Day: April 23, 2011

As refugee numbers mount, Libyan stalemate could be Obama’s undoing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We were told by the French, the British and the UNITED NATIONS that we had to save the people of Libya from Qadhafi.  President Obama said, oh sure, as long as the UN says it’s about humanitarianism we’re in!  There was apparently no serious planning, no serious thought when Macbeth’s “weird sisters” Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power told Obama to jump (and he did).  Now we are faced with a “slow motion humanitarian crisis” according to the Politico:

Obama originally justified U.S. involvement on the grounds that it was needed to avert an imminent humanitarian crisis there, including the possibility that large numbers of civilians would be killed if forces loyal to Qadhafi overran the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

Now critics see a stalemate producing a similar, slow-motion humanitarian crisis that could linger for months.

“Deterring Qadhafi’s forces from moving forward doesn’t remove him from power, doesn’t create a functioning economy, doesn’t solve humanitarian problems of people being out of their homes, out of work — all of which comes from having this war drag on and on,” said Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution. “What gets totally lost here is you have hundreds of thousands of people displaced here — refugees … you’re losing economic opportunity, losing jobs, the educational system is breaking down, the whole infrastructure is coming under pressure.”

“The problem we face, is, having started this without evidently any clear plan as to what the outcome would be, we are everyday making this worse.

Moral duty?

And, now we have the UN running to Russia for help with, what else, the “humanitarian crisis” that was unleashed by the UN itself!   We have two stories on UN officials begging Russia for help.

Here is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Moscow telling the world the fighting must stop—-waaahhhh! Make it stop!   The United Nations (presumably with Ban’s blessing)  unleashed the three witches in the first place!

Moscow – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday renewed his call for an end to the violence in conflict-ridden Libya.

‘I urge the Libyan authorities to stop fighting and stop killing people,’ he said during an official visit to Moscow.

He said the United Nations’ priority right now was to implement a verifiable and effective ceasefire so that humanitarian aid efforts could be stepped up. Only then, he said, could the flow of refugees out of the country be stopped.

He estimated that half a million people had already fled Libya.

Also in Moscow we learn that the UN is begging for money for the refugee crisis of its own making!

More than $160 million is needed to help refugees from riot-hit Libya, President of the UN General Assembly Joseph Deiss said in an interview with Russia Today TV channel.

[….]

Libyan opposition leaders earlier requested the international community to protect the Libyan people “from any further genocide and crimes against humanity without any direct military intervention on Libyan soil.”

“On the one hand, the UN stands for member states and their sovereignty, and on the other hand there are fundamental values the UN stands for,” Deiss said.

“And, beyond certain limits the international community has the moral duty to protect those who are at the mercy of the governments who are not coming up to their obligations,” he added.

Protect!  It would be so ironic if  one of Obama’s national security advisors, Samantha Power, and her scheme (with George Soros) called the “Responsibility or Right to Protect” would destroy far more lives then it saved.  But, I guess that’s what happens when we put immature ideologues and community organizers together in the White House.

Canada has immigrant “investors” ripping it off too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been writing for years about LEGAL immigration programs in the US that allow those people from a whole long list of countries who have a little money to “invest” to get into the US and buy such things as mom and pop gas stations and convenience stores only to turn them into fraudulent enterprises most notably stealing from the food stamp program. (See my earlier post this a.m. for example)

Now, we learn that Canada, greedy for “investors” too, has a legal immigration program that is a major fraud operation.  Here is a long story and an investigation by the Globe and Mail about how Canada is being hoodwinked by unscrupulous Chinese “investors.”

Here is just one little bit from the Globe’s story:

But a bigger threat may lurk abroad. More than 80 per cent of the companies The Globe’s counterfeit client asked for help offered to sugarcoat the past, even if it includes a criminal conviction and time in jail.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confirms that “crooked consultants” in such places as India, Pakistan and especially China are a problem. “A lot of people,” he said in an interview, “are willing to pay a lot of money to cut corners.”

I wish we had a news gathering organization as aggressive as the Globe and Mail which actually set up a sting operation to get this story.

Our American food stamp scams (convenience stores owned by immigrant investors)  would be a great subject for such a sting!

By the way, if you are interested in more on how the American E-2 Treaty Investor program works, see this post I wrote last year at this time.  Note that we even have law firms in some cities helping the “investors” get here and acquire their very own personal convenience store!

