by Oui
Fri Jun 27th, 2025 at 10:36:25 AM EST
Aid or Occupation? Private contractors and pro-Israel figures run Trump's Gaza Humanitarian Foundation | Quds News Network - 9 May 2025 |
Israel-backed Gaza delivery group names US evangelical leader as chair | The Guardian - 3 June 2025 |
Johnnie Moore, also an adviser to Trump, named chair as group tries to recover from resignations
Moore has been a vocal defender of the GHF who has bristled at public criticism of the rollout, telling the UN chief, António Guterres, on X that reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza was "a lie ... spread by terrorists".
Major partners continue to abandon the GHF, which was launched with vocal support from US government officials. Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a US consulting firm, said it had cancelled its contract with the GHF amid growing media scrutiny into the group's work and sources of funding.
"GHF believes that serving the people of Gaza with dignity and compassion must be the top priority," Moore said in a statement. "We welcome others to join us and urge extreme caution against sharing unverified information from sources that have repeatedly issue demonstrably false reports.
"False reporting of violence at our sites has a chilling effect on the local population and we can think of no greater disservice to a community in dire need," he said.
Little to celebrate on another bloody Eid – War on Gaza Day 609
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s holiest festivals, according to eyewitnesses and medical sources.
Israel has regularly attacked hungry aid seekers since the GHF began to operate in late May, causing hundreds of casualties.
The Gaza Government Media Office has published a breakdown of the casualty numbers near aid distribution points since the GHF opened its doors:
- Tuesday, May 27: 3 killed, 46 wounded, 7 missing in Rafah
- Wednesday, May 28: 10 killed, 62 wounded in Rafah
- Sunday, June 1: 35 killed, 200 wounded in Rafah; 1 killed and 32 wounded, 2 missing at the Gaza Valley Bridge
- Monday, June 2: 26 killed, 92 wounded in Rafah
- Tuesday, June 3: 27 killed, 90 wounded in Rafah
- Friday, June 6: 8 killed, 61 wounded in Rafah.
GHF shutters aid sites ‘until further notice’ amid Israeli massacres, internal shakeup
Boston Consulting Group CEO apologizes for Israeli-backed Gaza aid project | Boston Globe |
The CEO of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a US management consulting firm that helped establish the new American- and Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism in Gaza, apologizes for the company’s involvement in the initiative.
In an email obtained by The Washington Post, Christoph Schweizer says that his company had fired two partners involved in the project and has launched a “formal investigation” to ensure “this does not happen again.”
“I deeply regret that in this situation, we fell short — of our own standards and of the trust that you, our clients and our broader communities place in BCG,” he says. “I am sorry for how deeply disappointing this has been to many BCGers around the world.”
Most humanitarian groups backed out of the project because of their concerns about Israeli oversight and the militarization of aid. Others have rejected the new system based on practical assessments that the GHF cannot operate at the scale required to address Gaza’s hunger crisis, where more than 2 million people are at risk of starvation after Israel barred the entry of food, water and humanitarian aid for nearly three months.
Last week, a BCG consultant said the company, responsible for setting the payment and procurement rates for a network of contractors tasked with constructing four aid distribution centers in southern Gaza, ended its contract with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the body running the mechanism.
BCG said it had offered its services to the humanitarian effort on a pro bono basis and did not receive any compensation for its work. However, another individual familiar with the project disputes this claim, asserting that BCG submitted monthly invoices exceeding $1 million.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked for BCG in the United States prior to his political career.
John Acree biography ...
John Acree USAID professional served in Tajikistan 2002
A Different Day
Tajikistan halts cooperation military base U.S. forces for war in Afghanistan
Tajikistan: the diversification of military cooperation looking at Afghanistan's threats | 2 Aug. 2022 |
From Tajikistan to Moscow and Iran: Mapping the Local and Transnational Threat of Islamic State Khorasan | West Point CTC - May 2024 |
Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) emerged in 2015 as an official affiliate of the Islamic State in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, rapidly interweaving its jihad into the web of local conflicts and grievances. Alongside drawing its initial recruits from disaffected members of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, as well as former al-Qa'ida Members, ISK bolstered its ranks by forging strategic alliances with local groups, leveraging their skills, knowledge, and well-established operational and logistical networks.
Officials say Khorasan is part of Al Qaeda's Syrian branch, Al-Nusra Front, though experts and activists cast doubt on the distinction between the two groups.
Though ISK's goals closely align with those of its parent organization, the Islamic State, its operational focus was primarily on the historical Khorasan region, which encompasses parts of modern-day South and Central Asia.
Within its outreach and propaganda campaigns, ISK exploits regional conflict dynamics and militant infrastructures by fusing local grievances with its global agenda, propagating its message through local languages. This has enabled ISK's to recruit broadly while serving as a central node for many like-minded militant factions. ISK's exploitation of the local environment under the Taliban regime and its operational adaptations under the leadership of Sanaullah Ghafari.
The recent terrorist attack in Moscow, claimed by the Islamic State and attributed by many to ISK, drew global attention as it demonstrated ISK's reach, ambition, and growing influence. And while evidence points to ISK's involvement, including the recent Russia's Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov's claim that the attack was directed by ISK militants, much remains unknown about the specific organizational dynamics behind the execution of the attack, and Islamic State-central's role in enabling it.
See my diaries in three parts ...
RFU OP: Tajikistan and Khorasan Deception Part 2
Meet the Khorasan ... Al Nusra ... HTS leader from Idlib, Jolani. Supported by Israel-U.S.-Türkiye-Ukraine 🇺🇦 ... overthrow Assad, "Mission Accomplished".
Syria conflict: US strike 'kills Khorasan Group leader' | BBC News- 12 July 2015 |
US officials said the shadowy organisation was made up of about 50 veteran militants from Afghanistan and Pakistan, which jihadists refer to as Khorasan, as well as North Africa and Chechnya.
They had been sent to Syria by al-Qaeda's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, not to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad but to "develop external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices and recruit Westerners to conduct operations", the officials claimed.
Fadhli, their alleged leader, was believed to have arrived in Syria in 2013 but kept a low profile.
Some opponents of the Syrian government expressed doubts about whether the Khorasan Group actually existed, saying the US created it to justify attacks on al-Qaeda's local affiliate, al-Nusra Front.
In May, al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani said in a TV interview that he had been ordered by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri not to use Syria to launch attacks on the West. "There is nothing called Khorasan Group. The Americans came up with it to deceive the public," he insisted.
