Month: March 2009

Washington Times Op-Ed: Bringing Rohingya to the US mainstream media

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Today the Washington Times published an opinion piece by Heidi Kingstone entitled, “Yes, Buddhists can be bad” about the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma and Bangladesh.

After relating the recent problems when Rohingya attempted to enter Thailand illegally, Ms. Kingstone goes on to make the case that the Rohingya are desperate and in an intractable situation.

Then the story (of the Rohingya boatmen) disappeared, but not their impossible circumstances. These persecuted and displaced refugees lived in Burma for many generations, yet are stateless. The government refuses to recognize these Muslims as citizens of the largely Buddhist country. Instead, the government makes the lives of this minority intolerable. By doing so, the government hopes the million or so who remain will follow the other 250,000 who have slipped over the border into the eastern part of Bangladesh. (For a report on the plight of Burma’s Christians, see The Washington Times, March 6, p. A-12).

The Rohingyas and the Bangladeshis of the Chittigong region speak a similar language, are physically alike, and practice the same religion. Over the last two decades, they have fled in successive waves, looking for sanctuary.

But Bangladesh has enough of its own problems. It is desperately poor, prone to natural disasters, with more than 150 million people crammed together on low-lying land with few resources to feed and house its own people, let alone absorb the Rohingyas.

No doubt the situation is bleak as it is in many third world countries, but what annoys me so much about these stories designed to get an emotional response from readers is that there is never any mention of radical Islamic activity or association of the Rohingya with terrorist organizations in a story so obviously written to gain sympathy.    Frankly, I would have more sympathy if there was acknowlegement by the media that this is one reason the Rohingya are feared in countries like Thailand and India.

The author is either not informed or is purposefully ignoring reports of Rohingya involvement with Islamic terrorist groups, for example here, here and here.

Could we please base our decisions on how to help by knowing all the facts!

For more on Rohingya, see our category on the topic here.

Editorial at Immigration Daily is woefully uninformed

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The ILW.com, an organization for Immigration Lawyers, publishes an online news service entitled Immigration Daily.  Its publication for March 9th, contains a commentary entitled, “Ice endangers America” in which they complain that while ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is chasing busboys, terrorists get away with murder.  Huh?

ICE is sending terrorists a clear message – its open season on America. ICE’s raids focus on gardeners and busboys, letting terrorists off the hook.

Then after a litany of complaints about ICE raids:

All this while there are clear dangers on American soil that ICE is turning a blind eye to.

So, what “terrorists” are getting away?  In the middle of one long run-on paragraph there is this:

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently quoted FBI director Mueller saying “Shirwa Ahmed, the first known suicide bomber with U.S. citizenship, apparently was indoctrinated in Minnesota.” US taxpayers’ hard earned money is given to ICE to protect our homeland, not to chase dishwashers and carpenters.

Now, although I might agree with ILW that we didn’t do such a hot job (that is an understatement) of heading off the missing Somali men,  one case has nothing to do with the other.  The FBI, doing the terrorism investigation, is in the Department of Justice and ICE is in Homeland Security.  Shirwa Ahmed was in the US legally (originally as a refugee through the US State Department) and was according to media reports a US citizen.

I’m going to bet that ICE has enough people on staff to handle the illegal busboys and shouldn’t have to be involved in issues under the jurisdiction of the State Department and the Justice Department (FBI).

Come to think of it,  maybe I’ll take that above title back, was it ICE that let Omar Jamal off the deportation hook?   Ahmed’s case does not make ILW’s point, but Jamal’s might.  You can imagine though if ICE was snooping around (I hope they are!) and did investigate whether some of the Minneapolis Somalis are here illegally, ILW would be the first to complain!

NumbersUSA calls for immediate suspension of (virtually) all immigration due to jobs crisis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On Friday, Roy Beck, head of NumbersUSA one of the largest immigration watch dog groups called for the Obama Administration to shut the immigration spigot so we could cope with the spiraling job loss crisis.    While losing 651,000 jobs in February, immigrants continue to stream into the US.