Egyptian border confusion: IDF unit refuses to send “refugees” back to Egypt

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The incident highlights the political confusion (lack of will?)  in Israel regarding asylum seekers and economic migrants pouring into the country—-help migrants knowing that by doing so Israel could soon be taken over from within?  It is the same story here, it’s just that the US is bigger and it will take longer before we know we are finished.

From Haaretz:

Soldiers and officers in a reserve battalion that served on the Egyptian border in recent weeks have told their commanders they will not take part in “immediate return” – the sending back to Egypt of Africans sneaking into Israel. The brigade commander, meanwhile, has confirmed that the battalion will not carry out “immediate return.”

The Negev Brigade’s elite reconnaissance battalion completed a three-week deployment on the border. Nearly every night, Africans crossed the frontier, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, and at least one time, Libyans.

Early in the deployment, a family of Eritreans was stopped. A company commander was ordered to send the transients back toward an Egyptian checkpoint.

The soldiers and officers had heard descriptions from colleagues who regularly serve in the area about abuse of the Africans by Egyptian border policemen – violence, rape and murder – and refused to carry out the order. The commander contacted the battalion commander, Lt. Col. (res. ) Avi Friedman.

Friedman supported his men and contacted the brigade commander, Col. Yair Barkat, who then agreed that the troops would not carry out “immediate return.”

During the deployment, Africans received medical treatment, food, drink and were taken to a holding area on the Israeli side of the border.

Officer:   “Israel has a problem, and they don’t know what to do, so they fob it off on the army.”

Soldiers and officers from the battalion who spoke to Haaretz asked to remain anonymous. “We’re proud of what we did, but we don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” one said. “What we had to say we said internally, to the battalion and brigade commanders. Israel has a problem, and they don’t know what to do, so they fob it off on the army.”

For further reading on Israel’s “refugee” issues we have a whole category, here.

Michigan: This food stamp fraud case involves Vietnamese

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This may be the first time I’ve seen a case where Vietnamese immigrants are running a convenience store food stamp scam.   Although that Seattle Chinese grocer a few weeks back employed Vietnamese who were scooped up in the bust with the store owner.

New readers, these are not scams involving petty food stamp fraud, like all the other cases (just had one two days ago, Indians probably) this case involves the big scam—trading cash for stamps usually at 50 cents on the dollar.  The customer gets the cash and the store owner/manager turns in the claim to the Department of Agriculture (American tax payer) for the full one dollar.  It’s a redistribution of wealth, but I must say based on the number of busts I’m seeing, the Obama Administration seems to be cracking down pretty well.  I just noted this week also that Open Borders advocates are furious that the Obama Administration for deporting illegal aliens at very high rates, here.

And, one more point, I get alerts on these cases almost daily and I think I have never seen one that involves a Smith, Jones or other traditional American name, they virtually all involve immigrant run stores.

From the Grand Rapids Press:

GRAND RAPIDS – The owners of a Marathon C-Store pleaded guilty to food-stamp fraud for redeeming government food benefits in exchange for cash and ineligible items.

Hai “Henry” Bui, and his wife, Thao Thi Trinh, entered the pleas Thursday in U.S. District Court. Earlier, his brother, Cuong Thahn “John” Bui, who worked as manager, and a nephew, Tuyen Khanh Nguyen, a clerk, pleaded guilty to charges in the scheme at 1405 Burton St. SE.

The defendants redeemed electronic food-stamp benefits and Women, Infant and Children benefits for cash and unapproved items such as cigarettes, phone cards and gasoline – at a 100 percent markup, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler wrote in court papers.

The government has seized $260,000 from the defendants.

I wonder how much they actually stole because the seizure of money and property is usually far less than the full amount of the thievery.

Why do I write about these cases when it may not directly involve refugees (although these Vietnamese may in fact have come here in the refugee program)?  I write about these cases because no one else does, no one else links all the immigrant fraud schemes.    Oh, and beware,  just a reminder, I have seen some cases now where the seller of the food stamp benefit is also brought up on legal charges.

I’m sorry I never made a special category for ‘food stamp fraud’ here at RRW, but I had no idea when we had a case locally 3 years ago that it would be so widespread.  Just use our search function for ‘food stamp fraud’ and you will see dozens of similar cases.