Target Centermass

Day: February 9, 2005

  • The Dream’s Charity Nightmare

    I’ll happily argue with anyone that he is the greatest center basketball has seen to date.

    I’ll staunchly defend the man for his dedication, both to his team and his religion, after watching him play at the professional level while fasting for Ramadan.

    I’ll have to sit aside meekly, however, if anybody wants to question the wisdom of the charitable contributions of Hakeem Olajuwon.

    A mosque established and funded by Hakeem Olajuwon gave more than $80,000 to charities the government later determined to be fronts for the terror groups al-Qaida and Hamas, according to financial records obtained by The Associated Press.

    Olajuwon told AP he had not known of any links to terrorism when the donations were made, before the government’s crackdown on the groups, and would not have given the money if he had known.

    “There is no way you can go back in time,” Olajuwon said by telephone from Jordan, where he is studying Arabic. “After the fact, now they have the list of organizations that are banned by the government.”

    A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman, Molly Millerwise, declined to discuss Olajuwon’s contributions but said, “In many cases, donors are being unwittingly misled by the charities.”

    Federal law enforcement officials said they were not probing Olajuwon, a 7-foot center born in Nigeria who played 17 seasons for the Houston Rockets before retiring in 2002. Olajuwon became a U.S. citizen in 1993.

    The Olajuwon-founded Islamic Da’Wah Center in Houston gave more than $60,000 in 2000 and $20,000 in 2002 to the Islamic African Relief Agency, the center’s tax records show. The government shut down the relief agency in October, saying it gave money and other support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

    But the agency and its possible ties to terrorism had been in news stories years earlier, before Olajuwon’s contributions

    Olajuwon also participated in a 1999 celebrity bowling tournament for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the U.S. government shut down in 2001, accusing it of sending money to Hamas.

    Call me biased because I lived in the Houston area for the bulk of the Dream’s NBA career and the loving local press that entailed, but I have no doubt about Olajuwon’s innocence in this matter. That said, he should look more carefully into the causes where his time and money go. He also should’ve blocked out better in the closing moments against the Wolfpack.

  • Bush to Seek $100 Million in Military Aid for Poland

    I’ve stated before that Poland, steadfast ally that they have been in our efforts against radical Islamic terror, needed to be rewarded. It seems that is about to come to pass.

    President Bush told President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland on Wednesday that he would ask Congress for $100 million to modernize the Polish military, part of a program of support for a new NATO ally that has more than 2,000 soldiers in Iraq.

    In an interview shortly after his meeting with Mr. Bush, the Polish president said he had no intention of withdrawing Poland’s troops from Iraq this year, unless the new government asked them to leave. “I’m almost sure that if it will be necessary, they will be there,” said Mr. Kwasniewski, who has been under pressure at home to bring the troops back. “The question is how to organize it.”

    That indication of support is critical to Mr. Bush, who is struggling to maintain a broad international presence in Iraq, where the United States and to a lesser extent Britain have provided the great majority of the troops.

    Mr. Kwasniewski has been among the strongest supporters of Mr. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, and there are 2,400 Polish soldiers in Iraq, leading a 5,000-strong multinational division in the central and southern parts of the country. About 800 Polish soldiers are to leave this month.

    […]

    The $100 million for military modernization was hinted at by the new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, during a brief stopover in Warsaw a week ago. “I don’t get to write the checks in the American system,” Mr. Bush cautioned. “The government – the Congress does that. But I get to put out requests.”

    […]

    Mr. Bush also announced that he would ask Congress for $400 million in additional funds “to strengthen the capabilities of our partners to advance democracy and stability around the world.” Poland would receive a significant portion of those funds as well, officials said.

    Mr. Kwasniewski said the money was not a quid pro quo for Poland’s troop presence in Iraq. But clearly, returning home with financial commitments from Mr. Bush will help him in a parliamentary debate about how long to remain in Iraq, at a time when opinion polls show that a clear majority of Poles want an end to the troops presence.

    Military assistance is entirely appropriate for a country with a backbone and a willingness to stand along side its allies. Certainly, Poland and other coalition nations, particularly those whose militaries were shaped and equipped during the days of the Warsaw Pact, could stand to have some martial modernization.

    I entirely endorse this move, though I’m certain that some will deride it as a payoff, as little more than a twenty left on the dresser on the way out the door. I hope those who take this view, those who sided with Sen. John Kerry when he derided our allies as the “coalition of the bribed and coerced,” will recall that Kerry himself called for rewarding Poland after he essentially insulted our staunch ally.

  • At Last!

    A chance to blog. Let’s see if I can remember how.