Recipes for Somalia and Afghanistan and refugee radicalization

I’m not getting into what the US should or shouldn’t do in Somalia or Afghanistan to fight Jihadists in the war on “terror,” but this article in Foreign Policy has a couple of lines I want to respond to.

This is the paragraph:

No wonder U.S. officials fear that Somalia is becoming a major al Qaeda safe haven — with an ominous connection to the continental United States, home to many Somali refugees. Some of these U.S. citizens have gone back to fight for Islamist groups. And in the future, there is always the danger that other immigrants, radicalized by the U.S. attacks, will wage war directly on their adopted homeland.

I don’t believe for a minute that short of becoming a Muslim nation and adopting Sharia law, any of the radical Somalis and Afghanis are going to like us any better no matter what we do.  In other words, varying degrees of ‘niceness’ will not diminish the numbers of radicals who wish us harm.   It’s all about Islam and its dominance in the world, we are just the biggest obstacle in their way.

That is why we should be restricting Muslim immigration!

Why we are white refugees

That’s the name for a relatively new coalition (new to me anyway!) of South African whites and their friends and supporters who have responded to two of my posts in the last week.  Those posts, here and here, are about two recent cases of white South Africans seeking asylum in Canada and Ireland respectively claiming persecution in the majority black “rainbow nation.”

By the way, I have written on several occasions in the last year or so about the violent crime mostly generated by South African blacks against immigrants of any color.   These folks at Why we support Huntley’s White Refugee Status want me to understand that the persecution is not just against ‘foreigners’ but also against the longstanding white population of South Africa.

I’m linking this blog and encouraging readers to visit it from time to time to understand a phenomenon that we may see on the rise in coming years, maybe even in European countries first (after South Africa), racism by blacks against whites.   I find it incredible (laughable even) to contemplate what will happen if more and more cases of whites seeking asylum come before Leftwing judges in places like the US.   By the way, note this blog tells of a case already (about 5 years ago) of a white South African family being granted asylum in the US.

Imagine how people like Black Marxist Kamau Karl Franklin would respond if whole groups were setting themselves up to battle blacks with claims that blacks were using “racial profiling” against a white minority.

Gaza refugee rumor has eternal life

Last January President Obama signed a Presidential Determination about refugees in Gaza. Its purpose was to send $20 million in aid to  Gazans who had suffered in the war with Israel. (Would he ever send aid for the traumatized Israeli children who lived under constant bombardment by rockets from Gaza? Fat chance!) An email has been circulating ever since, saying that this order meant that we were bringing hundreds of thousands of Hamas members into the United States, probably because the funds were directed to “urgent refugee and migration needs.” “Refugees” refers to the people in Gaza, who have been awarded perpetual refugee status, unlike all other refugees around the world. “Migration” is not the same as immigration; it refers to people moving around over there, not coming here.

I’ve been seeing references to this inaccurate email since the directive was signed. The rumor was so widespread that Senator Jon Kyl sponsored an amendment based on it, and had to withdraw the amendment when he realized it was false.

Lately it seems to be reviving; I’ve been seeing more references to it. Today I saw a blog post that simply reproduced the email — or rather, an embellished version of it that added another mistake: that HR 1388 was passed behind our backs (this happened in February and was reported on widely) and that this bill about volunteerism had a stealth measure about bringing Hamas members here. So I thought I’d better deal with this issue again, in case our readers are coming across this nonsense. If you want to see the wrongheaded blog post, here it is, though I hate to give such an incompetent blogger any traffic.

Here is the comment I left there. As of this writing it has not been approved, so let’s see if “Compass” can redeem himself by issuing a correction. Responsible journalists who repeated the rumor have corrected themselves when I informed them of the error.

This post is completely inaccurate. You are conflating two different things. HR 1388 was passed last January and became law in April. It is about volunteerism and has nothing to do with Palestinian refugees. See this.

Obama signed the Presidential Determination about the Palestinians in January. It was a reaction to the Gaza-Israel war and was meant to provide aid IN GAZA. The information is based on an inaccurate email that apparently is still circulating. I have written on the issue extensively on my blog, Refugee Resettlement Watch; here is one post.  Snopes also deals with it accurately here.  The Snopes account also mentions the conflation of HR 1388 with the Presidential Determination.

