American government officials authorized giving nearly $1 million in foreign aid to a Palestinian university with links to the terrorist group Hamas, despite repeatedly vetting the school for ties to terrorism, according to a government audit. The audit concluded that the vetting process found no “derogatory information” on the Islamic University in Gaza between 2002 and 2006 — even after Hamas claimed a parliamentary majority in Palestinian elections in 2006.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) stated this week that the failure to detect terrorist connections at the campus suggests “either incompetence or a complete breakdown of the vetting system as run by the State Department.” (Chicago Tribune)