A watchdog organization, the American Accountability Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against Voice of America for refusing to respond to Freedom of Information case requests for information about its “pro-Islamic” bias.
The foundation said the case was brought after VOA failed to answer 58 FOIA requests triggered by an investigation into allegations VOA “was amplifying anti-American and pro-Islamic reporting.”
“Voice of America and USAGM have a history of pushing partisan propaganda and manipulating the visa system to benefit shady foreign nationals,” Tom Jones, AAF founder, said. “Now, while using American taxpayer dollars, they are openly violating FOIA rules to shield their bad behavior from the public.”
The foundation explained VOA is an arm of the United States Agency for Global Media and is responsible for providing news and information in 47 languages, including in Persian in the nation of Iran.
But the foundation lawsuit charges, “VOA has been infiltrated by anti-American, pro-Islamic state interests, and that the message of VOA had been compromised in a manner that was biased toward the Islamic state factions in Iran.”
The foundation said it had asked for communications between VOA staff and individuals in Middle Eastern countries but the agency refused to produce the required records.
The concerns being raised, the foundation said, are from local people in the region but also Iranian-Americans “whom the program appears to be targeting.”
According to a report at Breitbart, AAF is a political watchdog organization that investigates “bureaucratic overreach that impacts constitutional liberties.”
The complaint, the report explained, accused VOA of “failing to respond to nearly 60 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests throughout an investigation into allegations” that VOA was promoting messaging that was both anti-American and pro-Islamist.
The report said AAF claims that “locals in the Middle East have raised concerns that ‘VOA has been infiltrated by anti-American, pro-Islamic state interests, and that the message of VOA had been compromised in a manner that was biased toward the Islamic state factions in Iran.'”
In a statement to Breitbart News, Iranian advocacy group Iranian Americans for Liberty supported the action.
“The Iranian Americans for Liberty applaud Tom Jones and the American Accountability Foundation for filing a lawsuit against Voice of America for failing to respond to multiple FOIA requests,” said IAL executive director Bryan E. Leib. “Transparency and accountability are two founding principles located in the VOA charter that they’ve ignored for far too long.”
VOA earlier earned the condemnation of then-President Donald Trump, who called what the organization was saying “disgusting.”
Islam expert Robert Spencer said, “Hating America is de rigueur on the Left these days. Everyone’s doing it. Why shouldn’t the VOA join in? But this rot in the very institutions that should be protecting and defending the nation will one day eat its way all the way through.”
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