Month: February 2012

When an NGO isn’t an NGO

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update February 15th:  Egypt accuses US NGOs of bringing anarchy to Egypt, here.

NGO stands for Non-governmental organization, with the emphasis on NON!

From time to time I’ve pointed out that the Arab Spring thing everyone was so excited about only twelve months ago had actually brought Islamists to power in Egypt and set off one more refugee stampede across north Africa and more problematically across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tell me what good is it to America if a pro-democracy movement brings the Muslim Brotherhood to power?  Oopsie!

More confirming news that Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton and the media were applauding prematurely over the “revolution” came in the last few days as (gasp) the Egyptian government is now saying it will put on trial detained NGO workers in Egypt.   Here is the story from the Washington Times:

CAIRO (AP) — Ignoring a stern U.S. threat, Egypt on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

The decision marked a sharp escalation of the dispute between Cairo and Washington over Egypt‘s crackdown on U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights. The two countries have been close allies for more than three decades, but the campaign against the organizations has angered Washington and jeopardized the $1.5 billion in aid Egypt is set to receive from the U.S. this year. [good!—ed]

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Egypt‘s foreign minister that failure to resolve the dispute may lead to the loss of American aid. The Egyptian minister, Mohammed Amr, responded Sunday by saying the government cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary.

[….]

Among the Americans sent to trial is Sam LaHood, the head of the Egypt office of the Washington-based International Republican Institute and the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

[….]

Already, Egyptian authorities are preventing at least six Americans — including Mr. LaHood — and four Europeans from leaving the country, citing a probe opened last month when heavily armed security forces raided the offices of 17 pro-democracy and rights groups. Egyptian officials have defended the raid as part of a legitimate investigation into the groups’ work and funding.

The NGO in question here—International Republican Institute—isn’t really a NON-governmental organization.  How could it be?  Check out its most recent Form 990 here.  Out of a budget of $85,479,348, they received $85,142,213 from the American taxpayer.

Did you happen to notice who is Chairman of the Board of IRI—Senator John McCain.  Senator Lindsey Graham is on the board too.   So we gave these guys $85 million to help bring us a radical Islamic government in Egypt—but a democracy none-the-less.

Oh, and it’s not just the rightwing “democracy” activists, but the leftwingers are agitating in Egypt too.  Kind of makes me think maybe Ron Paul is on to something after all.

What does the middle class American taxpayer get out of all this—less money in their pockets and more refugees on the way!

Update: Iraqi refugee flow to US slow now under Obama

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is not a whole lot we don’t already know in this story from USA Today about how the flow of Iraqi refugees into the US has slowed because of stepped-up security checks in the wake of the Kentucky terror arrests last summer.  Of course, the average American is saying “what the hell are we bringing Muslim Iraqis here in the first place—we gave them their own Islamic government!”

Predictably, the open borders crowd wants to spin this as a story about how we need to help those Iraqis who helped us, but those two arrested in Kentucky were “humanitarian” refugees and not US government employees.

Here is the gist of the story:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has dramatically slowed the resettlement of Iraqi refugees — including former U.S. military translators and embassy workers — in the midst of growing concerns about al-Qaeda’s potential ties with some asylum seekers, an administration official says.

Two Iraqi refugees who resettled in the United States in 2009 were arrested in May in Bowling Green, Ky., and are accused of plotting to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, says that intelligence indicates the threat is much broader than the two refugees.

Authorities learned of the Kentucky plot through intelligence gleaned in late 2010, the official said.

“That threat stream led us to re-examine our vetting process for this population and really all of the refugee population,” the official said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller noted last year before the Kentucky arrests that a potential threat rested with “individuals who may have been resettled here in the United States that have had some association with al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

After more than 36,000 Iraqi refugees were resettled in the USA between October 2008 and September 2010, only 9,400 refugees were resettled here the following year. In the last three months of 2011, only 826 Iraqi refugees have been resettled in the United States, according to the State Department.

Fingerprints of one of the Kentucky suspects, Waad Ramadan Alwan, were found on a component of a roadside bomb discovered by U.S. troops in Iraq before he arrived in the United States. But the prints were not in any of the databases that visa applicants were automatically checked against. Alwan pleaded guilty in federal court in December to conspiring to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Neither man had worked for U.S. organizations in Iraq. Both received refugee status for humanitarian reasons.

Note that Alwan pleaded guilty.  I’m guessing that there was huge pressure on him to do so because you can bet-your-booties that no one, especially the Obama State Department, wanted a big public trial in Kentucky with Senator Rand Paul on their case!

By the way, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was quaking in his boots when this story broke because I am sure he has been an enabler of refugee resettlement in Kentucky because big businesses in his state need the cheap labor.  When a Kentucky citizen activist went to his office for help with the neglect of refugees in Bowling Green a few years ago, he rebuffed her.

Also, I remember so well the beating the Bush Administration got in 2007 and 2008 from the “human rights” (ha-ha) activists with the help of AP’s reporter Matthew Lee about the slow and careful way the Bush homeland security people were screening Iraqis.  Once Obama was elected the spigot would be opened—or so they thought.

USA Today (continues):

The slowdown also puts President Obama, who during his run for the White House blasted the George W. Bush administration for doing too little to protect Iraqis who assisted the U.S. mission in Iraq, in an awkward position.

The article goes on to tell us about White House meetings on the security problem but with no mention of Obama Iraqi refugee czar, Samantha Power.  Guess she is too busy these days coping with the new “refugee” problems her “responsibility to protect” has caused in Egypt and Libya.

