Day: June 12, 2009

“CAIR OUT!” shouted Somalis in Minneapolis protest today

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update July 9th:  Video here of the demonstration, hat tip Patrick.

I never thought I would see the day!  Somali residents of Minneapolis are accusing the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) of blocking the investigation into the missing Somali youths in that city.  Hat tip:  Jerry Gordon from the Iconoclast, here.

Just two days ago I noted that CAIR seemed to be impeding the investigation in Minnesota.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune today:

Relatives, friends and neighbors of a Minneapolis teen killed in Somalia pressed their argument Thursday that a Muslim civil rights group is hampering a federal investigation into the disappearances of dozens of Twin Cities Somali men.

At a protest outside the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, Abdirizak Bihi, the uncle of Burhan Hassan, who relatives say was killed last week in Mogadishu by a terrorist group, accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota chapter of discouraging local Somalis from cooperating with the FBI.

“We don’t want anyone to come into our community and tell us to shut up,” Bihi said. “Law enforcement will not be able to do anything without information from the community.”

About 50 people attended the rally, waving signs and hollering, “CAIR out! Doublespeak out!”

I am speechless.

Inspector General finds non-profit grant fraud and Obama fires the IG

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 13th:   Byron York of the Washington Examiner has a lengthy article with more details here.  For those of us concerned with grant fraud generally it gives us a window into the process that involves “suspension and debarment” of organizations that have misused federal grants.   Allegations against the Somali Center in Nashville come to mind!

Your tax dollars:

O.k. so you say this story from AP entitled, “Obama ousts AmeriCorps’ IG who investigated friend” has nothing to do with the refugee program.  Well, you are right at least  this scandal has no direct connection that I know of.   However,  if  I had enough hours in the day, I would be writing a blog on this issue—non-profit groups that receive government (taxpayer funded) grants and who push policy and misuse public funds need to be exposed.    I’m not talking about legitimate non-profits, but the phoney ones, the ones that pretend to be non-profits but are literally policy arms of the political left  or those who enrich themselves under the cover of a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization all the while using the people’s money.

In this case, the Inspector General appears to have done his job and recovered taxpayer money and returned it to the Treasury and what did he get for his work?  Obama fired him!

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.

Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled the investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy, a nonprofit group that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program.

St. HOPE Academy ended up repaying more than $400,000 in government funds.

“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” Obama said in a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as president of the Senate. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Senator Charles Grassley* sent a letter to Obama wanting an explanation.

Grassley said Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and “it appears he has been doing a good job.”

Here is what the fired IG uncovered:

The IG found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.

So it seems that instead of encouraging exposure of non-proft group abuses, Obama’s action today will further put a chill on anyone in an official position to expose fraud and protect the taxpayers of the United States.

You know that Tides Foundation I told you about last week, they get federal money too.  I wonder if anyone has investigated them.  How do we know if the taxpayer money passing through that foundation doesn’t end up being used for illegitimate purposes?

* Senator Grassley must be a one-man watchdog of the non-profit groups.  Here is a racket he uncovered involving the Nature Conservancy—one I personally knew was happening nearly 20 years ago.

“Call to Arms” an excellent overview of the missing Somali youth story

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sorry I don’t have time to say much about it, but I just came across an excellent and indepth article with much new information in of all places, the National, from Abu Dhabi.  Written by a former New York Times reporter, Neela Banerjee, it fairly covers the entire story leading up to the latest news that one of the missing Somali former refugees, Birhan Hassan, was executed apparently by his al-Shabaab handlers in Somalia.

Jihadist loses election in Virginia with more than 1,000 votes

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ann has posted on Esam Omeish a couple of times, bringing your attention to this Muslim jihadist who caught our attention because he spoke at a religious event at the Hagerstown mosque. Here’s an excerpt of one of her posts that summarizes what happened:

Dr. Esam Omeish’s  tenure on a Virginia commission to address immigration problems in that state was shortlived when tapes of past statements supporting Jihad came to light.    Omeish is President of the Muslim America Society (MAS) an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Go to the Center for Vigilant Freedom here for the full story.

Now here’s a blog post from April 29 by Marc Fisher on the Washington Post web site, From Fairfax to Richmond, “The Jihad Way?” , on candidate Omeish who ran for state delegate in the Democratic primary.

Esam Omeish’s campaign web site is fairly typical for a candidate for state delegate. The big issues for his Fairfax County district are traffic congestion, growth issues and public education.

But Omeish, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 35th district, covering an area from Vienna west to Monument and Leehigh, is no ordinary candidate. He’s a surgeon with a classic immigrant success story, having arrived in this country as a young boy who spoke no English, yet rose up through the Fairfax school system to attend Georgetown University.

And Omeish is also a Muslim fundamentalist rabble-rouser whose videotaped rants urging crowds of demonstrators to adopt “the jihad way” led to his resignation from Virginia’s state Commission on Immigration just 24 hours or so after Gov. Tim Kaine appointed him to the panel last fall.

This is full of links to Omeish’s jihadist statements. And he points out:

A candidate who speaks with great pride and zest to an audience of fellow Muslims about people “giving up their lives..for the sake of the Muslim honor” should also be someone who happily delivers the same message to the Virginia voters he hopes will choose him for public office. But there is not a word in Omeish’s campaign literature about this great passion of his life.

So how did he do? He came in third out of four candidates, with 1,040 votes, or 16 percent. That is, over a thousand Virginians voted for a jihadist candidate.

Hat tip: Robert Spencer