Month: August 2008

Omar Jamal’s name comes up in Postville, Iowa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Blulitespecial, for sending this story from The Militant, a publication of the Socialist Workers Party, in which Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Center of Minnesota is linked with Socialist Workers party presidential candidate, Roger Calero  in an article about meatpacking in Postville.  Wierd, how this all comes together, don’t you think?

Omar Jamal is the disinformation agent in the Denver Somali Cyanide death—you know crazy Canadian Somali takes vacation in Denver with a jar of cyanide.

And, for new readers, Postville, Iowa is another meatpacking town, this one with the Jewish meatpacking plant that was raided awhile back and is now importing Somalis from Minnesota.   Go back here for a refresher on Postville.

Now check out this article in The Militant about socialist workers candidate Roger Calero going to Postville to help protest government raids.

Calero, who marched in the July 27 protest, said the demonstration set a “powerful example of the kind of response needed to answer the attacks on workers rights and to press our demand for legalization of undocumented immigrants.”

Immigrant and U.S.-born workers are going through experiences together in meatpacking plants in the region, using their unions to fight or organizing to get a union where there isn’t one, he added. Calero said the fight at Agriprocessors is part of a broader resistance to the meatpacking bosses in the upper Midwest. The socialist candidate pointed to the successful fight at Dakota Premium Foods in South St. Paul, Minnesota, where workers organized in United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 successfully fought off an attempt by the bosses to bust the union earlier this year.

So how does Omar Jamal fit in, here is what The Militant says:

Some of them[Somalis] were from Minneapolis and had supported the fight by Omar Jamal, a Somali activist who was threatened with deportation in 2003, at the same time that Calero was fighting his own deportation case. Calero explained how his defense campaign gave support to Jamal and other Somalis threatened with deportation and government harassment.

Note to any normal Americans left in Postville:  The first line of the paragraph above says the Postville Somalis are activists from Minneapolis…. I think I would want to get out of Postville pronto!   And if I ran a meatpacking company I would hire real American workers and pay them what they are worth rather than deal with this rabble.

More disgusting news on DNA testing in Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a more detailed article then we had previously seen about the widespread fraud in the largest portion of our legal immigration program—family reunification.  Guess what?  The majority of East Africans who apply to come to join relatives in America are not related (that is the first bit of disgusting news).  Widespread fraud has caused the suspension of the program:

The State Department has suspended a humanitarian program to reunite thousands of African refugees with relatives in the U.S. after unprecedented DNA testing by the government revealed widespread fraud.

This suspension began in April.  Why haven’t we heard about the details sooner?  Disgusting!  (Our first little hint of this was back in July here.)  The Wall Street Journal continues:

Typically, a refugee already living in the U.S., a so-called anchor, is entitled to apply for permission to bring a spouse, minor children, parents and siblings. The process requires interviews, medical examinations and security screening.

But suspicion has grown in recent years that unrelated Africans were posing as family members to gain entry. “This program is designed for people to reunify with family members” already in the U.S., says Barbara Strack, director of the refugee division at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. “We wanted to have empirical data” to confirm suspected fraud, she says.

In February, the State Department launched pilot testing in Kenya to verify family relationships, mainly among Somalis.

Regular readers of RRW, will not be surprised at the Somalis.  The BBC tells us that only 20% of those who applied were legitimately related.  Can you just imagine how many East African refugees got into the US fraudulently since 911?

And, then how is this for more disgusting news.  Catholic Charities and other of these groups which make their living resettling refugees using your tax dollars try to suggest there are other ways of defining family.  You can just call someone son or daughter and magically they can come to America:

“No one condones people gaining entry by false means; the integrity of the program must be ensured,” says Bob Carey, chair of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of U.S. agencies that work on refugee issues, and vice president of resettlement for the International Rescue Committee. However, he adds, “DNA is not the only means to assess family relationships.”

Refugee advocates say the definition of family among Africans extends beyond blood relatives, especially when families fleeing persecution are scattered. “Some families are raising children who aren’t their own but whom they call son or daughter,” says Ms. Fox of Catholic Charities.

