Month: July 2009

Comment worth noting: What’s up with Lutheran refugee agency in Phoenix?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From time to time, we are hearing directly from refugees themselves and we welcome those exchanges.   Surely I will be accused of “hating Lutherans” again for posting this, but last night we received this comment from someone who appears to be a refugee in Phoenix:

Luthren agancy in phoenix trating poeple with out respact and have not vist them for 3 monthes 

I am assuming our refugee reader is referring to the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services affiliate in Phoenix, note here in this list of LIRS affiliates.  LIRS gives the agency’s address in Phoenix and in other places it is listed in Tucson.  The mission statement for Lutheran Social Services (or Ministry) of the Southwest is:

“Showing kindness, doing justice and serving those in need.”

I assume I have the right agency, it’s confusing because they seem to have two names, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and Lutheran Social Ministries of the Southwest.  I don’t know why these resettlement agencies (volags) change their names or use other names.   It makes me wonder if they are trying to confuse the public for some reason.

Anyway here is their Federal Form 990 (2007 is the most recent year they have submitted) and Wow! Check this out!    Their net income for that year was $9,231,260 and they received $8,403,189 from government grants—that is you, the taxpayer.  That is a whopping 91% of this “religious” organization’s income coming from taxpayer funds.   And, because they are a non-profit, you have no say over how they manage that money.  There is virtually zero oversight.

By the way, this is how you tell the “religious left” from the “religious right”—a truly conservative Christian organization will take no government funding.

I’m digressing.  So, as I asked at the outset, does anyone know what the heck is going on in Phoenix also the location of the 4 Liberian refugee boys raping their 8 year old neighbor?

Second Somali pleads guilty in missing “youths” case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The second Somali former refugee who is alleged to have traveled to Somalia for terrorist training pleaded guilty in Minneapolis today.  Hat tip: a friend from Tennessee.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Salah Osman Ahmed, 26, pleaded guilty in federal court today to providing material support to terrorists, according to his attorney.

Ahmed, a part-time security guard from Brooklyn Park, is accused of traveling to Somalia in December 2007, allegedly to train with al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group that federal officials say has links to al-Qaida.

Ahmed’s attorney, James Ostgard, said late Monday night that his client will plead guilty to a single count — providing material support to terrorists — before U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum. In exchange for the guilty plea, Ostgard said three other counts will be dismissed at Ahmed’s sentencing: Conspiracy to Kill, Kidnap, Main [Maim?] and Injure and two counts of giving false information to law enforcement.

Ahmed was one of two men indicted by a grand jury in February for training with al-Shabaab. Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, 25, of Seattle, Wash., also has admitted to federal investigators that he trained with the terrorist group. Isse has already pleaded guilty.

I guess I can’t get too excited, I’m now waiting for the big fish to be revealed—the brains behind this operation.  AND, I am waiting for some real investigative reporter to look into new angles—all the media stories are so humdrum.   Why don’t you guys look into the on-going feud in the Minneapolis Somali community? Or, why don’t you figure out who fingered Zakaria Maruf as “the recruiter” to the New York Times reporter?    Whoever did that likely knows who the real recruiter or recruiters are!  Was it just coincidence that Maruf was dead on the morning the NYT story hit the newstands? And,  I would like to know what Omar Jamal’s role in all this really is!  Or, how about someone compiling a list of which men exactly are missing.  Or, find out what CAIR is trying to hide?  And, here is one I think would be fascinating to know, did either of these two Somalis who did go to Africa ever meet Al-Amriki?

Hey, by the way, this story today wasn’t all  ho-hum, it did have a bit of interesting information that made me chuckle.   Ahmed has been working as a security guard!  Don’t you wonder exactly what he was guarding and what sort of credentials he gave the employer.   Experience handling an AK-47 maybe?

For new readers, here is my archival post on the Somali missing youths story, sans a few recent events because I was getting bored with the whole thing.

Bhutanese refugee murdered in Jacksonville, FL

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 11th:  I’m late on this, just discovered it at Bhutan News Service, the suspect was caught, here.

Update August 7th:  More on the Jacksonville Bhutanese refugees here.

Update July 30th:  I’ve posted on one of the comments to this post here.

A young and promising Bhutanese refugee who had spent most of his life in a camp in Nepal was murdered yesterday in a Jacksonville robbery.  He had been in the US for only 5 months.   It is one more case of refugees being placed in crime-ridden neighborhoods by a government resettlement contractor—a church-related agency at that.   From Jacksonville’s Times Union:

Tika Adhikari stared in disbelief Monday morning at a large circle of dried blood in the parking lot only feet from his Jacksonville apartment.

