Month: May 2010

Malkin: “Jihadists gaming sham marriage racket”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In the wake of the latest attempted Islamic terror attack, Michelle Malkin reminds us in a good piece yesterday about how many convicted Jihadists had long stays in the US because of student and work visas programs and sham marriages.

America’s homeland security amnesia never ceases to amaze. In the aftermath of the botched Times Square terror attack over the weekend, Pakistani-born bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad’s U.S. citizenship status caused a bit of shock and awe. The Atlantic magazine writer Jeffrey Goldberg’s response was typical: “I am struck by the fact that he is a naturalized American citizen, not a recent or temporary visitor.” Well, wake up and smell the deadly deception.

Shahzad’s path to American citizenship — he reportedly married an American woman, Huma Mian, in 2008 after spending a decade in the country on foreign student and employment visas — is a tried-and-true terror formula. Jihadists have been gaming the sham marriage racket with impunity for years. And immigration benefit fraud has provided invaluable cover and aid for U.S.-based Islamic plotters, including many other operatives planning attacks on New York City.

Read it all.

Iraqis are largest group of refugees coming to Maryland right now

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is your standard refugee news story, but I’m posting it so I have some statistics for our home state of Maryland.  And, because we rarely hear any refugee news from Maryland!

From Southern Maryland OnLine:

Although Iraqis make up only 2.5 percent of refugees and asylum-seekers in Maryland, in the past decade, Iraqi refugee resettlement in Maryland has gone from almost non-existent to leading other countries in the number of refugees entering the state.

From 2000 to 2007, there was an average of 19 new Iraqi refugees a year resettling in Maryland — .15 percent of all new arrivals in that time period.

In 2007, 1.9 percent of new Maryland refugees and asylees were Iraqi. By 2009, Iraqis made up one in six new refugees, or 16.8 percent, the largest group of new refugees from 45 countries, according to a database maintained by the Maryland Office of Refugees and Asylees.

[….]

From 1990 to 2006, more than 33,000 Iraqis were resettled across the nation, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. To date, about 1,000 Iraqis have resettled in Maryland.

Maryland’s  number of Iraqis is still a drop in the bucket compared to the top 6 states that resettle Iraqis.  California gets almost 20% with Michigan second with approximately 13-15%.  We have previously written about problems of the system being overwhelmed by Iraqis in both California and Michigan.  The others in the top 6 states resettling Iraqis are Texas, Illinois, Arizona and Virginia.

Maryland’s funding from the feds has more than tripled in recent years according to the Maryland Office of Refugees and Asylees.

In fiscal 2007, Maryland received about $2.5 million in cash and medical assistance funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In fiscal 2008, the funds doubled to $5.3 million.

Most of MORA’s fiscal 2011 $8.1 million budget will be spent on refugee services and cash assistance.

Incidentally we haven’t heard of any Iraqis wanting to go back to the Middle East from Maryland as we did in Virginia last year, here.

Large Immigrant drug bust in No. Virginia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Washington Examiner has the story yesterday of two Muslim men busted in Alexandria, VA as they received shipment of an estimated $90,000 worth of khat.  Previously we told you about a khat bust in Tennessee.  There is no  mention of whether these guys are Somalis or anything about their immigration status.

Two men were arrested as they tried to pick up more than $90,000 worth of Middle Eastern drugs at an Alexandria mall parking lot, authorities said.

Sharmarke Mohamed Ladane and Ali Ali Hussein were charged with possession and intent to distribute khat, a narcotic used commonly throughout East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, according to U.S. District Court records.

During a routine cargo check last week, border officials found 175 kilograms of khat in a shipment labeled “Filters and Paperboard,” slated for delivery to the parking lot of Alexandria’s Landmark Mall.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arranged the delivery of the drugs, during which they watched Ladane and Hussein unload them and put them in Hussein’s Chevrolet Tahoe at the mall parking lot. The truck driver delivering the drugs to the men had agreed to wear a wire for immigration agents.

[…..]

The amount of khat seized annually in the United States has grown nearly four-fold during the past decade, as more immigrants have sought to continue using what they consider a harmless morning ritual.  [And, as more refugees and other immigrants arrive from the Middle East and Africa–diversity is strength, right!–ed]

Many khat users say the drug is no worse than coffee, but the drug has been banned by federal law since 1993.

Volcanic ash halted shipments to the UK

I meant to post this story a few weeks ago about how the Somalis in the UK were all messed up when the disruption in air freight caused their khat to rot in Africa.

From Medeshi:

Thousand of kilos of Khat have been wasted at airports in Kenya and Ethiopia after flight cancellations to UK as a result of the volcanic ash that spread across Europe from Iceland, according to our sources. Khat is a mild drug consumed by Somalis, Yemens and Ethiopians* as well other nationals in UK .

