Director of the Charity & Security Network, Kay Guinane was featured on WPFW- Pacifica Radio with David Rabin in Washington, D.C. to discuss how U.S. law inhibits legitimate charitable work through overbroad counterterror laws. “After the Patriot Act passed, the U.S. law put restrictions on what legitimate organizations can do,” Guinane said, “during the famine in Somalia in 2011, U.S. charities were not able to get into areas controlled by al-Shabbab because it was listed as a terrorist organization… it would have been illegal for them to have any transactions with al-Shabaab even if it is for the purpose of reaching civilians.”

Even when the famine in Somalia was at its worst, the U.S. would not issue a general license to allow aid groups unfettered access to civilians. Such a license would have allowed “otherwise prohibited” actions, according to Guinane. When asked why politicians—and the Obama administration in particular—were so reluctant to reform these troubling policies, Guinane suggested that it was a fear of being “soft on terrorism.” She went on to argue that there was also a general reluctance among policy makers to support alternatives to hard security approaches to countering terror. Peacebuilding programs and aid deliver in particular are vital in reducing the ability of terrorist groups to recruit and strengthen.

The full interview is available here. Other interviews from WPFW can be found here.