"recent cash injection" makes my head spin

Unemployed Palestinians check to see if their names appear on a list of people to receive a welfare payment from the Hamas government, in Gaza City, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008. The recent cash injection has allowed Hamas to make a new round of welfare payments of US$100 (euro70) each to thousands of unemployed workers. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The caption doesn't name the source of "the recent cash injection," so we are left to assume that it's our American tax dollars that are being handed out by Hamas and for which the recipients are understandably grateful - not to George Bush or the United States or the American taxpayer - but to Hamas.

Here's what I can see from my limited vantage point:

In December, various countries and organizations pledged $7.4 BILLION to Abu Mazen's Arab Alternative to Israel. That pledge included $555 million from the United States.

According to Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen, "on Jan. 30 Abu Mazen agreed to give Hamas $3.1 billion of $7.7 billion pledged by international donors in Paris last December."

And we know from Salam Fayyad, Arab Accountant Extraordinaire, that as of Feb. 11th, "Congress [had] already appropriated $218 million" of that.

Tuesday, Feb. 12th, Abu Mazen said on Bahraini TV that "Hamas are our brothers and part of the Palestinian people."

And then two days later (photo caption says Feb. 14), we have Hamas handing out an unexplained "recent cash injection" in the [Jew-free] Gaza strip.

Maybe I'm not connecting the dots properly, but it looks like Condi has woven a pretty tangled web here. Think about this: Her own State Department has formally designated Hamas as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization." If you read the "Legal Ramifications of [such a] Designation," Number One is that

It is unlawful for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide "material support or resources" to a designated FTO.

What happens if that person "in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" who is providing "material or resources to a designated FTO" just happens to be the Secretary of State of the United States?

Is there a lawyer in the house? I could use some help here.

Maybe she didn't know in December that Abu Mazen would immediately share his billions with his brothers in Hamas, but I haven't heard her chastising Abu Mazen for doing so, and surely she's aware of it by now. So is she incredibly uninformed, unbelievably stupid, or absolutely treacherous? You decide.

Moreover, on a purely pragmatic level, it doesn't seem like it would be in the best interest of the United States to give poorpalestinians a hundred bucks a shot and then let all their consequent goodwill, gratitude and loyalty go to waste on an FTO like Hamas.

Am I right? Or am I crazy? And if I'm right, shouldn't the President know about this? I can't believe a man known for his "sheer decency" would be able to abide such a mess.