Nothing has changed since last year when 138,000 new foreign workers were added to the U.S. each month on average.

Beck charges that business interests are teaming with the Democratic Administration and Democratic leaders in Congress to continue the flow.

Following the lead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pres. Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Pelosi refuse to respond to the plight of unemployed American workers and consider a suspension of most immigration and foreign worker programs.

Cut the numbers drastically.

We at NumbersUSA have said since November that the national jobs disaster requires an immediate suspension of all immigration and temporary foreign work programs except for spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, a controlled number of emergency refugees and a few thousand truly extraordinary skilled workers for whom no American substitute is available.

I’m supportive of NumbersUSA’s initiative, I just wonder what that “controlled number of emergency refugees” would be.

See the NumbersUSA video linked permanently under our banner at the top of the page.  Beck demonstrates very graphically how we can’t save the world but we are sinking the US trying to do that.

Could he have blown himself up here? Yes, I suppose so

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But, why would Somali advocate Omar Jamal make this inflammatory statement to the media?  And, why does every media outlet talk with Jamal?

The October attack by 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed killed 30 near Mogadishu, and there is alarm that the skills acquired abroad could be brought back to America.

“He could have done it here,” says Omar Jamal, a Somali advocate in Minnesota. “We don’t see anything that would have prevented him from doing this right here in the heart of Minneapolis.”

If you haven’t followed this story, Shirwa Ahmed is our first American Somali refugee suicide bomber (that we know of).  When the FBI returned his body parts to Minneapolis for a decent burial, Jamal defended him and proclaimed him a “youthful victim.”    Ahmed was 27 years old, not a kid as these other missing “youths”  (former refugees) are portrayed.

Jamal was convicted of immigration fraud in Tennessee in 2005 and was facing a deportation order, so why is he the go-to guy for every mainstream media reporter?  Use our search function for Omar Jamal and you will see what I mean, he is everywhere.

I wish I knew what Jamal’s game is.

Somali missing youths: recruitment methods explored

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Minnesota Public Radio gives us a few additional bits of information as we continue to follow the story of the Somali missing youths (former refugees) believed to have joined the terrorist group al-Shabaab.

Minneapolis, Minn. — The FBI is looking into whether a group of Twin Cities men were recruited to fight in Somalia. But still unclear is who was responsible for spreading extremist ideology. Is there a recruiter lurking in the community? Or were the young men targeted through the Internet?

Vulnerable youths were apparently discussed in a task force report released last week.  This is new information to me.   I did not know about the Washington Institute for Near East Policy before reading this article.

Michael Jacobson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy helped convene a task force on ways to counter radical extremism. Last week it recommended the U.S. engage in broader community outreach with mosques and Muslim community leaders.

Jacobson said there are many paths to radicalization — and many types of would-be radicals. But in general, he agrees that those most vulnerable include individuals who might not feel socially integrated into their communities.

We have previously discussed the mosque as a likely place for recruitment but other possibilities are being considered.

Counterterrorism experts say militant Islamist groups like Al-Shabaab in Somalia have ramped up their cyber activities. Al-Shabaab’s recruitment in the U.S. will be the subject of a Senate Homeland Security committee hearing next week.  [We told you about that here yesterday.]

A propaganda video for Al-Shabaab on YouTube shows fighters firing off rounds of mortar, set to the music of Arabic chanting. At the very end of the clip, the credits say public-relations department of Al-Shabaab is responsible for the message. It also offers a plea that roughly translates into, “Don’t forget us in your prayers.”

But while these videos may be disturbing, experts say online chat rooms that provide two-way communication are much more dangerous. Yet they’re also difficult to find. Web sites regularly vanish and reappear with a different domain name.

And then there’s an old-fashioned invention that could have reached impressionable minds: the telephone.

Read the whole article.  It goes on to explain how authorities can listen in on calls within the Somali highrise where thousands of Somalis reside in Minneapolis.

In the end, some families who are missing a young man believe the indoctrination happened locally, in person, and possibly at the mosque.