Month: July 2011

Al Shabaab capable of attacking inside the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In March of 2009, I sat in a Senate hearing room in Washington, DC and heard our supposed intelligence “experts” tell the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the Somali youths, former refugees to the US, who went back to Somalia for Jihadist terror training were there only to defend Somalia from African invaders, like the Ethiopians.  (Readers, we began following the news of the Somali missing youths, here in 2008.)

Senators Lieberman and Collins seemed relieved (giddy really) in March 2009 to hear the testimony from the “experts” that Al Shabaab had no capabilities outside of the Horn of Africa.  Even I could tell they were delusional then!

[Incidentally, these same Senators will be hearing how the Iraqi refugee terror suspects came to be in the US, here, next week.]

Now comes news, oops!, Al Shabaab has joined with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to become a threat to the West—mostly because of their ability to recruit Somali immigrants and others living in the West!  Hat tip:  Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum.

From AEI Critical Threats (emphasis mine):

The terrorist threat to America from the Gulf of Aden is metastasizing as the most dangerous al Qaeda affiliate, Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), appears to be partnering with Somalia-based militant Islamist group al Shabaab in attacking the West.

On June 23, an American drone strike targeted two senior al Shabaab leaders in Qandal, outside the al Shabaab-controlled southern port city of Kismayo.[1] Somalia’s defense minister said on July 1 that U.S. military forces retrieved the two men; it is unclear whether they were killed in the strike.[2] The identities of the militants have not been released, but a senior American military official said that they had “direct ties” to Anwar al Awlaki, the Yemeni-American radical cleric who has been operational within AQAP.[3] The official added, “They were planning operations outside of Somalia.”[4] The reported links between Awlaki—whose primary focus has been on attacking the American homeland—and the al Shabaab leaders targeted in the strike suggest that AQAP and al Shabaab have established operational ties. Such an alliance would enable the two groups to leverage their joint resources, including AQAP’s bomb-making expertise and al Shabaab’s recruitment and hosting of militants from the West, to conduct spectacular attacks in the West.

[…..]

An AQAP-Shabaab partnership based on the proximity of their safe haven networks and a shared global militant Islamist ideology constitutes an increasingly complex and dangerous threat. The recent drone strike in Somalia may fortunately have disrupted any AQAP-Shabaab operational planning to attack the American homeland, albeit temporarily; the tasks of dismantling and defeating AQAP in Yemen and al Shabaab in Somalia merit a heightened sense of urgency.

For New Readers!  Stories like this one always bring new readers to RRW and you should know that the US State Department brings in thousands of Somalis every year as refugees.  Groups like Catholic Charities, the Hebrew Immigrant Aide Society, Church World Service and World Relief (among others) are paid with your tax dollars to resettle them in your towns.

We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years.   In FY2010 which ended September 30th the US State Department resettled 4,884 Somalis (here) to towns near you.  The “teen” would-be bomber in Oregon was one of the refugees.

Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge (has been on the verge for months and months!)  of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008.  See the latest on new regulations, here.

Now, also, Somalis are coming illegally across our borders and ironically asking for asylum because of the radical Islamic Jihadists (including Americans!) in Africa.

KY Senator McConnell wants military trial for Iraqi terror suspects

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

McConnell is weighing in so as to keep this trial out of his home state of Kentucky.  Last night Bowling Green town leaders were to vote on whether they wanted the trial or not.

However, the more I think about this, I believe the public has a right to know how these Iraqis came to be living in small town America through the refugee program.  If they are shuffled off to Guantanamo Bay, you will never hear another word about them.

I don’t know how they will get a jury of their peers though—put a bunch of fellow Iraqi refugees on the jury?  Come to think of it, let’s televise it too, just like the Casey Anthony trial and maybe the public would get a better understanding of the flaws in our LEGAL immigration programs.

From the Bowling Green Daily News:

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office said today the Senate minority leader plans to send a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking Holder to reconsider his decision to hold civilian trials for two Iraqi refugees arrested on terrorism charges in Bowling Green in May.

Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, were arrested May 25 in Bowling Green. A federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment against the men May 26. Both mean entered the country legally as Iraqi refugees, receiving publicly funded housing assistance and health care.

“In the War on Terror, our government must place a higher priority on gathering intelligence and removing foreign fighters from the battlefield than on bringing a civilian prosecution,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a copy of the letter provided to the Daily News. “By doing so, we can maintain pressure on the higher echelons of Al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

McConnell also commended law enforcement for their work on the case.

“But our priority with enemy combatants like these should be to capture, interrogate, and detain them – indefinitely, if need be,” McConnell said in the letter. “If, after these priorities are achieved, we determine they should be tried for violating the laws of war, we should use our military commission system to do so. Our civilian criminal justice system simply is not intended for the purposes.”

