“Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” whistleblower, retired Green Beret Lt. Col. Tony Aguilar, told Krystall Ball and Saagar Enjetti in an interview published Friday about the disorganized and illegal activities of this aid organization distributing food in Gaza.

AGUILAR: So, recently retired, living in North Carolina. I was called by UG Solutions on May 13th. They were specifically looking for individuals with a special operations background who were recently retired or had recently left the service, that had-you know-currency. I had just retired in March. So, they called me. When they first called me, I had never heard of UG Solutions. And to me that was a little bit odd, because I’ve been pretty familiar with contracting companies. So I did some research, and I got back to them and said, Hey, I’m interested. Give me your 30-second pitch. And they said, Hey, we’re going to go into Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. Our company was selected to do the Nesarim Corridor mission-the checkpoint-in January through March, and we got selected to go back and do this humanitarian aid. So that’s how I got hired. And about three days later, I ended up on a plane to Gaza. … A total of 12 deployments. Nine of those were combat deployments: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Southern Philippines, all throughout Southeast Asia. I’m a Purple Heart recipient-I was wounded in combat in 2005 in Mosul, Iraq. I commanded at every level from when I commissioned out of West Point as an infantry officer through my time trying out and being selected for special forces, and then commanding through special forces up to the battalion level before I eventually retired. … First day, first impressions-not impressed. Coming into the airport in Tel Aviv was very disorganized. We waited there for a very long time. It became evident to me that whomever was in charge of the processing for 277 tourist visa entrants under a company did not do their due diligence and pre-coordination. From there, we went to the city of Ashdod where we had a briefing. The very first question I remember-because it was asked even when we were still in Virginia-was, Leadership, we’re here on a tourist visa. What are our rules of engagement? What are the escalation of force procedures? And what is our legal protection in Israel being armed as tourists? And the response to that was, Why do you need to know that? If you’re threatened, shoot. I didn’t ask the question, I was sitting in the crowd, but I was physically aghast. I was just like, What? I was concerned. … UG Solutions, as a subcontractor for security, is not a military organization. This is not a government contract-which is more concerning. If I go into a country, whether it’s for combat operations or security operations, I’m protected by a Status of Forces Agreement and/or Title 10 authority granted by the Constitution for me to be there as a combatant in war. I have legal protection. But when I’m in Israel and I’m an American citizen on a tourist visa, right, I’m under the same status as if my grandmother went to go visit Jerusalem. I’m just there as a tourist, right? Walking around-armed with a fully automatic weapon. Immediately-day one, first step, don’t pass go-we are already violating international law right off the bat. I thoroughly looked this up because I was concerned. When I did my visa, they stamped it. I read it-it says B2 entry visa. That’s a tourist visa. They said, I don’t think it is. I said, It says clearly: tourist. That’s concerning. There was a lot of lack of understanding. I don’t want to sound cruel, but-ignorance, in its definition. There was ignorance to the process. It almost seemed like if a child were given a project far beyond their means-they just don’t have the capacity to understand something of this magnitude.

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