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<span class="post_date" title="2015-10-06">October 6, 2015</span>
<h1 class="headline" itemprop="name"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/06/why-is-the-us-government-persecuting-ifcopastors-for-peace-humanitarian-organization/"
rel="bookmark">Why is the US Government Persecuting IFCO/Pastors
for Peace Humanitarian Organization?</a></h1>
<p class="post_meta"> <span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/w-t-whitney/"
rel="nofollow">W. T. Whitney</a></span> </p>
<div class="post_content" itemprop="articleBody"><b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/06/why-is-the-us-government-persecuting-ifcopastors-for-peace-humanitarian-organization/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/06/why-is-the-us-government-persecuting-ifcopastors-for-peace-humanitarian-organization/</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
<p>The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
(IFCO/Pastors for Peace) has worked tirelessly so that someday
U. S. international dealings would be based on peace and mutual
respect. Now the Internal Revenue Service is about to remove the
tax-exempt status of that non-profit, humanitarian group. In the
words of the late Rev. Lucius Walker Jr., who founded the
organization, IFCO wants a “people’s foreign policy.”</p>
<p>An IRS appeals officer in September signaled that the agency
would be upholding a ruling from December 2013 revoking IFCO’s
non-profit, tax-exempt status. IFCO has long stood in the
forefront of efforts to establish decent U. S. relations with
Cuba. The IRS action seems to stem from IFCO activities in that
regard.</p>
<p>Under Rev. Walker’s leadership, IFCO transformed lessons
learned from civil rights struggles to fashion tactics of
non-violent civil disobedience to advance its work on Cuba.
Annually for 23 years IFCO/Pastors for Peace, joined by
supporters, has taken humanitarian aid to Cuba in purposeful
violation of regulations governing the U. S. embargo against
Cuba. Until now, ironically enough, federal authorities have
done very little to impede the flow of IFCO aid material and
delegations to the island.</p>
<p>The original IRS investigation that began in March 2011 had a
very different agenda. Conservative congresspersons had
complained to the IRS that IFCO in 2009 served as a fiscal
sponsor for the U. S. branch of the British group Viva Palestina
that at the time was helping to organize a humanitarian flotilla
headed for Gaza. They alleged that IFCO was actually backing the
Hamas political organization, and thereby terrorists.</p>
<p>IFCO Executive Director Gail Walker on October 3 reacted
sharply to news that the IRS had rejected her organization’s
appeal: the “attack by the U.S. government to rescind our
nonprofit status is shocking and makes no sense in light of the
significant moves of both the Obama and Castro administrations
to normalize relations between our two countries.”</p>
<p>In fact IFCO has dedicated much of its work over two decades to
ending the U. S. embargo against Cuba. More recently
IFCO/Pastors for Peace has recruited and supported U.S. young
people to become medical doctors through study, at no personal
cost, at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine.</p>
<p>On October 3, an IFCO press release pointed out that the group
is “one of the nation’s oldest faith-based civil rights
organizations and the first ecumenical foundation founded by and
for people of color.” That statement called upon the U. S.
government “To stop bullying IFCO for helping the people of Cuba
and allow us to continue our life-saving humanitarian work.”</p>
<p>IFCO asks for support and action on its behalf. In particular:</p>
<p>1 FAX or Telephone IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at Large
Business and International Division, Attn: SE:LB, 1111
Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20224, Phone: (202)
515-4400, Fax: (202) 622-5756</p>
<p>2 FAX or Telephone, Secretary of Treasury Jacob J. Lew,
Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW ,
Washington, D.C. 20220, Phone: (202) 622-2000, Fax: (202)
622-6415</p>
<p>(You may write them via regular mail, but FAX is better, says
IFCO. A link is available to send a FAX: <u><a
href="http://www.gotfreefax.com">Use this.</a></u>)</p>
<p><u><a
href="https://www.change.org/p/do-not-remove-ifco-pastors-for-peace-non-profit-tax-status?recruiter=38856462&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink">Click
here</a></u> to sign a petition which sends an email message
to Commissioner John Koskinen, asking him to end this
politically-motivated attack on IFCO. (and also to Pres. Obama
and our friends in Congress — with one click)</p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>W.T. Whitney Jr.</strong> is
a retired pediatrician and political journalist living in
Maine.</em> </p>
</div>
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