Bill to allow NH cities to impose a moratorium on refugee resettlement gets a hearing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The New Hampshire legislature heard testimony this week from proponents and opponents of a bill that seeks a short-term moratorium on the resettlement of more refugees to that state.   Long time readers know that especially Manchester, NH has been a hotbed of controversy after the city leaders have repeatedly said the city cannot handle more refugees (here is just one recent post).

Here is the story from the Manchester Union Leader (hat tip to many readers who sent the story!).  A law professor claims it is unconstitutional, but I think there are wording changes that can be made to handle that supposed problem.

CONCORD — A bill allowing communities to impose a one-year moratorium on refugee resettlement is probably unconstitutional, a law professor told a House committee Thursday.

House Bill 1405 had both its supporters and detractors at a public hearing Thursday before the House Municipal and County Government Committee.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has called for a moratorium on refugee resettlement until the “city can catch its breath” after about 300 refugees a year have been resettled in the city over the last few years.

Gatsas supported HB 1405 Thursday, saying the city needs time to allow the refugees currently in the community to settle into the system, get jobs and become productive citizens.

Gatsas said communication with the resettlement agencies, the state and the federal government has been poor.

“We need to take a breath, step back and figure out how to do this right,”Gatsas said at the hearing.

Along with allowing a one-year moratorium, HB 1405 would require more communication between the state, resettlement agencies and the communities where refugees are placed.

Proponents of the measure say the bill is similar to the successful bill signed into law in Tennessee last year, posted here.

Of course the federal contractors who get paid to resettle refugees are opposing the measure.

Representatives of Lutheran Social Services of New England and the International Institute of New Hampshire spoke against the bill.

The original Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 does have a provision to opt-out of the program.  Just a reminder that the state of Wyoming does not resettle refugees (they may move there as secondary migrants, but there is no Wyoming program).  I don’t know why lawyers for opponents are not looking at ways to opt-out completely.

To tell you the truth, as this program comes under greater scrutiny, I think the Open Borders political activists (looking for more multicultural Democratic voters) will just direct their attention to backdoor amnesty for illegals, the asylum program, the diversity visa lottery, the treaty investor programs (immigrants buying convenience stores) and the temporary protected status program to pour more poverty/voters into your cities and towns in order to further destabilize your community.  They are working on a long-term plan to change America, plain and simple.

Vietnamese refugee files suit against international corporation Aramark and others

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Phuong-Anh Vu claims she was among a group of Vietnamese workers essentially conscripted to work in clothing ‘sweat shops’ in of all places Jordon.  What the heck is going on here?  Why are Vietnamese being told they have to learn to speak Chinese and lured with offers of supposedly good paying work to go to the Middle East!

It is a complicated legal case, good luck trying to sort it out here!

HOUSTON (CN) – More than 100 Vietnamese nationals say they were “assaulted, imprisoned, defrauded, and treated like indentured servants” making clothes for U.S. companies in Jordan, where labor contractors – and the Vietnamese government – lured them with promises of high-paying jobs.

  The workers were starved, beaten, imprisoned at the factory, and at least one died from the abuse, according to the federal complaint.

The workers claim defendant U.S. companies Aramark and Academy Sports & Outdoors were part of an “international human trafficking conspiracy,” as they contracted the factory to make clothes for them.

Back in 2010 I noticed the name Aramark popping up as one of those companies involved somehow with the US Refugee Resettlement program, here and here, but haven’t looked at the company since.  Aramark, by the way, is gobbling up food service contracts at colleges and schools throughout the US.  Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign is also in tight with Aramark.

Call me a conspiracy-monger but I see deals between big businesses looking for cheap laborers and government (the US State Department for one!) as a driving force behind efforts to move human beings around the world (LOL! who are the human traffickers here?) and thus as a primary reason we are having such immigration concerns and problems right here in the US.

What is the Jordan connection?  Is Aramark an Arab-owned company?  Does anyone know?

Endnote:  By the way, just cruising around the internet just now I see that even college students are questioning the big corporation—Aramark—that feeds them.  One article that caught my eye was this one—about “greenwashing”—charging that Aramark lies about its “sustainable” food practices.

African refugee killed by Hispanic thug in Allentown, PA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The article in the Lehigh Valley’s Morning Call does not give us the nationality or legal status of the alleged killer—Enrique M. Ortiz—but I am sure your guess is as good as mine!

Hagos F. Mezgebo, an African refugee living and working in Allentown, had been out with friends last month celebrating the start of his holidays with a few drinks in a bar at Ninth and Chew streets.

Around the same time, about eight blocks away, Enrique M. Ortiz had been thrown out of an Allentown nightclub and punched his girlfriend in the face during an argument about who would drive home.

The two men did not know each other, authorities said, but soon their lives would be tragically connected.

On Tuesday, Ortiz, 25, formerly of Allentown, was charged with gunning down Mezgebo early Jan. 7 at Fountain and Emmett streets, a short distance from the bar he had just left.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said an investigation showed that the two men did not appear to know each other and could not say what prompted the shooting of Mezgebo, a 22-year-old man who fled war-torn Eritrea in the Horn of Africa and resettled in Allentown through the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Allentown.

Mezgebo was one more African refugee that Catholic Charities (with funding from you, through the US Conference of Catholic Bishops the federal contractor)  installed in a meat packing job.

Mezgebo came to Allentown in December 2010. He fled Eritrea in the spring of 2008, making a dangerous, five-day journey to a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia. If he stayed, Mezgebo would have been forced to fight in a war between the two countries that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Mezgebo lived in a home on N. 13th Street with other refugees and worked at a meat-processing plant in the city.…

Diversity sure is great for American cities and towns.   Just a reminder, they had (may still be having) a lot of problems in Grand Island, Nebraska between Hispanics and Africans working at meat packing plants and living in close proximity.  Remember this January 2010 “chaotic anarchy” story.