Day: January 9, 2008

Somali Community of Nashville, busy little beavers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you haven’t gone back to see what’s up in Shelbyville lately, here is a followup to our post on the Shelbyville Times-Gazette Reporter, Brian Mosely.    The Somali Community of Nashville has been busy lately posting demands in Tennesee and then in Emporia, KS as well.  (hat tip: Blulitespecial)  I’m guessing they sent their lengthy, well written I might add, screed to Emporia as a threat.

The Somali Community of Nashville condemns the unprovoked and undeserved public defamation of Somalis in Shelbyville, TN, by Brian Mosley and the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. We also advocate the following:

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§ A prompt and public apology by Brian Mosley and the Shelbyville Times-Gazette to the Somali community in Shelbyville, TN,
§ The immediate cessation of the baseless and negative reporting on Somalis,
§ A sincere effort to build bridges of understanding between the residents of Shelbyville and the newcomers from Somalia instead of fueling the fires of prejudice and xenophobia,
§ And the adherence by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette to journalistic integrity by providing its readership with fair and accurate reporting on sensitive issues relating to community relations and refugee resettlement.

Sometime ago we told you about this case involving the Somali Community Center of Nashville and I’d like to know if it is the same group.  Just now I tried to find the website that had existed at one time for this outfit and it seems to be gone.   Is the Somali Community of Nashville the same people as the Somali Center of Nashville?

According to annual reports, the Somali Center in south Nashville receives $400,000 per year in taxpayer dollars from federal, state and local governments.

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But what has some asking questions is how the center’s executive director, Abdizirik Hassan, is still getting grants after pleading guilty to making false statements during a government investigation.

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In 2001, Hassan’s Nashville bank was shut down by counter-terrorism investigators because they said the bank was linked to Al-Barakat. Al-Barakat is a bank and wiring transfer service that is linked to al-Qaida, according to investigators.

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Hassan was arrested and charged with felony illegal banking.

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While out on bond, Hassan and the Somali Center were awarded a grant in the amount of nearly $500,000 by the same federal government that indicted him.

Check out the forum at the Emporia Gazette, there are over 1000 comments there stretching over the last couple of months.  Scroll down to near the end to see the Somali Community of Nashville demands posted there too.

UN wants $261 million from US in 2008 for Iraqi refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars: 

I guess Will can call me an evil and stingy person, but we send our men and women to fight and die for Iraq’s freedom, and their people run and hide in surrounding countries and then we pay for that too.   Except for the truly persecuted Christians, the rest should just go home and tell the insurgents to get out.   As a matter of fact, I wonder how many would flee if it weren’t for the United Nations holding out to them the alluring possibility of life in the West through resettlement.

GENEVA, January 8 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Tuesday launched an appeal for US$261 million to fund its operations this year on behalf of hundreds of thousands of those uprooted by the conflict in Iraq.

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Chief UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva that the Iraq Situation Supplementary Appeal covered programmes for many of the 2.2 million Iraqis displaced within Iraq, as well as the 2 million who have fled to other countries in the region, including Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and several of the Gulf States. The agency also cares for some 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, including Palestinians, Iranians, Turks and others.

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Redmond also noted that UNHCR, which is funded primarily through voluntary contributions from governments, now has nearly 350 staff directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region.

350 UN employees!  I wonder how much gravy is sloshing around in those salaries?    And then there are the Palestinians:

The appeal also makes special mention of the dire situation facing some 13,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq, many of whom have been targeted by armed groups and who have been unable to find sanctuary in other countries. “UNHCR will continue to seek solutions for the Palestinians, including the possibility of resettlement for the most vulnerable,” Redmond stressed.

Back in October I posted on a Brookings Institution Study that said the Palestinians were in Iraq because they were favored by Saddam Hussein.  Could their association with Saddam be the reason they are targeted?  If you go back to that October report you will see there is a lot more to the story than poor suffering Iraqis running from violence.  Some of those Iraqis in Syria have been there for years, long before our arrival in Iraq, others are men who got out of Iraq when the surge began.