization, the Department of State. This, however, is problematic for the same reasons we found USAID problematic: both have a habit of funding some bad people. So yes, the future of USAID looks uncertain. Does this mean improvements? Does it mean the federal government has stopped funding radicals around the world? Well, I don’t believe so. I think we are merely masking the problem; we are shuffling the cards around without dealing with the underlying issue.

Arun Anand: As you mentioned, it seems like the problem is just being masked and it seems that the root cause of the problem is not being addressed. Could you elaborate a little bit more on this for our viewers?

Sam Westrop: So, what our report looked at was – US$164 million in funding from both USAID and the State Department that went to radical forces around the world. US$122 million of that US$164 million, went to organizations that we can directly link to violent extremists and terrorist networks. This issue extends beyond just USAID – it also involves the State Department. This is not the rest of the federal government. The rest of the federal government is busy funding many problematic organizations as well, because the rest of the federal government is inwards looking. These other radical organizations tend to be domestic, not overseas groups, but the point we’re trying to make, and one we’ve been trying to make for, almost ten years, is that the federal government cannot be trusted to choose the right partners and contractors and vendors, especially within Muslim communities. They invariably pick Islamists, they pick the radicals who step forward and say, yes, give us the money as we represent the Muslim community, whether they do or don’t. The US government believes them, and more often than not, the US government is funding Islamist extremists who have taken over or taken charge of Muslim communities, that divert the money towards ideological advancement of Islamism or worse, to welfare funds for terrorism. The federal government as a whole does not get it. So, when something like USAID is shut down, we’re pleased to see a major donor to Islamism around the world, meet it’s, you know, a grisly fate. What we’re less pleased about is that now all the bad things USAID did may now just continue on the State Department. And there will perhaps be less inclination for the Trump administration to clamp down on State Department activities because they’ve heralded this as the solution to the problem of USAID. So, our worry is that by shutting USAID down without substantively addressing the underlying issue, of Islamism, the US government, it’s just made it more murky.........

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