Month: July 2011

What is up with Utica, New York?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..and what could the Mayor of Utica possibly say to the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow?

Back in 2007, I noticed that someone of the “caring class” had dubbed Utica the city that LOVES REFUGEES.   But, I noticed over the years that some problems were brewing.  Here in 2007, they had a problem with immigrant teens, in 2008, here, nearby Rome, NY (also in Oneida County) citizens complained about the economic impact of too many refugees in the area, here in 2009 we had a big food stamp fraud bust in Utica, then here in 2010 we had a refugee murdered….

Then I saw this article posted at Friends of Refugees reporting on a story from last May about how the county council wants the federal government to pony-up more of the cost of the refugees.

From the Observer-Dispatch:

The Genesee Street center expects to help roughly 500 refugees relocate to the area this year.

Providing services for such an expanding refugee population, however, is becoming a financial burden on Oneida County, according to a report drafted by county legislator Brian Mandryck, R-Lee, and signed by 20 of his legislative colleagues, 15 Republicans and five Democrats.

Mandryck’s report requested additional federal and state funding to help dilute the roughly $3.2 million to $5.3 million it contributes to the refugee population.

If no funding is available, the report request that the number of refugees entering the area each year be reduced.

“Reducing the need for services will reduce costs and will reduce the need for the expenditure of local tax dollars,” the report states.

[….]

Based on Mandryk’s review of costs, the county spent $9.5 million in 2009 for services such as temporary assistance, Medicaid, health screenings and translator services. After state and federal reimbursements, county taxpayers paid $3.2 million to $5.3 million to provide those services, a bulk of which went to Medicaid payments.

So, when New York Senator Chuck Schumer holds hearings on immigration reform with the Mayor of Utica testifying, what is that all about?    Comprehensive immigration reform usually involves illegal immigrants.  Do they have an illegal immigrant problem in Utica too?  Or, will the mayor just make a pitch for more federal tax dollars for his city?

Here is the hearing information:

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security entitled “The Economic Imperative for Enacting Immigration Reform” for Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

Check out the big business and university honchos testifying—will they say they need more (cheap) immigrant labor?  More college students?

Curiously the hearing is one day before fellow New Yorker, Rep. Peter King, will hold another hearing in the House of Representatives on Somali refugee terrorist recruitment.

Note when you check out the hearing schedule that the Mayor of Lewiston, ME will also be testifying.  He is expected to say everything is just peachy in Lewiston with its huge Somali immigrant population just one day before the Somali terrorist hearings in the House (remember he was recently feted by John (let’s airlift 100,000 Iraqis here) Podesta and the boys at the Center for American Progress.)!

Palestinians in Libya have no place to go

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As the Obama/NATO bombing continues in Libya, here is a writer who says that Gaddafi had welcomed Palestinians (most Arab countries do not resettle Palestinian refugees) to the country, many have been there for decades, and now, desperate to escape, they have no place to go.

The article is a bit confusing but some things I gathered from it:  Palestinians have died in the bombing, the UN agencies are confused over who has authority for helping Palestinians since they have their own UN agency (UNRWA), but its jurisdiction is geographically limited.  UNHCR then has helped some, but its outside their authority. The Palestinian Authority has sought permission from Egypt for some to be transported across Egypt to Gaza, but that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.  Egypt has refused them entry into Egypt.  Israel offered to take 300.  Some may be be supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood rebels, others deny it.

The trapped Palestinians sent out this appeal, so far no response:

“We the Palestinians living in Libya, some for more than 35 years have come from Lebanon to flee (civil) war and resided among our brothers in Libya where we got married and worked. However, after the 17 February insurrection and the worsening security situation, we are trying to leave the country via its ports but were not allowed because of inadequate travel documents. We are now stranded and sell our belongings to eat; we do not have work or shelter and do not know what to do or where to go.”

Read the whole article.  It’s the first I’ve seen about Palestinians trapped in Libya.

An afterthought!  I just remembered that in 2009 when NO ARAB COUNTRY WOULD TAKE ITS FELLOW PALESTINIAN ARABS trapped in Iraq, we started to bring them to the US, here.

