Comment worth noting: US State Department, what is going on in Bowling Green?

11/08/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update November 18th: The tangled web that will hinder any investigation of refugee neglect, here.

Update November 17th: More information on the satellite office of the BGIC that will open Dec. 1 in Owensboro, here.

Update November 14th: Readers should know that this post is the most visited post for the last few days at RRW. I don’t know who all is reading it, but I assure you many many people are. If you didn’t see it yesterday, I posted information on the State Department’s Operational Guidance for Resettlement Agencies, here, and have had several requests for it so far. This document outlines what is expected of federally contracted agencies when they resettle refugees.

Comments worth noting is a category we set up for comments (usually to older posts)that might be lost to most readers unless we showcased them here.

We just received this shocking information from a friend of a Burmese Karen refugee resettled recently in Bowling Green, KY. The comment came in response to my post on October 25th about resettlements at Bowling Green, here. It sounds like a repeat of what happened to the Burmese resettled in Waterbury, CT more than a year ago where some local church people finally were able to get the attention of the US State Department and the negligent resettlement agency was closed there.

US State Department, why does this keep happening? And, why have you approved another office for this agency in Owensboro, here?

From a reader identified as C. Flores:

Jason [another commnenter at the post], you have to remember these people are refugees. They did not come to Bowling Green by choice! These people need some compassion cas’ they surely aren’t receiving it in Bowling Green!

You need to take action and write Governor Steve Beshear, Congressman Geoff Davis, Senator Mitch McConnell,
Commissioner Brian “Slim” Nash, Major Elaine Walker, Commission Joe Denning, Commissioner Catherin Hamilton, and Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson, US Campaign for Burma, USCRI and many of the Universities in Kentucky… Have the people of Bowling Green to sign and take action. This is coming from your tax $$ and mine!

The International Center (aka Western Kentucky Mutual Assistance Association) needs to be stop!! The filthy living condition they have in BG, they were better off where they came from. I’m totally humiliated that America are doing this to these refugees!!!

This is an email I sent to all of the above November 2, 2009.

“I drove 210 miles down to Bowling Green, Kentucky on Friday, October 30th, from Northern Kentucky to welcome a son of a Karenni/Burmese family I been visiting in the Thailand Refugee Camp outside Mae Hong Son, since 2003.

I stayed in the son’s apartment at Lover’s Lane for 3 days and I was horrified from what I saw and heard from the Karenni refugees in Bowling Green. I didn’t realize there were so many Karenni living in BG. They all had so many questions for me and I didn’t know how to answer any of them. I was totally dumbfounded from what I saw. I never imagined America would do this to these refugees.

The Riviera apartments on 1106 Lovers Lane and the Greenwood Villa Apartments on 1500 Bryant Way, are slum apartments loaded with cockroaches and rodents. They were totally nasty! And these apartments are charging them $500.00 a month after they land a $9.00/hr job at the chicken factory. They are not worthy to even live in. The walls and carpeting in all the apartments I went in, haven’t been cleaned in years by management!!! The owners of the apartments have to be working with the International Center for “PROFIT!!!” They honestly need to be demolished. They are unlivable!!!

On Saturday, I bombed his apartment and took the family out to trick or treat. When we came back, it took the son and I over an hour to clean up the cockroaches. It was totally disgusting!!

I was totally bewildered the whole weekend. I called the Bowling Health Department on Monday, November 2, to report the living conditions the Karenni people are living in. As I write this, I am still baffled; “where are the funds going?” It’s a total disgrace!

These people have only what they brought with them usually one luggage with their whole life in it. They do not have enough winter clothing, eating utensils & dishes, no furniture, basically nothing and winter is around the corner. I had to go out and spend close to $300.00 of my own money to buy the family the necessities and the majority of items I purchased was 2nd hand.

