US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT3393

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 003393 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS SKANE, S/CT TKUSHNER, NEA/ARPI 
TWILLIAMS, NEA/ELA SSONTY, NEA/IPA GLOGERFO, IO/PSC 
BFITZGERALD 
NSC FOR JZARATE 
TREASURY FOR DGLASER, OFAC DIRECTOR RWERNER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2015 
TAGS: EFIN, PTER, KTFN, PINR, KU 
SUBJECT: CHARITY OVERSIGHT DIRECTOR DESCRIBES HIS WORK; 
ASKS FOR MORE USG ASSISTANCE 
 
REF: KUWAIT 1730 
 
Classified By: CDA Matthew Tueller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (U) This is an action request, please see para 6. 
 
2.  (C) Summary and Comment:  Econ Officer met July 27 with 
Ministry of Social Affairs Charitable Organizations Oversight 
Department Director Nasser Al-Ammer and Undersecretary Adnan 
Al-Omar to learn more about the day-to-day operations of the 
department.  Al-Ammer described the various activities of his 
department, including how it regulates charities, coordinates 
with other ministries and agencies, follows up on violations, 
and recruits employees.  He said that significant progress 
has been made on oversight of charities over the past few 
years, but that more control is still needed.  He said that 
more training is needed for his employees and he and 
Undersecretary Adnan Al-Omar both asked for USG assistance 
with training and guidelines.  Comment:  Econ Officer 
scheduled the meeting specifically with Al-Ammer because we 
do not believe that Al-Omar has enough day-to-day 
understanding of the actual work of this department.  When we 
arrived at Al-Ammer's office, he told us that we needed to go 
see Al-Omar, which we did.  It was clear that Al-Ammer does 
not feel he can meet with USG and Embassy representatives 
without the permission of Al-Omar.  After sitting briefly 
with Al-Omar, we went back to Al-Ammer's office and continued 
our meeting with him, where we learned much more about his 
work.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
Charity Org Oversight Director Works in Shadow of 
Undersecretary 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
3.  (C) Econ Officer met July 27 with Ministry of Social 
Affairs Charitable Organizations Oversight Department (COOD) 
Director Nasser Al-Ammer to learn more about the day-to-day 
operations of the department.  Upon arriving at Al-Ammer's 
office, Al-Ammer said that we needed to go see Adnan Al-Omar, 
the Undersecretary (reftel).  (Comment: It was clear that 
Al-Ammer had asked for permission from Al-Omar to meet with 
us and that Al-Omar wanted to be in on the meeting.  After 
speaking for a short time with Al-Ammer we went up to 
Al-Omar's office to meet with both of them.  When the meeting 
ended with Al-Omar, Al-Ammer brought us back to his office 
where we spoke at length about his work.  It was clear that 
he takes his job very seriously but does not yet have the 
political power to make decisions on his own.  End Comment.) 
 
Trip to Bosnia Creates "Good Feelings" 
-------------------------------------- 
 
4.  (C) Al-Omar said that his Ministry and the COOD had 
"strengthened relations" with the charitable organizations by 
visiting Bosnia to see some of these organizations in action. 
 He said that he "feels confident in how the money was being 
spent," and that the organizations doing the work locally 
were accredited by the Bosnian government.  Al-Omar said that 
the trip was sponsored by a number of different charities, 
including the Social Reform Society (SRS), and that this 
specific charity no longer had any "violations of 
procedures."  He said that a "serious effort" was being made 
by the organization and that the Ministry now has a 
"cooperative" relationship with the SRS.  He said that he 
still needed more cooperation from "Islamic Revival", likely 
referring to the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS). 
 
5.  (C) Reflecting back on his recent discussions with other 
USG officials (reftel), Al-Omar said that his concerns about 
the charities are primarily "concerns about the political 
movements" behind the charities and not the charities 
themselves.  He explained that he considers himself a 
liberal, and does not like the Islamists behind the 
charities.  He said that he thought a lot of effort had been 
made by the charities to comply with the COOD regulations 
over the past two years. 
 
USG Assistance Requested 
------------------------ 
 
6.  (SBU) Al-Omar wondered "how so much money had been 
collected in the U.S." that eventually went to nefarious 
purposes, and specifically asked how the U.S. deals with 
charity oversight and regulation.  He asked for examples of 
the material and guidelines that are used and welcomed any 
training that could be provided.  Econ Officer said that we 
would relay this request to the appropriate agencies and let 
him know what type of assistance and training could be 
provided. 
 
COOD Department Inner Workings 
------------------------------ 
 
7.  (C)  Back with Al-Ammer in his office, we learned more 
specific details about his department.  There are now eight 
officially licensed charities in Kuwait, including new ones 
providing help for prisoners, assisting injured workers, and 
rehabilitating drug addicts.  Al-Ammer said that no societies 
or charities were approved from outside Kuwait, that these 
were all Kuwaiti organizations.  Besides the eight "major 
charities," as he described them, he said that there are also 
23 "welfare organizations" run by rich Kuwaiti families.  All 
of the organizations "have accepted to come under the 
government umbrella," he explained. 
 
8.  (C) Al-Ammer said that his department "was confident in 
the procedures being implemented by Kuwaiti charities 
overseas," and that no projects would be undertaken without 
approval of the COOD.  He added that any payments for work to 
local organizations had to be approved by the banks in which 
the charities held their accounts.  He was "confident that no 
stage of (any charity) project would be done without 
approval" by the GOK, and added that "even mosque 
construction (in foreign countries) had to have approval of 
the host governments." 
 