It was the blood of his 21-year-old son, Hari, who only a few hours earlier took a robber’s bullet point blank. It was the blood of the family’s rock, an immigrant determined to help his Bhutanese parents overcome a language barrier and support them through hard work.

Adhikari, 65, was resettled in Jacksonville with his wife and son five months ago from a Nepalese refugee camp. They once hoped for a safe and happy life. His simple request now: To see his son’s face one last time.

Adhikari is at least the 19th immigrant slain in the Jacksonville area in the past five years, most in robberies. His killer remains free.

Honestly, what is up with this?  We know that the State Department’s Office of Population, Refugees and Migration was warned in 2005 about crime against refugees in Jacksonville yet apparently continued to approve resettlements there.   I swear it is all about getting cheap housing!  These contractors don’t want to dig too deeply into their own funds to supplement the taxpayer funding they receive, so the refugees suffer.

Karen Croke works in the office of World Relief, the refugee resettlement group that brought the Adhikaris to Jacksonville from South Asia. Croke said she is disheartened to see immigrants freed from oppression meet with such violence. 

Adhikari was robbed of his wallet and a cell phone during the attack shortly before midnight Sunday. The slaying occurred at the Stonemont Village Apartments off Belair Road, just east of Philips Highway in a crime-ridden area of South Metro.

Heartbroken community members say more refugees will be reluctant to come to the US.  We have written many times about how reluctant the Bhutanese have been to resettle  here anyway because they were holding out hope of going back to Bhutan someday.  We have committed to take 60,000 over 5 years!   You can bet this story will be flying through the camps with some ‘I told you so’s.’ 

Adhikari began working at a nearby Wal-Mart about two weeks ago and was attending Florida Community College at Jacksonville to better his English. He dreamed of continuing his education, though unsure of what he ultimately wanted to do, his family and friends said.

Dozens of subdued people from the Bhutanese community gathered outside in the complex and the family’s apartment to offer their condolences Monday. Some expressed outrage at the slaying of another immigrant in Jacksonville.

“It’s unimaginable how this could happen,” said Dilli Mishra, a friend of the victim.

Yagya Dahal, 23, was neighbors with Adhikari at their refugee camp and reunited with his friend when they moved to Jacksonville. Dahal said he suspects some refugees may be reluctant to resettle in the United States after learning about such attacks.

As I have said previously, we need a national debate about refugee resettlement—who should come and how many—but once they are here these agencies contracted by us, the taxpayer, are expected to take care of the refugees in their charge.

Raleigh, NC: Same old story, unhappy Iraqi refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It seems that once the mainstream media finally gets hold of a story, it becomes the same old story everywhere.   We have two such refugee issues that are now starting to bore me to death!   One is the ‘missing Somali youths’ story which I am so behind in posting on it’s shameful.  But it’s the media’s fault that I am bored because they are such lemmings and their articles are all the same.

This is the ‘unhappy Iraqi refugee’ story we see everywhere—we must have  at least 25 posts on the subject.  If you are a new reader and not yet bored out of your mind, this is about how Iraqi refugees are coming to the US in droves (thanks to the at least 2-year-old lobbying campaign put on by the refugee industry), not finding work, not being properly taken care of by the agencies contracted to do so, and complaining (loudly) to the media. 

Every one of these stories tells us about Iraqis who feel they were misled when they decided to come to the US as a refugee.  It’s the same old story in the Charlotte Observer.   First there is an Iraqi sympathy story, then the template tells us the Iraqis are so unhappy here that some want to go home.   And, usually, to be fair, there is a report that some Iraqis are happy to be in the US no matter what.   You can read all that yourself.

Here are a couple of sections of the article that I want to comment on.  This is the first:

Now, like many Iraqis, he [one of the Iraqis quoted] says he doesn’t understand why the U.S. government welcomed him if this country cannot afford him the ability to support his family. The U.S. government has provided thousands of good jobs to people in Iraq, they say, so why can’t it provide them to those who are starting over in America?

[….]

The idea that the government should provide work reflects a basic misunderstanding of the United States and its refugee program, some of those who work with refugees say.

Mark Kadel, director of the N.C. office of World Relief, one of eight agencies that work with the federal government to resettle refugees in the state, said a feeling of entitlement has made it difficult to help some Iraqis. He said most of the 52 families his group has resettled have been agreeable and eager, but some, who earned advanced degrees in Iraq, come with unrealistic expectations and balk at low-end service jobs.

“They’ll say, ‘You brought me here. You invaded our country and so you owe us,'” Kadel said. “We’re not going to spoon-feed them just like a little child. They’re going to have to start at the bottom and work their way up, just like an American.”

