Month: May 2009

State Department notes linkage of Rohingya to terrorist group

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 10th, 2012:  Note that the US State Department has removed the terror list link I noted below from its website so it’s a good thing that Watch sent us the text at the time.

A reader named “Watch” has alerted us to a really fascinating link at the US State Department—Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 (dated April 30, 2009).  Check it out here and note that, no surprise, Al-Shabaab is there (you remember the recruiters of our missing Somali refugee youths) and also Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LT) (note several spellings of LT).  Some theories suggest that Farooq Kathwari’s son died as a Kashmiri Jihadist with LT.  Kathwari is of course the Chairman of the Board of Refugees International, a major lobbying group advocating for increased Muslim refugee resettlement in the US.

I am getting off track, below is the whole report “Watch” has sent us on HUJI-B the Bangladeshi terrorist group linked to the Rohingya.   For new readers trying to catch up on why we are concerned about Rohingya go to our entire category on the subject here.   “Watch” posted the following here:

HARAKAT UL-JIHAD-I-ISLAMI/BANGLADESH (HUJI-B)
a.k.a. Harakat ul Jihad e Islami Bangladesh; Harkatul Jihad al Islam; Harkatul Jihad; Harakat ul Jihad al Islami; Harkat ul Jihad al Islami; Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami; Harakat ul Jihad Islami Bangladesh; Islami Dawat-e-Kafela; IDEK

Description: Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B) was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on March 5, 2008. HUJI-B was formed in April 1992 by a group of former Bangladeshi Afghan veterans to establish an Islamic social system based on the “Medina Charter.” The group was banned by Bangladeshi authorities in October 2005. In May 2008, HUJI-B members formed a new organization, the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP). In November, government authorities rejected their application for registering as a party that could participate in elections. HUJI-B has connections to the Pakistani militant groups Harakat ul-Jihad-Islami (HUJI) and Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM), which advocate similar objectives in Pakistan, Jammu, and Kashmir. The leaders of HUJI-B and HUM both signed the February 1998 fatwa sponsored by Usama bin Ladin that declared American civilians to be legitimate targets for attack.

Activities: HUJI-B may be responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in India, including an October 2008 attack in a shopping area in Agartala, Tripura that killed three and wounded over 100 people. The Agartala attack may have been conducted jointly with a local Indian separatist group. HUJI-B has trained and fielded operatives in Burma to fight on behalf of the Rohingya, an Islamic minority group. Three HUJI-B members were convicted in December 2008 for the grenade attack on the British High Commissioner in May 2004 in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Bangladeshi courts issued warrants in December 2008 for the arrest of eight HUJI-B members for the bombing at a festival in April 2001 that killed 10 and injured scores of people. In May, Indian police arrested HUJI-B militant Mohammad Iqbal, a.k.a. Abdur Rehman, who was charged with plotting attacks in Delhi, India. HUJI-B and its detained leader, Mufti Hannan, are also suspected in a 2000 assassination attempt on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Strength: HUJI-B leaders have claimed up to 400 members are Afghan war veterans, but its total membership is unknown.

Location/Area of Operation: The group operates primarily in Bangladesh, India, and Burma. HUJI-B has a network of madrassas and conducts trainings in Bangladesh.

External Aid: HUJI-B funding comes from a variety of sources. Several international Islamic NGOs such as the South African-based Servants of Suffering Humanity may have funneled money to HUJI-B and other Bangladeshi militant groups. HUJI-B also can draw funding from local militant madrassa leaders and teachers.

For new readers, we have 70 posts in the Rohingya Reports category, the bottom line is that there is a public relations campaign underway to begin resettling Rohingya in the US.  Refugees International has advocated for their resettlement.  Some have already gone to Canada and the UK.

Houston: Burmese refugee shot and robbed in broad daylight

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This poor guy who lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood was placed there by Catholic Charities.  So what else is new.   Near where we live, the Virginia Council of Churches placed refugees in the worst drug-infested neighborhood and worst building in Hagerstown, MD two years ago.   That act, among others, told local citizens that the do-gooders were a bunch of phonies.   

I don’t want to hear wailing about money.  If Refugee Resettlement agencies don’t have enough government money, either go find more private charitable funding or don’t bring that many refugees—tell the State Department, NO!

From KHOU Channel 11 in Houston:

HOUSTON — Inside Ben Taub Hospital, a victim of a robbery who is on a ventilator and unable to speak must be wondering if Houston is any better than the place he just left. 

“It is sad. He just wanted the American dream like everyone else,” Officer Carrie Farquhar said.

They targeted refugees!

Sam ended up in Southwest Houston at an apartment complex in the 17600 block of Beechnut near Wilcrest. Other refugees from Burma had been living there, too.

Seeking the American dream, Sam found a job at Kroger.

But two weeks ago, his life changed again.

It was the day he walked from his apartment to a gas station located right next door. He went there to cash his payroll check.

Houston Police say surveillance cameras captured a female named Criteria Holmes walking over there, too. She saw Sam get his money.

“Saw him and knew what he was doing, and was on the cell phone,” say Detective Farquhar.

She was allegedly on the phone with Eugene Simmons, who is a documented gang member.

Police say Simmons waited for Sam to get back to the apartment complex. When Sam arrived, he took Sam’s money at gunpoint and then shot him six times. The robbery took place in broad daylight. 

HPD says Simmons and Holmes, who are now in custody, likely targeted refugees.

The other refugees insisted they be moved from that neighborhood and the do-gooders at Catholic Charities granted them their request—too late for Sam of course.