The whole weekend, I kept asking myself, “why would America bring these people over here if they can’t help them?” Knowing the life of a Karreni refugee camp, I feel as they had a better life in the refugee camp than living in Bowling Green, Kentucky! I drove the 3 hours back in disbelief. How can these Karreni people get help! We need to stop bringing refugees in if we cannot help them.

When I arrived home Sunday night, I had to leave my luggage out in my garage and bombed my garage in case I brought home any cockroaches. The apartments are that bad!

I searched in vain regarding the crisis in Bowling Green and this man links (“What’s going on in BG…”) below explains it exactly how life is for these Karenni people. Somebody needs to help them please!!! “

Jason, if I didn’t live 3 hours away, I’d be asking a lot of questions how is your tax $$ being used to help these people! They need help and the are not receiving it in BG!

Ask the people of BG to help them. They desperately need winter clothing. The need rides to the Asian/Thai Supermarket for food. When I walked in the son’s apartment, he had 2 coffee cups, 1 plate and 2 spoons and he has been her for over 3 weeks!! He didn’t have any furniture in his apartment and he has a wife and 2 small children.

Bowling Green needs to be ANGRY at the International Center in BG! I am!! I am driving back the 3 hours one-way again this coming weekend. Why, because no one in BG is helping them! After this family gets all their identifications, I plan on bringing them home with me. I don’t have the $$$ to support them either, though I do have the compassion. I bring them all here in Northern KY if I could.

“acorcoran” Thank you for all the time you have done with these very informative posts. Please let me know how I can help. I don’t know what more I can do besides emailing the ones above. This is all new to me and I honestly don’t know where to begin!! ~C. Flores

To C. Flores, I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow with some suggestions!

Ft. Hood horror: “…when do we, the American public, knock off the PC nonsense?”

11/08/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That title is a line from an Op-Ed today from retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters writing in the New York Post on last week’s Islamist terrorist attack on unarmed soldiers and civilians at Ft. Hood. ‘When do we knock off the PC nonsense ‘ could be the subtitle of Refugee Resettlement Watch as well.

I’ve been away, and away from the computer, but before I left Judy and I talked about this horrendous event and agreed that political correctness in the American military and indeed in the country generally is in large part to blame for this radical Islamist reaching the levels he attained in the US Army. Peters spells that out here in his hard-hitting piece. Please read it. Hat tip: Susan

Obama’s Katrina!

Criticism of President Obama’s tepid reaction on Thursday evening, reported here at NBC Chicago, was echoed on a local radio program I heard while away. I don’t even know the talk radio program but people were calling in and bitterly complaining that Obama did not appear to understand how important this event was to the average American, that Americans needed the President to address and console the Nation on Thursday evening (not some Indian activists at the Interior Department) and show sensitivity. Some callers to the program said he needed to be the source of our comfort as President Reagan had been at the time of the Challenger explosion. Other callers said that he should have been at Ft. Hood over the weekend to meet with families and the wounded (as George and Laura Bush quietly did one night, on Friday I think).

We have reached a profound turning point in our country’s history, although not as horrific as 9/11, but in the end I believe it will be perhaps more galvanizing.

I don’t know what else to say so we will let others, more articulate than I, say it. I’m going to link some articles and op-eds below and update the list as we go along.

Here are two from Judy (back on-line after a weekend computer crisis) tonight:

“Our brain dead country” by David Horowitz, here.

“Jihad at Ft. Hood” by Robert Spencer here.

Here is a Wall Street Journal article with more details. Note that the killer attacked engineers and women truck drivers, he wasn’t even brave enough to take on a fighting unit. He was a chicken s * * * jihadist. So far I’ve heard he killed a young pregnant woman and now we learn that he killed a 55-year-old female medical officer from Maryland among the 13 he hunted down at point blank range.