The Wall Street Journal ends with a bright bit of information.  The numbers of refugees admitted this fiscal year are low so far.  The Bush Administration aimed for 80,000 total refugees by the end of FY08.  September 30th marks the end of the year.   Looks like they won’t make 80,000.

Between Oct. 1, 2007, and Aug. 13 of this year, the U.S. admitted 45,644 refugees. For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008, the Bush administration set a ceiling for African refugees at 16,000. But by Aug. 13, only 6,780 Africans had been admitted.

Update:  More numbers here.  They tested 5000 applicants finding that only 20% were telling the truth and this article says 95% of family reunification applicants come from Africa.

Landowner Moxley sues citizen’s group in Walkersville case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A critical free speech case is developing in Walkersville, MD where the landowner who hoped to sell his property (for millions) to a Muslim group for a religious retreat that would bring up to 10,000 Muslims to the rural town in Frederick Co. MD is now including citizens in his suit.   Landowner Moxley was stymied in his plan by a zoning decision and sued the town (see our most recent post here on Walkersville).

Now comes news he is amending his lawsuit to include not just the town but the Citizens group, Citizens for Walkersville, whose members did not want to overcrowd their town and put a strain on sewer, water and roads and otherwise jeopardize the tranquility of their community.

I am not a lawyer, but this is a very important case and I bet Moxley and his Muslim friends are more interested in scaring people into silence then in extracting big bucks from a little town. 

If Moxley wins does this mean that any group could come along claiming to be a “religious” group that has been discriminated against and shove any sort of facility down a communities throat when citizens speak up to voice their concern for the quality of their environment?

Walkersville landowner David W. Moxley has amended his lawsuit against the Town of Walkersville to include a grassroots activist group that opposed a deal that would have brought a Muslim retreat center to town…..

The amendment targets Citizens for Walkersville, a group that organized opposition to the Muslim group’s plans and dominated public testimony during appeals board hearings in January and February.

In the Aug. 5 amendment to his federal lawsuit, Moxley alleges that “The officers and members of [Citizens for Walkersville] have conspired and worked in concert with town officials to prevent the [Muslim group] from using the Moxley Farm for its religious purposes.”

The amendment alleges that 20 members of Citizens for Walkersville and president Ed Marino and spokesman Steven R. Berryman “participated in the conspiracy to violate [Moxley] and the [Muslim group’s] rights,” and were “motivated by religious and racial discriminatory animus designed to deprive, directly or indirectly, the [Muslim group] of equal protection of the laws.”

In my opinion this suit is meant to silence citizens.

Gone fishin’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Not really fishing, but both Judy and I will be away for a few days.   I have so many news items I would like to tell you about, but am now out of time.    Since we moderate our comments, please be patient because unless we happen to get the opportunity to be near a computer, they will have to wait until later in the week.

Thanks to all of our loyal readers for your continued visits to RRW!

More Iraqi refugees return home: NGO’s say “it is political”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday Reuters was reporting that another plane load of Iraqi displaced people left Egypt for Baghdad and home.  This is a good omen for the government of Iraq that is looking for its people to come back and re-build the country.  However, anti-war non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) are having a fit.

“It is political. The government wants to portray the situation as sustainably safe,” said Joost Hilterman, an Iraq expert in the International Crisis Group think tank.

I had to laugh.  Hilterman should know political when he sees it because he works for George Soros’ International Crisis Group.  I reported on them here just a couple of weeks ago.  Talk about political, check out who else is on their board besides Soros.    These guys are quoted as representing “think tanks” and the public doesn’t know any better.  These anti-Bush-anti-war-pro-grievance-America is bad NGO’s know full well that if they can portray the refugee situation as dire and unresloved that the Bush Administration will continue under a cloud into the Presidential campaign this fall and guess who benefits?

As always, we don’t want to downplay the danger Christian Iraqis are in, but Muslims have gotten their duly elected government and need to now get behind their country.   And, these NGO’s can stop whining.  As I have said before, America had its tough times in wars on our soil and I don’t recall hearing that large numbers scampered off to Europe or elsewhere to be taken care of.