In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department froze all Al Haramain’s financial assets pending an investigation, leading the Saudi government to disband the charity and fold it into another group, the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad.
In September 2004, the U.S. designated Al-Haramain a terrorist organization. In June 2008, the Treasury Department applied the terrorist designation to the entire Al-Haramain organization worldwide.
Bolton Blasts Obama For Not Visiting Israel
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton, a foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney, took aim at Barack Obama on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio for not once visiting Israel during his nearly four year presidency.
Bolton contrasted Romney’s scheduled visit to Israel next week with Obama’s treatment of the Jewish state. Stated Bolton:
“I think [Romney’s] simple presence in Israel says it all. Obama has been in office three and a half years and he has had time to do more fundraisers than any other first-term American president; has probably played more rounds of golf than any other president since Dwight Eisenhower. And yet he has not had time to fit into his busy schedule even one trip to Israel.
“I think Gov. Romney is committed to the security of Israel in ways that are really very consistent with what used to be the broad, bipartisan tradition in American politics, a tradition that has not been followed by the Obama administration.”
As a presidential candidate, Obama visited Israel in July 2008. In 2009, Obama addressed the Arab world from Egypt and then traveled to Saudi Arabia but did not stop in Israel during his only Mideast tour as president.