I know the government can’t provide them all with work (at least not until Obama gets through changing our basic economic structure), but I think the average American, if he thinks about refugees at all, expects they will be working and not living on welfare.  And, I do believe helping refugees find employment is part of the contracting agency’s duties, in this case World Relief (an Evangelical Christian organization).  When I read this excerpt, I got the impression that Mr. Kadel doesn’t even like the Iraqi “clients” in his care.

Then here is the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is lobbying for more money for itself, weighing in with its own special spin to guilt-trip the public.

“People could be returning to extremely dangerous situations in Iraq or just complete destitution in Jordan. If that could be better than their life in the United States, that’s a reflection on the program,” said IRC spokeswoman Melissa Winkler. “This is a country that had a role in their upheaval, and we strongly believe that the United States has a responsibility to assist them.”

Complete destitution in Jordan?   I understand that Iraqis live fairly well in Jordan, afterall didn’t Angelina Jolie just tell us so recently.   Their situation might be filled with uncertainty for the future, but destitute?   No!   However, the word “uncertainty” doesn’t cut it when you are trying to spin the story to make Americans feel rotten, guilt-ridden and willing to write to Washington for more money for refugee agencies.  “Destitution” is a better choice of words.

Comment worth noting: Readers, it is obvious, the radical Left and Obama are getting us closer to a borderless world

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I got up this morning thinking about what I heard on Glenn Beck’s radio program yesterday.   A caller told Beck that he had worked for the SEIU (Service Employees International Union)  and that part of his employment training was to read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”   I am going to again implore all of you who can’t wrap your head around what is going on, with immigration and the Obama Administration’s drive to create economic chaos, to please read it.

The caller said the immigrants were needed as voters for the Democratic party, pure and simple.   Except I will add they are also needed to create chaos by being poor and angry.  The underlying driving force for the Alinsky strategy to work is to create chaos.  Chaos brings change.  If people are content they don’t demand change.   As I have said on many previous occasions, our own poor were moving into the middle class and becoming complacent—enter the immigrants to continue the battle of the “have-nots” against the “haves.”

I have written previously about the SEIU “organizing” Somalis.  Please use our search function for all of my posts on the SEIU.  Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN, is head of the SEIU.   Rathke (friend of Obama and former SDS with Bill Ayers) is also on the board of the Tides Foundation.  Oh, and by the way, George Soros involvement with Tides and refugee resettlement (see recent post on RI) should say it all for readers knowledgeable about Soros’ goals.

Now to the comment we received from the other side of the world overnight.  It is from reader BL in response to my post yesterday about the UN Badgering Japan to diversify.  Here is what BL said (I’ve posted his whole comment, but it’s the first paragraph that further makes the point I have been trying to make).

ARGH!!! Just the mention of the UN is enough to get me worked up…DAMN! Can’t the frickin world see that the clowns at the circus known as the United Nations are dictatorial half wits? They’re puppets for the one world movement and people, the powers that be are making progress and now they have another big piece in place, Obama.

So far Japan has been typically Japan, firm in their beliefs and unrelenting. They are one of the few nations left in this “devolving” world that still has a somewhat genuinely pure culture that they have proudly and perseveringly preserved. I certainly hope this doesn’t change. Let the UN do their song and dance as they always do. I think Japan’s reaction to the recent pressure from the UN by accepting ONLY 30 Myanmar refugees per year for three years starting 2010 on a trial basis is just their tactic to convey the impress that, okay we’re taking on board your requests (or more like demands) and this is what we’re intending to do, happy? What they’ve done is effectively portrayed the perception that they are honorable and receptive to the UN (if only for show) and to have hopefully shut up the UN for at least 3 years by introducing this 3 year trial basis. Smart. Although, I think no nation should have to do what they don’t want to. I really despise the damn UN. I wonder what the UN’s approval rating is right now? Last I checked it was very low, especially in the US…and rightly so.

The Radical Left must destroy each Nation’s sovereignty—each Nation’s pride in its own culture.   The immigrants and refugees being moved around the world are only the poor pawns in the relentless drive to bring about a one world order.  

Frankly, for those of us wondering why the refugees are not well-cared-for in the US by some of their resettlement agencies there is only one plausible explanation—it’s because they (the immigrants) don’t matter, they are just pawns who need to be kept poor and angry and dependent on the government (on the Democrats! on Obama!).

Note to do-gooders:  I have no fear of being labeled “tinfoil hat,” because keep in mind, I was a Leftwinger at one time just like you.  I understand the Left’s demonizing methods; Alinsky taught you well.  You are either supportive of the goal of  the one world movement or while making yourself feel good, you are being used and complicit in using immigrants as pawns.