The People’s Weekly World reported yesterday that Church World Service representatives were banned from the Philippines last summer.  The government claimed the blacklisted people had links to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Philippines: Blacklist bars rights advocates

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently reported that a government blacklist barred 504 people from 50 countries from entering the Philippines during July and August, before and after a ministerial meeting in Manila of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

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The government, alleging the blacklisted persons have links to the Taliban or Al Qaeda, banned Filipino expatriates and U.S. members of Church World Service, the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

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A foreign ministry official cited by Philippines Labor Net admitted previous blacklisting had excluded Brian Campbell, a U.S. lawyer for the International Labor Rights Fund, and other human rights activists, among them former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Church World Service (CWS) is one of ten major volags resettling refugees in the United States and was the major funder of the refugee resettlement that caused such a ruckus in Hagerstown, MD recently.  CWS received approximately $24 million from the taxpayers last year.    It is highly far-fetched to think they are even remotely connected to international terrorism.  However, more interesting to me is that they were among a group of such unabashed Socialists and Communists.  Or, is this just a case of guilt by association?    The People’s Weekly World that reported this story says of itself:

We enjoy a special relationship with the Communist Party USA, founded in 1919, and publish its news and views.

I guess I’ll never be able to see “Crop Walk” publicity again without thinking about these possible connections.