Treasury Department Designates Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO), Key Hizballah Fundraiser

By Andrew Cochran

The U.S. Treasury Department has announced the designation of the Islamic Resistance Support Organization (IRSO), a key Hizballah fundraising organization, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. I quote from the press release:

"While some terrorist-supporting charities try to obscure their support for violence, IRSO makes no attempt to hide its true colors. IRSO's fundraising materials present donors with the option of sending funds to equip Hizballah fighters or to purchase rockets that Hizballah uses to target civilian populations," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) "IRSO works to inflict suffering rather than alleviate it."

Hizballah uses IRSO to solicit donations in support of its terrorist activities. Specifically, IRSO solicits funds for Hizballah through advertisements broadcast on Hizballah's al-Manar television station. IRSO has identified itself to prospective donors as one and the same as Hizballah.

Solicitation materials distributed by IRSO inform prospective donors that funds will be used to purchase sophisticated weapons and conduct operations. Indeed, donors can choose from a series of projects to contribute to, including, supporting and equipping fighters and purchasing rockets and ammunition.

The press release also included Acrobat files of the donor form in Arabic and English, which you can download from below. Recall that a Pakistani American was arrested last week for disseminating al-Manar, which is already designated, from a location in New York City. This designation shuts IRSO out of the U.S. financial system, by prohibiting transactions with it by U.S. persons and freezing any assets it may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

IRSO Arabic Donor Form and IRSO English Donor Form

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