Month: December 2007

Asst. Sec. of State Sauerbrey giving Louisville a pat on the back

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we write this Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, is in Louisville, KY—the city that is luring refugees to help big business according to the Wall Street Journal.   We previously wrote about Louisville in a post entitled, “Is big business driving immigration?”   It sure looks like this ‘pat on the back’ visit is right in line with the thinking of her boss, President George Bush and the federally funded “church” refugee employment agencies, otherwise known as volags.

Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey will meet with newly resettled refugees and with officials of the city’s resettlement offices: Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services. Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Inc. is the refugee resettlement office in the state of Kentucky for two national church-based programs: The Episcopal Migration Ministries and Church World Service. Catholic Charities is an affiliate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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In the last 12 months, Louisville has welcomed approximately 637 refugees from some 18 different countries, including Iraq.

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During her official visit, Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey also will meet Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

Read more here.

Further analysis of Iraqi refugee press conference at ‘Us or Them’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The blog Us or Them has made some additional good points on the lengthy press conference report that both Judy and I posted on earlier today.    One of his points is also one I’m wondering about.  Just a couple of days ago it appeared that the Bush Administration pot was boiling over the security issue regarding these refugees, so much so that the controversy was going to be settled by the National Security Council. 

Then, in a press conference between State Department and DHS Officials, (a transcript of a press conference was released and is here) , all seems to be peachy-keen, hunky doory, and tikity-boo with no mention of any referral to the NSC..

One explanation I’ll throw out is that those reporters asking questions did not want to hear about a national security controversy.  They have their template story to write—Bush Administration dragging its feet, people suffering—and didn’t want to contemplate any messy ideas like terrorist infiltration through the program.  I noticed that not one of those reporters asked about the security controversy and the NSC.

More on Bush Administration Iraqi refugee brouhaha

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I missed the earth-shattering AP news on Friday night when the end-of-month numbers came out (I caught the drumbeat sooner last month)—the Bush Administration admitted a smaller number of Iraqi refugees in November than in October.   Wailing and knashing of teeth, the refugee industry and its minions in the press want to know how we are possibly going to reach the magic (albeit low still according to them) 12,000 Iraqi refugees to be admitted in this fiscal year.

WASHINGTON – The United States admitted only 362 Iraqi refugees in November, almost 100 fewer than in October, and far less than half the number it needs per month to meet a goal of 12,000 by the end of this budget year, according to State Department statistics obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

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In the first two months — October and November — of fiscal 2008, only 812 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the country, meaning the Bush administration must now accept more than 11,000 over the coming 10 months to reach the target it has set for itself, the figures show. 

You can almost hear the gasps of indignation and outrage.

The slow pace of admissions has sparked criticism from refugee advocacy groups and lawmakers.

[read Ted (bring’em to Hyannis) Kennedy]

Also on Friday, and missed by most, was a press statement released by the US State Department, a lengthy transcript of a press conferance jointly held by the State Department and Homeland Security in which the key players from each department lay out the the problems with identifying and processing Iraqis.  See our previous post on the on-going controversy here.

The transcript is very long but I highly recommend reading the entire document to get a better feel for the issue.   Although most of the press conferance focused on why the US government is not getting their admission numbers up,  one stunning problem is with all the yapping about the millions of Iraqi refugees in desparate need, we are having problems finding enough cases to process and are going to do a “public information campaign” to find people to bring here according to Ambassador James Foley, Senior Coordinator on Iraqi Refugee Issues at the US State Dept.:

But just to say this is not snap your fingers and here’s 12,000, let alone more. It is going to be a — it will require a concerted effort month in, month out between now and the end of the fiscal year to reach our goal.

There was only sketchy information on the issue of security screening that is also slowing things down according to the refugee industry.  But, here is what Foley had to say at one point:

…..we have an obligation, especially since September 11th, to apply rigorous screening, security screening to any refugees who aim to enter the United States. This is an obligation we have to the American people so that they have confidence in this program, because their support is critical to this program. Their welcome in communities around America is critical to this program. So that requires a very rigorous and yet streamlined procedure that we have now put in place.