AP reports stepped-up attention to European political extremes, but Islamic terror still greatest threat

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update (well, sort of, but one more in what surely will be a main topic of discussion for the remainder of the decade as evidenced by the many comments):  From Delingpole at The Telegraph.   I’m henceforth stealing a phrase from one of the commenters used to describe the “good” people—the “caring class.”

Here is a report from the Associated Press, one of probably thousands out there today and into the future, with more points on the horrific shooting in Norway on Friday.   They say Norway’s refugee influx blamed for growing anti-immigration sentiment in the country.

AP (emphasis mine):

LONDON (AP) — In the wake of Norway’s terrorist attack, the European police agency is setting up a task force of more than 50 experts to help investigate non-Islamist threats in Scandinavian countries, its spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Soeren Pedersen said the group, based in The Hague, hopes to help Norway in the coming weeks and to aid other countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden in assessing non-Islamist threats. Norway has not yet requested forensic experts but Europol stands ready to assist, Pedersen said.

“There is no doubt that the threat from Islamist terrorism is still valid,” he said, adding that the task force could be expanded in the future to include even more European nations. “But there have actually been warnings that (right-wing groups) are getting more professional, more aggressive in the way they attract others to their cause.”

Anti-immigration sentiment on the rise, but Islamic jihadism still the big worry.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has grown in Norway as tensions rose over its policy of taking in conflict refugees.

In the 1990s, it welcomed immigrants from the Balkans. Years later, it opened its doors to large numbers of Iraqi refugees. The Norwegian government has said it expects some 15,000 new arrivals this year, many from Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia.*  [15,000 is a huge number in a welfare state like Norway, the US this year may see around 60,000 (although our goal for the year is 80,000, stepped-up security checks have slowed the flow)—ed]

Europe has seen an overall increase in xenophobia, boosting the ranks of ultranationalists and fueling their activity. Still, experts and officials across Europe say the main terror threat hovering over the continent remains Islamic jihadism. They suggest that the overall danger posed by European political extremists, both from left and right, is relatively small — but that anybody with the will and the means has a chance of wreaking devastation.

“This horrendous event in Norway is sobering because it shows how easy it is to cause havoc,” a British government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters. “But you have to decide what the threat is. In the UK, extreme right and left wing groups aren’t perceived as big national security threats.”

I’m wondering if Norway will change its gun policies now—I, like many of you, have contemplated how different things might have been had there been an armed security guard, or an official at that camp with a gun.   The murderer might not have been able to walk around for over an hour shooting at will.  And, I guess you are all well aware of the fact that there is no death penalty in Europe so he won’t so easily be wiped from the public mind as Timothy McVeigh has been.

Back to AP:

The numbers also indicate a low terror threat from ultrarightists.

In a report earlier this year, Europol said there had been no rightwing terror attacks in Europe last year. But there were 45 leftwing and anarchist attacks in 2010.

The New York Times had this chilling paragraph in one of many stories yesterday:

Organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party, the camp has become a kind of multicultural incubator in recent years. Many of the victims in Friday’s shooting were the children of immigrants from Africa and Asia who have begun to stake out a greater role for themselves in Norwegian society.

I don’t know what to say in conclusion, but that this evil killer has succeeded in changing the dynamics of Norwegian (home of the Peace Prize) politics probably for the remainder of the century.   I make no predictions on what it all means, nor could I even begin to guess in what direction Europe and the West will go as a result.

* Those refugees will be primarily Muslims.

Islamists attack Norway (wrong!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

……killer was opposed to Muslim immigration and Marxism it seems.

Update July 23:  As death toll rises, New York Times says gunman was Christian fundamentalist, here.  More when I have time later.

AP says:

Norwegian news agency NTB said the suspect wrote a 1,500-page manifesto before the attack in which he attacked multiculturalism and Muslim immigration.

Reuters says:

The man suspected of Norway’s gun and bomb massacre had belonged to an anti-immigration party and opposed multi-culturalism, Islam and the “cultural Marxists” of the establishment, web postings, acquaintances and officials said Saturday.

Update (#2 on July 22nd):  Reuters reports speculation that a rightwinger angry about immigration did it .  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow (or whenever) to get the real story.

