Kirk Questions Aid to Hamas

Apparently some US aid has been flowing to at least one university in Gaza. Scholarship students are not even being asked to sign pledges that they will not participate in terrorism, as is normally the case with US aid recipients:

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to launch a special Inspector General investigation into reports that U.S. assistance was provided to a university run by the HAMAS terrorist group in Gaza.

The Washington Times reported on Monday that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided more than $140,000 in assistance to the HAMAS-controlled Islamic University in Gaza even after Congress restricted aid to entities or individuals "involved in or advocating terrorist activity."[snip]

“These allegations raise serious questions as to the integrity of US taxpayer assistance,” Kirk said. “Current law prohibits foreign assistance to institutions that support or sponsor foreign terrorist organizations. At the very least, these reports demand an Inspector General investigation by the State Department and USAID.”

Incredible. And there's this:

Last month, Palestinian security forces raided the university, confiscating 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, hundreds of RPG launchers and ammunition. Senior Palestinian sources told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit had been kept at Islamic University for most of 2006. The newspaper also reported five Iranian citizens were arrested during the Fatah raid, including an Iranian general who trained HAMAS activists to manufacture explosives in the university’s chemistry labs.

Original Washington Times story here.