So, whoever you are, Compass Blog, you have just reproduced an old and inaccurate email with any fact-checking at all. Your supposed link to the Federal Register doesn’t work, so you probably didn’t even click on it yourself, just left it in the email you copied. You give blogging a bad name.

Obama has done many terrible things, and is set to do many more. He is the worst president ever by far, an enemy of America and all we stand for. Perpetuating false rumors does not help the fight against him; it just makes his opponents look silly and ignorant.

I will add that since this memo was signed in January we have not seen any refugees from Gaza come here, in case you need a further fact check. And it wouldn’t make sense anyway. Obama is an enemy of Israel and would want its foes to remain where they are. They can’t fight Israel from our land, whereas in Gaza they can continue to prepare for their final solution. Much of the aid money flowing into Gaza goes right to Hamas, as we reported here.

Update 10/16/09: The offending blog did not post my comment. Contrast that with Phyllis Chesler and Michael Ledeen who made corrections based on the information I sent them. That’s the difference between serious writers and sensationalist bloggers.

Jihadist pipeline is still flowing despite earlier claims that it had dried up

National Public Radio reported on Tuesday that there has been another arrest in the Somali missing youth case that began with the discovery last year that young Somali, former refugees (who received all the benefits of life in America), have returned to Africa to join the terrorist group Al Shabaab.   This NPR story gives us a few bits of important new information.

The FBI has made another arrest in its yearlong investigation into a rash of disappearances from the Somali community in Minnesota.

A 26-year-old medical technician from St. Paul was arrested on Friday and charged with making false statements to FBI officials. His arrest had been under seal until Tuesday, when he appeared in a St. Paul federal court. He was indicted Wednesday on the charges.

An FBI spokesman said that Abdow Abdow’s arrest was related to the ongoing investigation into the two dozen Somali youths who have left the United States and traveled to Somalia to join a militia there called al-Shabab.

The criminal complaint against Abdow says he lied about driving a handful of Somali-Americans from Minneapolis across the country on Oct. 6. One of the young men in the car had his passport and $4,000 in cash. Two other young men who were passengers in Abdow’s car tried to leave the United States through Mexico two days later.

[….]

U.S. intelligence officials have been following the case out of concern that the Somalis leaving Minneapolis are being funneled to al-Shabab through what might be America’s first jihadi pipeline. Think of the potential pipeline as an underground railroad for jihadists — an intricate but informal network of militants who help their brothers in arms not only travel to terrorist training camps but also return home. The return trip to America is what worries U.S. intelligence. They envision a raft of young men training for jihad and slipping back into the U.S. to launch an attack.

What’s new here?   This is the first time we have learned that some Jihadist wannabes may leave through Mexico; so will they return through Mexico?

Then the other thing that jumped out at me, is the report that the incident spurring the arrest occured on October 6th—9 days ago!

I thought we were told by leaders in the Muslim community in Minnesota back in August that the “pipeline” had shut down?   Was this wishful thinking by the spokesman or an effort to divert attention?  From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

A prominent Minneapolis Somali community leader said Tuesday that he believes the recruitment of young Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities to fight jihad in their homeland has slowed or stopped.

Speaking at a workshop to address the issue, Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Communities of Minnesota,* said the radicalization of Somali youth here is “over.” The combination of worldwide media and law enforcement scrutiny, coupled with greater vigilance by parents, has caused the recruiting pipeline here to dry up, he said.

“It’s come to a halt. People felt this has gone too far,” Fahia said. “And the thing is, parents are really alert. Many parents are saying, ‘Where are my children? Who do they talk to?’ You don’t trust anybody.”

Fahia’s comments come as federal investigators bear down on those believed to have recruited up to 20 Twin Cities men over the past two years to fight for Al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamic group that the State Department defines as a terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaida. Counterterrorism officials point to the ongoing risk that local Somalis, many of whom are U.S. citizens, could return to this country as trained terrorists.

* See my earlier report on the political activities of the Confederation of Somali Communities of MN, a taxpayer supported group known as an Ethnic Community Based Organization (ECBO).  Think of ECBOs as mini-ACORNs!

For new readers:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.