Dick Morris has an excellent op-ed here on a point that I want made. In the coverage I saw over the weekend, and even from Chris Wallace last night, came the question about terrorism and it seemed part of the requisite definition of terrorism was did he have instructions from abroad. Damn, why does a “terrorist act” have to be directed from abroad to be defined as real terror. Radical indoctrination is happening in most mosques in most towns in the US and PC people need to start understanding that.

The Washington Times has an editorial yesterday addressing the issue of whether a lone gunman can be an Islamic terrorist—he certainly can be!

More on political correctness at Frontpage magazine with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch.

Our friend Richard over at Blue Ridge Forum, here, has pulled together some of the same pieces we have plus some others and particularly highlights Mark Steyn’s NRO commentary, here. “Better screwed than rude” says it all.

Scott Wheeler asks a question that greatly concerns me, here. Are our soldiers safe as they sleep?

Laotian refugee among those killed, here.

Patrick Poole tells us why there will be more Jihadist attacks on the American military from within, here.

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch explains how a Muslim like this killer can justify getting ‘lap dances’ at a strip club before becoming a Jihadist and killing innocent people.

Army didn’t know about Hassan’s contacts with terrorist abroad, so arrow seems to be pointing at the FBI and ultimately Attorney General Holder (in my opionion!), here.

Debbie Schlussel connects some dots back to Yemen, here.

Vile CAIR is raising money for Muslims off the Ft. Hood Massacre, here.

Please send us more links for articles and opinion pieces to update this post.

Catholic leaders: Illegal entry does not define who you are

11/06/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is nothing earth-shattering here, but since we had previously discussed the National Association of Evangelicals on the issue of amnesty, I thought it only fitting to tell you about how leading Catholics are working toward Comprehensive Immigration Reform (called Amnesty for short).

This is an account of a conference a few days ago at Georgetown University at which Cardinal McCarrick says the window is closed at the moment to push for Amnesty—no kidding!

From the National Catholic Reporter:

“A toxic political atmosphere” is preventing much-needed humane reform of the “broken immigration system” in the United States, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said Nov. 3 at a forum on immigration and human dignity at Georgetown University.

Calling for “comprehensive immigration reform,’ the retired Washington archbishop said, “We have to change what is broken, lest more people will suffer. We have to be courageous and persistent and change the system.”

McCarrick was lead speaker of a three-member panel at the forum, put on by Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center and co-sponsored by CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.), the Migration Policy Institute and the Jesuit Conference, USA. More than 300 people attended.

In one way or another all the speakers urged new attention to immigration reform — which McCarrick bluntly said is now on a political back burner to the more currently dominant issues of the economic crisis, U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the health care reform debate.

The golden opportunity for immigration reform two years ago is gone, and those seeking comprehensive, humane reform need to watch closely for the next open window and seize it, he said.

“Our receptivity to immigrants defines who we are” as Americans, said Donald M Kerwin Jr., a Woodstock Center associate fellow and vice president for programs of the Migration Policy Institute. “What immigrants want today is what your parents and grandparents wanted” as immigrants in previous generations.

Kerwin, who for 15 years was director of CLINIC, a national program established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide legal assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants seeking visas and legal residency in the United States, sharply disputed the use of “illegal aliens” or “illegal immigrants” as terms defining or identifying those who enter the country without legal status.

“The rejection of ‘illegal alien’ is not a quibble. … It’s a line drawn in the sand” to say that these are human beings with rights and legitimate aspirations, whose illegal entry does not define who they are, he said. [I think it says an awful lot about them!]

A little research into CLINIC

I don’t have time today to look too deeply into CLINIC (some interesting stuff on their website) because I am going away for a few days and have to get out of here, but I was curious who was funding this legal office. Turns out you are—not entirely, though! On average CLINIC gets about a half a million dollars a year from the US taxpayer to legally defend immigrants including refugees, and apparently to lobby. The money passes through a Washington, DC office run by Kerwin for 15 years.

If you are interested check out their latest Form 990 here. And, also go to that wonderful new source of information USA Spending.gov for information on their federal grants.

