Quote of note:

But Mara T. Patermaster, the director of the charity program, said last week that the program required diligent efforts from participants. "We expect the charities will take affirmative action to make sure they are not supporting terrorist activities," Ms. Patermaster said.

"Take affirmative action?"

That means they don't expect the charities to do a single damn thing, I guess.

Anyway…

A.C.L.U. to Withdraw From Charity Drive
By ADAM LIPTAK

The American Civil Liberties Union withdrew from a federal charity drive yesterday, rejecting the $500,000 it expected to receive through it this year.

The move was prompted, the civil liberties group said, by an article in The New York Times yesterday. The article reported that the group had signed a certification saying it would not knowingly employ people whose names appeared on several government terrorism watch lists.

Since October, all of the thousands of charities that participate in the drive, called the Combined Federal Campaign, have been required to sign such a certification. The program collects and distributes $250 million in contributions from federal employees and military personnel.

The A.C.L.U. has criticized similar watch lists, saying they are often inaccurate and violate the constitutional rights of some of those named on them. In April, the group sued the government to block the use of similar "no fly" lists.

The group signed the charity drive's certification in January. In recent interviews, the group's executive director, Anthony D. Romero, said it had not inspected the watch lists or compared them to its employment records. Mr. Romero said his lawyers had advised him that he could sign the certification in good faith because it prohibited only knowing employment of those listed.

"The A.C.L.U. would not have signed the C.F.C. funding agreement if we thought we had to check our employment records against a government blacklist," Mr. Romero said in an interview yesterday.