A onetime chief counsel on the House Budget Committee and longtime lobbyist has registered to lobby for a charitable organization that has come under fire for connections to terrorist groups.
Wendell Belew worked in the House in 1976-1986 and his firm represents a variety of organizations, lobbying in the past decade for the Friends of Charities Association, Association of O&C Counties and Niitek Inc. He has now registered to lobby for the Sheikh Eid Bin Mohammed al-Thani Charitable Foundation in Doha, Qatar, on NGO regulations and charity best practices.
The foundation has been linked with Hamas and was one of 36 funds declared as banned by Israel in 2008. U.S. officials have also accused one of its founding members of funneling millions of dollars to al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria.
Belew has recently provided counsel to groups "unfairly accused of connections to extremism and terrorism," according to one biography.
The lobbying filing describes the foundation as an "international NGO providing relief and development assistance." The Peninsula in Qatar has reported on the organization's humanitarian aid to Gaza and the Gulf Times wrote this year on the group's Food Savings Bank that helps feed the needy.
"Currently, we are trying to reach all the needy people who live in Qatar through various ways. We are doing our best to provide them support," Eid Social Centre Manager Yousof al-Lawadi told the Gulf Times.