By the way, as regular readers know the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of the top ten federal refugee contractors, is one of the largest recipients of federal grant dollars. I wonder do they ever consider that if millions of illegal aliens are legalized overnight that they will compound even further the poor job prospects for legal refugees.

And, why are we giving millions and millions of tax dollars to rich churches and their political activities?

Gag order in Somali murder case in Ft. Morgan, CO

11/05/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update November 9th: Gag order lifted, here. Victim identified, same last name as murder suspect, here.

O.K. now things are really getting fishy. Maybe Jerry Gordon writing at New English Review is on to something—do we have another* Muslim honor killing here? I’ve written very critically of the Ft. Morgan Times and their editorial squishiness on the joys of multiculturalism, but notice here they are asking the judge to lift the gag order—good for them!

This is the latest on the stabbing death of a young “East African” woman (see post last evening) from the Ft. Morgan Times:

Two agencies involved in the investigation of a fatal stabbing in Fort Morgan have declined to release information on the case, citing a gag order.

After an initial news release reporting that an unidentified East African woman had been fatally stabbed Tuesday night and a suspect had been arrested in Greeley, Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich
declined to further discuss the case Wednesday.

The stabbing occurred in a residence in the 400 block of West Kiowa Avenue, and another East African, Ahmed Abdi, 25, of Greeley was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault, according to the initial FMPD news release.

The Morgan County Coroner’s Office declined to release the identity of the victim Wednesday afternoon.

Morgan County District Court Judge Douglas R. Vannoy issued a gag order Wednesday limiting what lawyers, legal representatives and law enforcement officials could say about the case.

The order granted a motion by public defender J. Brandeis Sperandeo to limit pretrial publicity.

The order prohibited lawyers and legal representatives from expressing opinions about character, guilt or innocence of the defendant; talking about admissions, confessions or contents of statements attributed to the defendant; making references to results of investigative procedures; and making statements about the credibility or anticipated testimony of prospective witnesses.

Law enforcement officers were prohibited under the order from discussing the existence or contents of any confession, admission or statement attributed to the defendant; discussing the possibility of the defendant entering a plea; discussing prior criminal records; discussing the performance of any examinations or tests; discussing the identity, testimony or credibility of prospective witnesses; and discussing information that an officer knows or has reason to know would be inadmissible in court.

The Times delivered a letter to the court Thursday morning requesting that the order be lifted.

I’m wondering if the murder suspect, Ahmed Abdi, is related to the Abdis who run the East African Community of Colorado Center in Greeley?

A little later: I just remembered this post I wrote almost exactly a year ago about the church folks of Ft. Morgan getting together with their new Somali neighbors—the Somali men that is! No Somali women could come out to the mixed-gender luncheon.

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.

* Iraqi woman died two days ago of her injuries in Arizona honor killing, here.

LA doctor accused of faking exams for immigrants

11/05/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Doesn’t this give you confidence in our immigration system? The Associated Press reports Officials: LA doctor faked immigrant medical exams:

A Los Angeles doctor has been arrested for allegedly falsifying the results of medical exams for immigrants applying for visas.

Officials say 72-year-old Levon Tebelekian is charged with fraud and making false statements after a joint investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the California Medical Board.

ICE’s Miguel Unzueta says immigrants applying for permanent residency must undergo a medical exam to ensure they don’t have any medical conditions or diseases that could threaten public health.

Investigators say immigrants paid Tebelekian up to $150 to complete the medical examination form, but never saw the doctor.

If convicted, the physician faces up to 80 years in prison.

The local NBC station adds this charming anecdote:

In one case, he allegedly told an undercover ICE agent that he was not going to “disturb his blood” and that he “did not look like he had AIDS,” according to an affidavit.

But why should the doctor be prosecuted? Obama is lifting the ban on immigrants and travelers with HIV/AIDS anyway, as Ann reported last week.