MEMBERS of a notorious US biker gang with a history of hostility to Islam, known as the Infidels Motorcycle Club, have been recruited to guard sites where aid is distributed in Gaza, writes Stanley Szecowka.
They are working for UG Solutions, a private contractor providing security at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, where hundreds of civilians seeking food have been killed in scenes of chaos and gunfire.
British broadcaster BBC News has revealed that seven members of the gang are in senior positions overseeing sites at the controversial aid operation backed by Israel and US President Donald Trump.
UG Solutions (UGS) defended its employees’ qualifications for the job, saying it does not screen people out for ‘personal hobbies or affiliations unrelated to job performance’.
Infidels MC was set up by US military veterans of the Iraq war in 2006 and members see themselves as ‘modern Crusaders’, using the Crusader cross as their symbol – a reference to the medieval Christians who fought Muslims for control of Jerusalem.
The gang is currently hosting anti-Muslim hate speech on its social media pages.
Critics have compared the decision to recruiting members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan to help the starving in Africa.
“Putting the Infidels biker club in charge of delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza is like putting the KKK in charge of delivering humanitarian aid in Sudan. It makes no sense whatsoever,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim civil rights organisation in the US. “It’s bound to lead to violence, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen happen in Gaza.”
The gang’s leader, Johnny ‘Taz’ Mulford, is a former sergeant in the US Army who was punished for conspiracy to commit bribery, theft and making false statements to military authorities. He is now the country team leader running UG Solutions’ contract in Gaza.
The BBC emailed Infidels MC for comment. In response, Mr Mulford instructed fellow leaders of the biker gang not to reply but included the BBC when he clicked ‘reply all’ – inadvertently disclosing email addresses and names of fellow Infidels MC members, some of whom were working in Gaza.
“By matching up names with public information about Infidels MC’s leadership, and evidence from UG Solutions insiders who worked with them, we have identified 10 members of Infidels MC who Mr Mulford recruited to work with him in Gaza,” the BBC said.
Social media posts show that in May, just two weeks before travelling to Gaza, Mr Mulford sought to recruit US military veterans who follow him on Facebook, inviting anyone who ‘can still shoot, move and communicate’ to apply, the BBC added.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it has ‘a zero-tolerance policy for any hateful, discriminatory biases or conduct’.
Scenes of chaos and danger have been common at the aid distribution sites in Gaza since they opened at the end of May. Up to September 2, 1,135 children, women and men were killed near GHF sites while seeking food, according to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN has said most of the killings appear to have been carried out by Israeli security forces. Incidents where civilians were harmed while seeking aid are ‘under review by the competent authorities in the IDF’, the Israeli military said.
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