Month: November 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann cited Somali threat in national security debate

~ Ann Corcoran

Thanks to Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum for tipping me off to this unreported (or at least I couldn’t find mention of it!) answer to a question in last week’s Republican national security debate.

The question was from the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Teese who wanted to know what threat are we not talking about.  From CNN’s transcript of the debate:

QUESTION: My name is Mark Teese (ph) and I’m a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute. And my question has to do with the unexpected. During the 200 Presidential debates, Governor George W. Bush was never asked about the threat from Al Qaida, yet the battle with Al Qaida dominated his presidency. What national security issue do you worry about that nobody is asking about, either here or in any of the debates so far?

And, then at the tail end of most of the other candidates weighing in, Bachmann says this:

BACHMANN: Well, I would agree with what my colleagues said up here on the stage. And also, we need to remember, we won the peace in Iraq. And now President Obama is intentionally choosing to give that peace away.

This is a significant issue because we’re taking the terrorist threat away from the Middle East, bringing it to the United States.

We talked about Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab is real. In my home state of Minnesota, we’ve just had two convictions of two women that are financing terror with Al-Shabaab. This threat, I believe, now is in the United States and now the threat has come home and that’s what we have to deal with.

I mentioned this conviction of the two women who are US citizens here.  They showed complete disdain for our system of justice telling the court that all infidels would go to hell.

How did we get so many Somalis in the US?  Please visit one of the most widely read posts (19,065 views) here at RRW.

BTW, on NumbersUSA Presidential candidate score card, Michele Bachmann ranks the highest with a B- score.

Danish playground owner banishes Somalis, relents and then still might get sued

~ Ann Corcoran

The article doesn’t say exactly what the Somalis did to this man’s playground, but under pressure he reversed his decision to exclude Somalis from using his property.

From Ice News:

A group of outraged Somalis say they are considering suing a Danish playground owner after he imposed a blanket ban on them using his property.

Thomas Vestergaard said people of the nationality were not welcome at the Legeland adventure play facility in Århus, northeast Denmark, for six months after a fight broke out at an Islamic festival on 13th November.

In an official statement issued when the news first broke, the AarhuSomali group said, “Somali associations are shocked at the Århus playground Legeland’s decision to exclude law-abiding Danish citizens of Somali origin from patronising their business.”

Human rights experts also condemned the move as illegal. Speaking to the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, lawyer Jonas Christoffersen said, “This clearly violates racism laws, which say you can’t discriminate based on nationality or skin colour, and that’s the case here.”

Changes his mind!  Oh, well, who cares, we still might sue him!

The ban effectively only lasted for one day, however, with Vestergaard relenting after meeting with Somali groups. He told the Århus Stiftstidende local newspaper that, “They are welcome again,” after the Somali community apparently acknowledged that “They needed to treat [his] property with respect.

“But some Somalis are still unhappy with the resolution and are considering legal action against the playground owner.

“AarhuSomali has discussed whether this case should have consequences for Legeland’s owner. In the coming days, we will consult our legal advisers about the next steps,” a spokesperson for the organisation said.

Remember readers that Europe is ‘ahead’ of us in dealing with such matters because they are further along in “welcoming” Somalis than we are.

Egyptian authorities ignore UN on refugee issue

~ Ann Corcoran

No surprise that the wonderful democracy movement of the Arab Spring has not produced what we were led to believe it would.  Ho hum, here Human Rights Watch is complaining about treatment of refugees in Egypt.

From Refworld (a UN publication):

The Egyptian authorities are preparing to deport 118 detained Eritreans to Eritrea, where they risk persecution, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 29, 2011, guards at the al-Shalal prison in Aswan beat the 118 men, including 40 who already have refugee status, to force them to sign papers for their “voluntary” return to Eritrea, according to sources with access to the detainees.

Egypt should stop forcing detained Eritreans to sign repatriation forms and allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to interview all detained Eritreans to identify refugees among them, Human Rights Watch said.

I guess any agreements from 1954 are out the window now!

Under Egypt’s 1954 memorandum of understanding with the UN refugee agency, the agency is supposed to carry out all refugee status determination in Egypt. This means Egyptian officials are obliged to give UNHCR access to all detained migrants to identify those who want to claim their right to seek asylum from persecution.

Break is over…

~ Ann Corcoran

….back to work, too much is happening on refugees and other legal immigration issues for me to keep ignoring the stories.   As many of you know I had to stop posting here daily because too much was happening in Maryland where I live and there are only so many hours in a day.   Things haven’t slowed down here, but I am still very much interested in tracking the news in the refugee field.

I’m going to try to keep posts shorter, so as not to turn them into massive writing/linking projects and I’ll direct you to our archives instead.

Somali round-up

~ Ann Corcoran

Readers, I am still around (and don’t plan to go away).  Sorry not much time to keep up RRW (am still taking a break!), but I have a few Somali refugee stories I want to move on to you.

Late last month two Minneapolis Somali women (US citizens now!) were convicted of funding terrorist activities back in Africa.  Prosecutors said the case had nothing to do with religion but alas, the defendants set the dhimmi court straight on that matter!

From AP  ‘go to hell infidels!’

After the verdicts, one of the women, Amina Farah Ali, told the judge through an interpreter that she was happy because she was “going to heaven no matter what,” and condemned those in authority, saying: “You will go to hell.” She was ordered into custody pending her sentencing.

[….]

The women, both U.S. citizens of Somali descent, were among 20 people charged in Minnesota’s long-running federal investigations into recruiting and financing for al-Shabab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida. Investigators believe at least 21 men left Minnesota — home to the country’s largest Somali community — to join al-Shabab.

[….]

Prosecutors had emphasized that the case was not about a community or a religion, but two women who deliberately broke the law.

[….]

Ali, who had been found in contempt of court when she refused to stand for religious reasons at the start of the trial, told Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis after the verdicts that she knows justice in God.

I guess these women did not get the message that it’s not about religion.

Such model new Americans!  And the beat goes on.

Blown to bits!

Here is what those two charming “new Americans” were funding!   They helped fund their fellow Somali refugees (or children of refugees) to return to Africa and blow themselves up along with others in the name of Allah.  Here is one more dead young man who we fed, treated for medical problems, and educated—blown to bits in Africa.  (And, this story went out through MSNBC no less).

It’s the same in the UK!   Thumbing their noses at a chance for a better life.

Check out “turf wars” between Bengali and Somali youths lead to death, here.

“I don’t want to say we’re taking over!”

Frankly, the census data is wrong.  The Somali population in the US is way above what Somalis are reporting to those asking questions.    We admitted over 100,000 Somalis to the US since the early 1990s and families are very large (see this most read post here at RRW).

From New America Media:

Census data released Thursday raised the number of people of Somali ancestry in the state to roughly 32,000.

American Community Surveys taken from 2008 to 2010 show the population increased by 5,000 over last year’s estimate.  [5000 a year in one city!–ed].

Minnesota’s Somali population is the largest in the United States. According to the latest estimates, other states that have a large Somali population are Ohio with 12,300, Washington with 9,300 and California with 7,500.

“I don’t want to say we’re taking over,” Abdulle joked. “But we’ve definitely gotten bigger.”

Calling all Somali youths!  You can play a pirate in a movie!

Check this out!  Tom Hanks is having a casting call in, where else, Minneapolis for talented young Somalis to play the role of pirates in Hanks’ upcoming flick—Captain Phillips!  Oh goody.