Tuesday, October 30, 2007

David Cole's Oct. 24 op-ed "Anti-Terrorism on Trial" misrepresented the "material support" provisions that the Justice Department used in its unsuccessful effort to convict leaders of the Holy Land Foundation on charges of contributing funds to Hamas front groups.

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 made it illegal to knowingly provide funds or other forms of material support to groups the State Department designates as foreign terrorist organizations. Hamas was publicly designated as such an organization in 1997. In his op-ed, Mr. Cole, a longtime opponent of the anti-terrorism law, contended that even if a contributor has no intention of furthering any terrorist conduct, the law "imposes guilt by association."

Money is fungible, however. Congress included in the law Section 301(7), which states that "foreign organizations that engage in terrorist activity are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contributions to such an organization facilitate that conduct."

Hamas and some other terrorist groups that run clinics or schools use these operations to recruit supporters and potential operatives. Funds for this purpose are more important than the relatively small amount of money needed to assemble suicide bombs.

MICHAEL KRAFT

Silver Spring

From 1985 to 2004, the writer was a senior adviser for legislative affairs in the State Department's counterterrorism office.