McConnell requested that Holder provide information related to the decision to hold the trial in Bowling Green.

About ten days ago we reported that Kentucky’s other Senator, Rand Paul, has called for a hearing on July 13th in Washington, here.

Senator McConnell —no help with refugee problem in the past!

I have no proof, but I’ll bet Senator McConnell has helped for years to promote refugee resettlement in Kentucky to supply big meat companies with cheap labor.   In 2009, a very frustrated Kentucky woman, concerned about the terrible living conditions of Burmese refugees in Bowling Green attempted to get McConnell’s attention on their plight and got no where.   See one of many posts we did on the alleged abuse of refugees in Bowling Green.

African immigrants bringing HIV to Malta

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In response to my post last night about HIV in the refugee population in the US, reader Charles sent us this story from the Earth Times about Malta.

Valletta, Malta – Half of the HIV cases being treated in Malta involve African immigrants, who make up just one per cent of the population, the island’s main newspaper revealed Sunday. New HIV-positive cases in the EU’s smallest state have quadrupled – from between seven and 10 cases a year to about 30 to 40 – in the past two to three years, coinciding with increases in the number of illegal immigrant landings, The Sunday Times reported.

The statistics are expected to continue fuelling the anti- immigration sentiment sweeping Malta.

Read it all.

New readers, type ‘Malta’ into our search function. We have dozens of posts about how the US State Department is bringing Malta’s illegal aliens to the US.

Tennessee: Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act could be the ticket for other areas experiencing refugee overload

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A model for other states?

Just a week ago we told you about the mayor of Manchester, NH begging for a moratorium on refugees being resettled in his city.   The Tennessee bill, just passed and signed into law and discussed in some detail in the Shelbyville Times Gazette, may be just the model other states could use to demand some control of the refugee program at the local level.

Frankly in many locations, citizens are incensed when they learn that “church” groups like Catholic Charities are being paid by the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services to financially stress towns and cities by the importation of poverty.

From the Shelbyville Times Gazette (emphasis mine):

A bill that originated from the desk of State Sen. Jim Tracy has been signed into law that would make sure that local communities would be able to absorb refugees.

But a state immigrant rights group has blasted the new measure, calling it an “unprecedented attack on refugees.”

Called the Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act, the new law, signed by Gov. Bill Haslam on May 27, will require Catholic Charities, the state’s refugee program agency, to meet four times a year with local governments to plan and coordinate “the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival …”

A number of refugees from a variety of countries, such as Somali, Burma and Egypt, have moved to Shelbyville in recent years to be closer to jobs at the Tyson Foods facility.

Tracy told the T-G in February that there has been “a lot of discussion across the state about this, particularly in Bedford County … but other counties also.” He explained at the time that the law would require resettlement agencies to let local governments know when a large number of refugees are coming “because it puts a burden on the local community.”

“Absorptive capacity” refers to a community’s ability to meet the existing needs of its current residents, the availability of affordable or low-cost housing, including existing waiting lists, and “the capacity of the local school district to meet the needs of the existing or anticipated refugee student population.”

The law also refers to “the ability of the local economy to absorb new workers without causing competition with local residents for job opportunities, displacing existing local workers, or adversely affecting the wages or working conditions of the local workforce.”

It also states that a local government can request a moratorium on new resettlement activities, by documenting that the community lacks the absorptive capacity and that further resettlement would result in an adverse impact to existing residents.

The bill passed the state house by a vote of 86-10 with passage in the Senate side by a vote of 22-9-1.

Of course the state Open Borders advocacy and lobbying group—the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition* (search RRW for them, we have written about them on many occasions)––calls the measure the “Refugees not welcome act.”

*For our Maryland readers this is the Tennessee equivalent to CASA de Maryland, except they are not as rich as CASA.

Webinar: Refugees no longer screened for HIV before arriving in the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is not new news, but….

I just came across this webinar series and one of the series, just a few weeks ago, was about how refugees are no longer screened for HIV before they are admitted to the US.  I see that a month ago they did one on suicide among refugees.  Maybe next they need to do a webinar on how refugees are coming in with active TB, something we just heard from an unidentified reader at another website. Hat tip: Paul

You can hear the webinar here:

Since January 4, 2010, HIV is no longer an inadmissible condition for refugees seeking resettlement in the US. Refugees are not required to undergo HIV testing as part of the overseas medical examination and HIV-positive individuals do not need an approved Class A Waiver for admission. Resettlement agencies, state and local health officials have raised questions on how best proceed in screening refugees and linking HIV-positive individuals with services. They have also asked for guidance in providing information, testing and treatment for refugees that is consistent with state and federal health privacy laws and best practices.