a long process to designate something a foreign terrorist organization and... there's nothing to announce on that." A US State Department spokesman also has said the US government "cannot validate" any relationship or connection between İHH and al-Qaida. Michael Werz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress said "the White House has been quiet on the issue and the State Department has publicly noted that it has no plans to designate the group [as an FTO]." Response from IHH An IHH board member responded in the Los Angeles Times that IHH provides charity in more than 100 countries. He stated there was no proof that IHH has any connections to Al Qaeda or its affiliates, and also said that its involvement with Bosnia and Chechnya amounted to food, clothes and medicine. Those who "accuse us of terrorism are the very people who kill innocent victims," said Ali Cihangir, an IHH board member, referring to the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara that left nine Turkish activists dead. "There are political reasons countries are saying this about us." Involvement with Muslim Brotherhood and Syria According to The Times, a Free Syrian Army commander said that a boat carrying weapons docked in Syria in September 2012 and "was registered to members of the IHH, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood". Samar Srewel, an FSA activist who had helped to organize the consignment, told The Times: "It was clear from that second what was happening. The Muslim Brotherhood, through its ties in Turkey, was seizing control of this ship and the cargo. This is what they do. They buy influence with their money and guns." On 18 March 2016, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin sent a letter to the UN Security Council saying that three Turkish humanitarian organizations (NGOs) sent weapons and supplies to extremists in Syria on behalf of Turkey's MIT intelligence agency during the Syrian civil war. The three NGOs were the Besar Foundation, the Iyilikder Foundation and the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms (IHH). At an interview with the Investigative Project on Terrorism in 2018, former Turkish National Police official Ahmet Yayla said the National Intelligence Organization has used Turkey's IHH as an intermediary to provide al-Qaeda with weapons. Recent court case in Turkey 11.06.2021 in relation to the bombing that killed over 100 people in Ankara October 2015, evidence and witness accounts showed ISIS affiliated