Frightened about what had happened, all the refugees living in the apartment complex wanted to move out immediately.

Catholic Charities, which has many Burmese as clients, granted their request and quickly relocated them.

I guess it takes a tragedy to get these resettlement agencies to change their ways, and apparently the State Department did nothing in 2001 when they knew there was a problem!

In 2001 Catholic Charities in Houston was accused of placing refugees in dangerous neighborhoods!

Chris Coen of Friends of Refugees has obtained a July 2001 State Department monitoring report on Catholic Charities which he summarized as follows:

Refugees reported possible criminal activities at the apartment complex at which all of the refugees had been placed by the affiliate. Two of the refugees interviewed told monitors that they felt that their neighborhood was bordering on unsafe. When interviewed about how safe they felt at the apartment complex, one family indicated that a few days before they had heard gunshots and the police had come to the apartment complex. Another refugee family reported that neighbors were too noisy and threw garbage from the balcony above their apartment. They thought that the neighbors used drugs.

Where are the investigative reporters of old?   Forget taking on any sacred cows of the leftwing, they have gone to swoon over important issues like Michelle’s buff arms (or the dog, or the garden, or her clothes).

Common sense on Somalis and immigration from John Derbyshire

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

John Derbyshire, curmudgeon extraordinaire and writer for National Review, ended a blog post on Somalia’s chaos and Somalis with “And for crying out loud, keep them out of our country.”  

Naturally he was taken to task by a reader. Here is his very sensible reply:

An outraged reader:

Mr. Derbyshire — You say “And for crying out loud, keep them out of our country.”

Keep who out? Somalis? But most Somalis are not terrorists. On what grounds can we keep them out?

On the grounds that we can grant, or deny, permission for a foreigner to enter our country, according to what we perceive to be our interests. Otherwise, in what sense is this our country? And in fact we do have procedures for deciding who may, or may not, enter the U.S.A. If a foreigner wants to settle in the U.S.A., the procedures are even longer and more burdensome. I know they are; I’ve been through them. This is at is should be.

If the objection is, that we ought not base this decision on some factor as broad as national origin, I can only say I disagree. We should not let people enter if we have no way of verifying what they tell us about their background and intentions. Somalia has been in a state of utter chaos for decades. We have no effective consular presence there. There is no way we can verify what any aspiring Somali immigrant tells us about himself. Since there are a great many jihadists there — the place is on the point of being taken over by them! — the wisest thing, for our own security, would be to admit no Somalis. What is wrong with this reasoning?

Of course I know that most Somalis are not terrorists. Some Somalis are terrorists, though, and we have utterly no way of distinguishing them from the others. So let’s play safe and keep ’em all out. Again, I don’t see what’s wrong with this. In fact, I think our public discourse has come to a sorry pass when I even have to say the things I just said.

As Ann pointed out last week, our admissions of refugees have increased this year despite the recession, including 2,232 Somalis.

Obama: the Alinsky president

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written about and referred to Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals frequently here, since so much that happens with refugees and community disruption seems to hark back to what Alinsky wrote. Today Jim Geraghty has an article called The Alinsky Administration on National Review Online. He begins:

Barack Obama never met Saul Alinsky, but the radical organizer’s thought helps explain a great deal about how the president operates.‘Relationships Built on Self Interest,’ an idea illustrated by a diagram of the flow of money from corporations to the mayor.”

Alinsky died in 1972, when Obama was 11 years old. But three of Obama’s mentors from his Chicago days studied at a school Alinsky founded, and they taught their students the philosophy and methods of one of the first “community organizers.” Ryan Lizza wrote a 6,500-word piece on Alinsky’s influence on Obama for The New Republic, noting, “On his campaign website, one can find a photo of Obama in a classroom teaching students Alinskian methods. He stands in front of a blackboard on which he has written

The conclusion Geraghty draws is that the goal for Obama, following Alinsky, is power above all and everything is subordinated to that.

Obama is a pragmatist, but a pragmatist as understood by Alinsky: One who applies pragmatism to achieving and keeping power.

….Moderates thought they were electing a moderate; liberals thought they were electing a liberal. Both camps were wrong. Ideology does not have the final say in Obama’s decision-making; an Alinskyite’s core principle is to take any action that expands his power and to avoid any action that risks his power.

….As conservatives size up their new foe, they ought to remember: It’s not about liberalism. It’s about power. Obama will jettison anything that costs him power, and do anything that enhances it — including invite Rick Warren to give the benediction at his inauguration, dine with conservative columnists, and dismiss an appointee at the White House Military Office to ensure the perception of accountability.

What is amazing to me is that while many people, mainly conservatives, saw Obama’s lack of principle and lust for power very early,  most people, including some “conservative” pundits, still don’t see it. But it’s the same kind of people who see what the idealism of liberals does when it plunks down refugees in the middle of an unsuspecting community who also see Obama for what he is. God bless them; they will be the saving of this nation, if we are to be saved.

Would-be White House visitors found to have deportation orders against them

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an amusing little story on Drudge tonight.  Two immigrants in the country illegally were hoping to be part of an adult education tour of the White House, but oops! a security check revealed they were in violation of immigration law and had been ordered deported.

And, no, it was not Aunt Zeituni and the long-ago missing Uncle George (or at least we don’t think so).   Surely not Omar Jamal either!

From AP:

WASHINGTON – Two people facing deportation from the United States have been taken into custody at the White House gate. They had arrived for a tour of the executive mansion.

The pair was part of an adult education program, and a routine background check showed they had an outstanding immigration order against them.

If anyone learns more about who they were, I would love to know.