What’s more, several prominent universities in the United States failed to disclose $1.3 billion in this foreign funding. According to the Department of Education, the universities were Georgetown, Texas A&M, Cornell, Rutgers, the University of Maryland, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Clarion Project (h/t Amil I) A recent letter sent to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (part of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee) by the Department of Education’s deputy general counsel notes that for years these universities failed to report $1.3 billion in foreign funding “despite their clear legal duty to do so.”

Under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, U.S. universities are required to disclose “contracts with or gifts from the same foreign source that, alone or combined, have a value of $250,000 or more for a calendar year; and/or if the institution is owned or controlled by a foreign source.”

The letter describes foreign donations to U.S. schools as “a black hole” because U.S. colleges and universities “routinely” fail to report foreign money (in fact, nearly 70% of colleges and universities fail to report foreign funding).

The letter also notes that “Qatari ‘donations’ to American colleges and universities are made strategically to advance Islamic interests.”

For example, Qatar gave over $340 million to Northwestern University to promote a partnership between Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and Al Jazeera and to help train future “journalists.”

Al-Jazeera, the most influential Islamist extremist propaganda outlet in the world, is essentially an arm of the Qatari government. Al Jazeera has a long history of spreading anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and support for terrorist groups. This includes glorifying Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders.

A recent Clarion Project report exposed that U.S. universities have received $10 billion in foreign funding since 2012. Qatar is the most sizable donor to U.S. universities. According to the reported DOE data, the Qatari regime has given close to $1.5 billion to 28 universities throughout the U.S. in the form of monetary gifts and contracts since 2012.

In some cases, the funding comes via government-tied entities with known links to subversion, spying, terrorism and extremist ideology. For example, the terror-linked Qatar Foundation donated a jaw-dropping $33 million to Georgetown University in 2018. That’s just a single year from a single worrisome donor.

Click here to view all donations

Contrary to common belief, the Department of Education records do not show all donations from foreign actors. Disclosure can be avoided with simple evasive measures.

In a previous Clarion Project expose, we showed how the Iranian regime used a well-known front to send donations to about 30 universities in the U.S. and Canada. These donations, for example, do not show up in the Education Department records of foreign funding.

IIIT is a known entity of the Muslim Brotherhood, a foreign organization sponsored by foreign governments. IIIT has been investigated and nearly prosecuted for its links to foreign terrorist groups including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. IIIT is known to have received significant foreign funding.

But, because IIIT is based in the U.S. and is (supposedly) a completely independent entity, its donations are not included in the Education Department records of foreign donations to universities and colleges.

Therefore, we must conclude that the stunning amount of foreign financing coming to U.S. universities and colleges is just the tip of the iceberg.