NUPI political think tank Senior Research Fellow Jakub Godzimirski said he suspected a right-winger more than a militant Islamist attack. Right wing groups have grown up around the issue of immigration in Norway.

Update July 22nd: from Jihad Watch, I’m wrong, most everyone was wrong….

At last, some apparently definitive information. After a jihad group curiously claimed responsibility and retracted, and after some terror experts said it was a jihad attack and some said it wasn’t, and after the media pointed to jihadists as essentially the only ones with a motive, and Islamic supremacists applauded the attack, it appears that it was not a jihad attack after all. “Norway Camp Shooting: ‘As Many As 30 Dead,'” from Sky News, July 22 (read on).

For complete news on Muslim immigration and European Islamists (especially in Scandinavia) always visit Gates of Vienna first. Here is the terrible news from Oslo.

Fjordman (at 11:41 a.m.):

“The most suicidal and cowardly government in a country with no colonial history was just attacked. How do you explain that as a response to Western ‘aggression’?”

We have written about Norway and Muslim immigration there on several occasions.  Just type “Norway” into our search function.

US to rescreen (maybe) many Iraqi refugees in wake of Kentucky terror plot investigation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ll believe it when I see it!  58,000!  No way!

This is a story from the Chicago Tribune, reported by Debbie Schlussel (Hat tip: Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum):

Reporting from Washington— In a far-reaching inquiry, authorities are rescreening more than 58,000 Iraqi refugees living in the United States amid concerns that lapses in immigration security may have allowed former insurgents and potential terrorists to enter the country, U.S. officials said.

The investigation was given added urgency after U.S. intelligence agencies warned that Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq and Yemen had tried to target the U.S. refugee stream, or exploit other immigration loopholes, in an attempt to infiltrate the country with operatives.

The rescreening began late last year after the FBI learned that an Iraqi man in Kentucky had participated in roadside bomb attacks in Iraq before he was granted U.S. political asylum in 2009. He and another Iraqi refugee were arrested in an FBI sting in May on charges of trying to send explosives and missiles to Iraq for use against Americans.

So far, immigration authorities have given the FBI about 300 names of Iraqi refugees for further investigation. The FBI won’t say whether any have been arrested or pose a potential threat.

Other refugees being rescreened!

It addition to the Iraqis, authorities have rescreened a smaller number of refugees from Yemen, Somalia and other countries where terrorist groups are active.  [Yemen?  Since when do we take “refugees” from Yemen, must be something new or maybe they mean asylees?]

U.S. officials say they have tried to plug the gaps as quickly as possible.

You can bet they want to plug the gap—or defuse the time bomb!  They have an image of “refugees” they need to preserve—you know that they are all just here for a better life, are grateful and love America.

Later in the article we get this profound line:

The case has exposed several immigration and intelligence security gaps.

Yup!

It was Bush’s fault!

Debbie Schlussel blames much of this on Bush (and he deserves criticism), but toward the end of his administration the NGOs—-the refugee lobby—worked in tandem throughout 2008 with AP reporter Matthew Lee every month, like clockwork literally just hours after midnight, to report the Iraqi refugee numbers. It got so ridiculous I watched and reported their shenanigans every month—Lee would report the (low) number of Iraqis arriving in the US with requisite critical quotes from these NGOs aimed at the evil George Bush.

The numbers never satisfied them.  And, no amount of explanation from a few valiant lawyers at  Homeland Security saying that they had to check these people carefully would satisfy them.  I know Bush should have been tougher, but the pressure was relentless (and some of it came from Republicans like Grover Norquist and David Keene, but that is another long story).  Here is one post where I reported that Lee had been awol, but I learned it was because the numbers were coming up and they couldn’t criticize Bush.

So, I blame the refugee lobby and their media lapdogs for the rush to bring so many unscreened Iraqis here.  At one point when Obama came to office, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress wanted over 100,000 Iraqis AIRLIFTED TO THE US in one fell swoop!

Will the ACLU, CAIR and the resettlement agencies step in to block interviews of Iraqis?

That is not such a far-fetched notion because they did attempt to block interviews of Iraqis in 2003 (I reported on the case in 2007, here).   A Tennessee resettlement agency refused to help the Feds find some Iraqis they had resettled.