The price of a knot of Khat which is usually called ‘Majin’ by the users soared to £10 from £2.5 yesterday and that price is still going up.Some of the users are drying up the leaves to conserve its effectively so that it could be eaten with sweet tea sometime later. Places like Southall green, Wembley Park and Whitechapel high street which are frequented by Somali Khat users have seen people standing and gathering outside shops and restaurants idly as they could not find the khat drug that has always kept them busy indoors. Some of them have even flocked into pubs which is quite un-common among Muslim Somalis.

This drug which has a devastating effect on the social well being of the Somalis worldwide is legal in the United Kingdom, although it is banned in the US and Canada as well as in most European countries. Khat causes family break downs among the Somali population in UK as consumers spend much time in chewing the leaves which cause sleeplessness and lack of appetite. Khat consumers usually chew the drug all night while sleeping all day, therefore , making them less able to look for work or look after their children. Khat also causes mental illness, paranoia [does that explain this Somali rant!] and anxiety as well dental plague [placque?] and mouth cancer.

It sure is a good thing they live in the UK and have all that free medical care!   Isn’t multiculturalism beautiful!

*I’m now wondering if the Ethiopian guy who murdered his wife and daughter in Alexandria was using khat.

UN setting the stage for increased Somali resettlement to the West

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story sent to me by a reader from the UK yesterday.   I’m reading between the lines of course, but I see this as lobbying pressure for the US to take thousands more Somalis.   From UN News Centre:

3 May 2010 – Thousands of Somalis fleeing the violence in their homeland are expected to cross into neighbouring countries this year where they will add to already overcrowded and under-resourced conditions in camps, the deputy United Nations chief for refugees said today.

“The burden for these countries is enormous,” said Alexander Aleinikoff, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, following a two-week visit to camps in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“If there was one resounding call from the refugees we met with it was this: please find me a new home,” Mr. Aleinikoff added.

[….]

The agency has helped resettle thousands of refugees in new countries, mostly in the United States – but acknowledged that the numbers represent “a tiny fraction of those stuck in limbo.”

For new readers, more Somalis are already on the way:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US (this linked post continues to be one of the most widely read posts we have ever written) in the last 25 years and then in 2008 had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened (that we know of), but will be soon. 

Nevertheless, thousands of Somali Muslims continue to be resettled by the State Department as I write this. We recently learned that we will be taking 6000 Somalis this year from one camp in Uganda and as many as 11,000-13,000 total from around the world.

Was Somali murder in Ft. Morgan an honor killing?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Because the local media is so politically correct and seems hell bent on controlling the news, I guess we won’t find out for sure until the trial begins in Ft. Morgan, CO in June (if it even happens!).

Over the weekend I came across this story about how Justice Department mediators were in “welcoming” Ft. Morgan helping conduct a community touchy-feely session with residents and some of the Somalis who have been flowing to Ft. Morgan for meatpacking jobs.  The article is a study in PC spin.   Surely one doesn’t bring in Justice Department facilitators and “peacemakers” if everything is hunky-dory.

While at the Ft. Morgan Times I decided to check on any news of the murder case from last fall where Ahmed Abdi knifed to death Warsen Aden Abdi.

I told you about it when the murder happened last fall.  And, then in January I speculated here (when the perp was described as a ‘religious man’) that it might be an Islamic honor killing but none of the news reports at the time revealed the relationship of the two Abdis (a common name in Somalia).

Here is a story I missed back in February that reveals the relationship.  Warsen Aden Abdi was the murderer’s stepsister!

Ahmed Abdi of Greeley entered a not guilty plea in Morgan County District Court on Monday in the Nov. 3, 2009 stabbing death of Warsen Aden Abdi, 27, in an apartment hallway in Fort Morgan.

He is accused of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault in the stabbing death of his stepsister.

[….]

A plea agreement had been in the works for Ahmed Abdi to plead guilty to second-degree murder and receive a 24-year prison sentence, but prosecutor Jamie Tholson withdrew that offer Monday. Withdrawal of the offer did not preclude the possibility of a disposition in the case, she said.

Abdi has been in Morgan County jail on $300,000 bond since his arrest in Greeley shortly after the incident.

Isn’t diversity grand!

For new readers, more Somalis are on the way:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US (this linked post continues to be one of the most widely read posts we have ever written) in the last 25 years and then in 2008 had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened (that we know of), but will be soon. 

Nevertheless, thousands of Somali Muslims continue to be resettled by the State Department as I write this. We recently learned that we will be taking 6000 Somalis this year from one camp in Uganda and as many as 11,000-13,000 total from around the world.