So, Ambassador Foley, what is that “rigorous and yet streamlined” security screening?   The communities receiving these refugees would sure like to know.

Iraqi refugees as potential terrorists, hints of internal conflict

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This AP story has been all over the news in the last couple of days.  The title here is “Many Iraqis who aided US barred from refugee immigration program. ”      So, if you just read the headline and read it through quickly you might conclude it’s your typical drumbeat story about getting Iraqi refugees here, now, and as fast as you can because it’s our duty (‘we broke it, we fix it’ story).   

However, read more carefully, it turns out that there is a huge internal battle going on in the Bush Administration between the US State Dept. on the side of bring’em here now, and in large numbers, and Homeland Security that wants to make sure terrorists can’t get in as refugees.

Homeland Security is effectively blocking contract employees, like drivers, translators, technicians, from benefiting from the initiative by insisting they provide official U.S. references and sponsors before applying for resettlement, a more stringent standard than for direct hires and even those in the U.N. system, according to the officials.

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Meeting that higher bar will be almost impossible for many whose work for private U.S. employers in Iraq ended months or years ago, the officials said.

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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations between Homeland Security, which must vet all would-be Iraqi refugees, and the State Department, which wants to widen resettlement opportunities for Iraqi refugees.

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The two agencies have been unable to reach a compromise and the issue has been referred to the National Security Council, although the matter may be resolved before that happens through legislation pending in Congress.

The reference here to legislation is the Kennedy sponsored “Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act” making its way through Congress attached to a Defense authorization bill.   The issue has received much coverage and if you want to understand this potentially explosive issue, read our entire Iraqi Refugee category here.

Endnote:   Reform idea!  The concept mentioned above of finding sponsors and getting references for refugees is a wonderful idea for all those admitted from all Muslim countries, not just those from Iraq.  How about if the “church” groups individually sponsored the Muslim refugees and worked to assimilate them to American culture.

Immigration and the Intifada/from Paris to Emporia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two days ago, Frontpage magazine published an article by Patrick Poole with a lead-in about the French “intifada’ —Paris in Flames this week.   And, as we said the other day, why on earth would we think that this could only happen ‘over there’?   The pyromaniacs of Paris are African Muslim immigrants or their children.  Hello!  Emporia, KS.

We can’t pussyfoot around it any longer.  Let’s face it,  Muslim immigration is part of an overall strategy to change America, to bring jihad here, not just through blatant acts of terrorism but through quiet seepage into the  fabric of our lives–religious, social, cultural and ultimately political.   Here is a chilling quote from Frontpage:

In order for Islam and its Movement to become “a part of the homeland” in which it lives, “stable” in the land, “rooted” in the spirits and minds of its people, “enabled” in the lives of its society and has firmly-established “organizations” on which the Islamic structure is built and with which the testimony of the civilization is achieved, the Movement must plan and struggle to obtain “the keys” and the tools of this process in carry out this grand mission as a “Civilization Jihadist” responsibility which lies on the shoulders of Muslim and – on top of them – the Muslim Brotherhood in this country.

It’s all pretty clear, they are spelling it out for us:

The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the means. The Ikhwan [the Arabic name for the Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is not escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack.

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The critical aspect to the “Civilization-Jihadist Process” is that it works upon two separate lines: “their (non-Muslim) hands” and “the hands of believers”. The document further outlines how to exploit existing internal weaknesses within Western civilization: “we must possess a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions’, the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation’”. Through internal sabotage and creating their own external pressure (jihad/terrorism), they aim to topple the West.

As I threatened yesterday.  I am again reminding readers that Imam Hendi, a leader in the Muslim American Society which sprang from the Muslim Brotherhood predicts that America will have 30 Muslim mayors by 2015.   Optimistic?  Maybe!  How many of you are willing to just wait and see? 

Footnote:    If anyone has any doubts about the incompatibility of African Muslims to life in America, one only need see the images of thousands of rioting Muslims in Khartoum, Sudan.   Imagine being a middle-aged English teacher whose life is now threatened because she allowed little children to name a teddy bear Mohammad.