Feds Raid Charity That Helped Fund Representative McDermott's Iraq Trip

The Detriot Free Press reports:

Counterterrorism agents of the FBI and IRS raided what is believed to be one of the biggest Muslim charities in the United States on Monday, hauling away a truckload of documents and computers from its Southfield office.

The raid was based on sealed search warrants, but the charity's head of legal services, Ihsan Alkhatib, said the agents are investigating whether the charity conducted business in Iraq before the 2003 war in violation of legal sanctions against the country.

Alkhatib said Life for Relief and Development "did everything by the book.

"They knew the government was looking at them through a magnifying glass," he said.

Tax records show that Life raised about $10.6 million in 2004. The charity has distributed money in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and in the United States after Hurricane Katrina, among other places. A senior federal official with knowledge of investigations related to the raid said that agents are probing whether Life officials violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a federal law that allows the government to prohibit economic activity with countries that are deemed security threats.

The Seattle Times notes the Jim McDermott connection.Representative McDermott has a certain sense of style that might not go over too well in many parts of America.