9.  (C) Al-Ammer did not try to paint a completely rosy 
picture of the oversight of charities in Kuwait.  He said 
that his department "still needs more control" over the 
groups, and that more training was needed.  He welcomed any 
offers of training and materials from the USG.  He said that 
he has 24 employees in his department and that he is very 
particular about the people he hires.  He said that the 
department considers the positions to be "sensitive" and that 
he personally screens all of the new employees.  The COOD 
also uses a classification system for sensitive documents, 
according to Al-Ammer. 
 
Coordination With Other Ministries on Violations 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
10.  (C) To coordinate actual oversight and enforcement of 
rules regarding charities, Al-Ammer explained, there are 
regular meetings of a "field inspection department committee" 
where any outstanding issues can be raised.  This meeting is 
attended by his department, as well as the Ministries of 
Interior, Information and Commerce.  Any commercial 
transaction related to charities, including the display and 
selling of literature in bookstores, must have approval from 
the COOD, according to Al-Ammer.  He explained that the COOD 
has the authority to write up violations, then the violations 
are presented to the relevant ministry for action.  A 
"follow-up committee" within the COOD makes sure that action 
has been taken against the violations, and he added that he 
"can go around the ministries" if the appropriate action is 
not being taken. 
 
11.  (C) In the past few years, Al-Ammer said, the 
"community" in Kuwait has become much more cooperative, and 
"strangers collecting donations are usually reported."  He 
said that 23 foreigners were seized during the past Ramadan 
(mid-October - mid-November 2004) for unlawful charity 
collection, and expected that his department would carry out 
a similar campaign this Ramadan (early-October - 
early-November 2005).  Of the 23 people from last Ramadan, 
Al-Ammer said that 2 were from Senegal, 4 or 5 were 
Pakistani, 3 or 4 were Iranians, 1 was Lebanese and the rest 
were from other countries or Bidoun (stateless Arabs).  After 
seizing the person, Al-Ammer said, his department would take 
the passport and visa and task the Ministry of Social Affairs 
with calling in the visa sponsor to explain why they 
sponsored this person for a visa.  (Note: You cannot have 
employment in Kuwait without a visa sponsor.)  The person is 
usually deported after the investigation of the visa sponsor. 
 Al-Ammer said that most of the 23 caught last year had 
either worked directly for or had been affiliated with one of 
the Kuwaiti charities overseas and were usually recommended 
by someone to come to Kuwait for work.  Al-Ammer said that 
the COOD has told the charity organizations not to sponsor 
foreigners for visas anymore. 
 
Getting the Word Out During Ramadan 
----------------------------------- 
12.  (C) Al-Ammer said that his department will also have 
much closer cooperation this coming Ramadan with the Ministry 
of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs concerning charity donations, 
which are particularly important for Muslims during the holy 
month of Ramadan.  He said that previously, his department 
only had correspondence with the Ministry and the COOD would 
ask the Ministry to urge imams (Mosque preachers) to speak 
out against unlawful and misdirected charity collections. 
This year, he said, the Ministry will send out a message to 
all imams telling them that they are responsible for all of 
the activities that take place inside their mosques, 
including charitable collections.  He said that the COOD 
would cooperate with the Ministry to remove unlicensed 
charity committees from inside the mosques. 
 
The Times They Are a Changing 
----------------------------- 
 
13.  (C) To illustrate how the perception of charity 
collection has changed over the past few years, Al-Ammer 
explained how, prior to the establishment of his department 
in 2003 and the work it has done over the past few years, "no 
one dared to remove the man on the street selling Korans and 
collecting donations."  Now, he said, the word has gotten out 
that this is illegal and the police take the necessary 
action.  He also said that the COOD has succeeded in 
eliminating newspapers ads and billboards asking for 
donations and on getting rid of the numerous charity boxes 
that were in abundance all over Kuwait.  He said that store 
owners used to be afraid to tell the charity committees not 
to place collection boxes in their stores, but now the store 
owners know they have the law on their side. 
 
14.  (C) Concerning actions by individuals on behalf of 
charities, Al-Ammer said that the COOD maintains a blacklist 
of persons based on UN designations and will not grant a visa 
to anyone who is designated by the UN as a supporter of 
terrorism.  He also said that anyone delivering a speech on 
behalf of a charity must first get permission from the COOD, 
and that any projects outside of Kuwait would be validated by 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
No Beard, But Still a Good Muslim 
--------------------------------- 
 
15.  (C)  Al-Ammer finished the meeting by describing the 
frosty reception that awaited him when he first took charge 
of the COOD.  He said that "the staff was difficult in the 
beginning, because he didn't have a beard," and that they 
thought he was going to be the "sword on the neck of the 
charities."  He said that he told them that he has been 
praying since he was six years old and listens to the Koran 
in his office (it was playing in the background when we 
arrived for our meeting.)  He managed to show them that he 
prays just like they do, he said, just without the beard. 
His goal is to regulate the charities, he explained, not 
dissolve them. 
 
16.  (C) Comment: We found Al-Ammer to take his job very 
seriously and to understand USG concerns regarding the 
charities and their operations around the world.  While he 
was certainly attempting to tell us what we wanted to hear, 
we found him to be much more knowledgeable about the 
day-to-day operations of the COOD than Undersecretary Al-Omar 
and would recommend that any future engagement on this issue 
include Al-Ammer. 
 
Bio Data 
-------- 
 
17.  (SBU) Al-Ammer is about 45 years old and does not speak 
English very well.  He understands it but prefers to use an 
interpreter.  He considers himself a devout Muslim. 
 
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