Day: August 25, 2013

Swedish Leftist in Somalia escapes kidnapping attempt; is wounded

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Others in her party were killed.

Ann-Margarethe Livh and Abdirahim Hassan members of the Swedish Left Party. Livh was injured and flown out of the country, Hassan reportedly died in the attack.

I don’t know how I missed this story from late last week.  Longtime readers know that we have a keen interest in Sweden and its socialist experiment with large, and ever-growing numbers of  needy refugees and asylum seekers allowed into the country.

Only a few months ago, this post about ‘Swedes fighting back‘ after Muslim immigrant youth riots (some of the youths were Somalis) is our top post of all time (with just short of 11,000 visitors).  Go here for our whole archive on Sweden.

From DefenceWeb:

Somali gunmen tried to kidnap a Swedish opposition politician in an ambush in which she and another woman were wounded and two men were killed, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. However, al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have kept up guerrilla-style attacks and kidnappings in the city despite being largely pushed out by Somali and African forces two years ago.

Witnesses said Ann-Margarethe Livh, an opposition Left Party city councilor in Stockholm, was returning to her hotel after giving a speech at the University of Somalia when the gunmen struck near the Turkish embassy, Reuters reports.

Student Ahmed Dek said she flung open the rear door of the car and ran under a hail of bullets towards the university. She was bleeding badly from her left side, he said.

Police said an officer guarding her and a man said to be her translator were killed. A Somali woman from Sweden was also wounded, they said.

[….]

Livh is the most prominent Left Party politician in Stockholm. A party spokeswoman told Sweden’s TT news agency the group was in Mogadishu “in connection with an international project within the work of the Left Party”.

Here is another report on the terrorist attack which identifies one of the dead men as also a member of the Left Party.  According to Wikipedia the Swedish Left Party is a socialist and feminist party.

Local journalist Hamza Mohamed told The Local on the phone from Mogadishu that Livh was injured near the University of Somalia, where staff confirmed she had given a guest lecture.

“She was leaving the premises and was fifteen steps outside the university compound when men in a tinted (window) car opened fire,” he said.

Local Stockholm newspaper Norra Sidan also reported on Wednesday that Abdirahim Hassan had died in Somalia. His family confirmed the death. Hassan was a member of Sweden’s Left Party, which referred all questions to the foreign ministry when contacted by The Local.

Berlin: protesters clash over asylum-seeker residence; media spin over the top

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Anyone opposing housing asylum-seekers from the Middle East in their middle-income neighborhood is a racist, neo-nazi, fascist, anti-foreigner, right-wing xenophobe according to media reports of a demonstration that got violent in Berlin last week.

I considered not even posting this story from AFP (French Press) because it’s laced with so much bias that it is almost laughable.  Are these journalists writing this, or the European Left Wing itself?    But, I decided to post it because I want you to know things are reaching such levels in Germany and to see the spin the media puts on events like this one.

The Berlin high school that has been converted to house asylum seekers who are arriving in Germany by the thousands.

From AFP:

AFP – German neo-Nazis have protested against a new political refugee centre in Berlin, seeking to stoke anti-foreigner sentiment a month before elections and sparking large counter-demonstrations.

The far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) tried to drum up anti-foreigner feelings at a rally near the asylum seekers’ centre, a former school set amid drab tower blocks in the city’s east.

In angry scenes overnight, more than 500 anti-fascist protesters confronted the about 40 anti-immigration activists, who eventually left in a street tram under police protection.

Hundreds of riot police separated the groups. One officer was injured by a bottle thrown in his face. In total 25 people were arrested, one for making an illegal straight-armed Hitler salute.

I would bet a million bucks (if I had a million!) that the person arrested for the Hitler-salute was a Lefty!  But, you see how this is done, no mention of who did the offensive salute, instead readers are left to assume it’s one of those rightwingers reporters have dubbed “neo-Nazis.”  And, on what side were the 25 who were arrested—from that peace-loving Left?

Read it all.

For more on German immigration problems, click here.

Idaho: Uzbek refugee facing terror charges will not be in court this week due to security concerns

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

What the heck?

Here (below) is the AP story on the latest on the legal situation facing Uzbek Muslim Fazliddin Kurbanov.  The story starts with the provocative phrase “for security reasons” but never tells us what the security threat is!

Fazliddin Kurbanov

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For security reasons, an Uzbek national charged in Idaho with terrorism-related crimes won’t be in court early next week when his lawyers discuss progress of the case with prosecutors and a judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge said Fazliddin Kurbanov can skip attendance at Tuesday afternoon’s hearing.

Kurbanov, a refugee living in Boise who has pleaded not guilty to all charges including helping teach people to build bombs, faces a trial set to start July 1, 2014.

The 30-year-old Kurbanov arrived in the United States in 2009, a refugee from violence in his home country.

Since then, he’s been living in Idaho’s capital and working as, among other things, a truck driver.

But prosecutors say he also was working secretly to facilitate attacks, including on public transportation systems.

So what is the security concern?  Other Uzbeks would show-up and blow away the courtroom? Shoot Kurbanov so he can’t talk?  What?  Back in June we learned his public defenders wanted out of the case citing budget constraints, or were they afraid of something?

See our previous coverage of this case as well as all of our ‘Uzbeks refugee’ posts here.

We are still bringing Uzbeks to the US—51 so far this year, click here.

And, I wonder if Jan Reeves, Idaho refugee director, pictured with Holly Johnson, here in my previous post, knows Kurbanov?

Tennessee legislators want answers about fiscal impact of refugee resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a report from Bobbie Patray of the Tennessee Eagle Forum about the first meeting of a select committee of the Tennessee legislature to address  the 10th Amendment of the Constitution and the encroachment by the federal government on states’ rights in regards to the resettlement of migrants in the state by Catholic Charities (through the US State Department).

Holly Johnson, Catholic Charities TN, with her Idaho counterpart at 2010 Refugee meeting. In Tennessee, Catholic Charities calls the shots on resettlement.

See our earlier coverage here.  (You will find links there for reports from The Tennessean and Nashville Public Radio.)

Patray:

It was an exciting day to be at Legislative Plaza and see history being made yesterday.  The first official meeting of the Joint Legislative Advisory Committee was convened. This creation of and mission of this committee grew out of the increasing concern of both legislators and grassroots activists about the ongoing encroachment of the federal government on the constitutional rights of the sovereign states.

Members of the committee are: Rep. Judd Matheny, Chairman, Rep. John Ragan, Rep. Joe Carr, Rep. Josh Evans, Rep. Mike Turner, Sen. Mike Bell, Sen. Janice Bowling, Sen. Ferrell Haile, Sen. Thelma Harper, Sen. Jim Summerville.  All members were present except Sen. Harper.

There was enough interest in this important issue that other legislators attended: Rep. Jeremy Faison, Rep. G.A. Hardaway, Rep. David Alexander, Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, Rep. Shelia Butt, Sen. Mark Green, M.D., Sen. Frank Niceley.

It was that concern that drove the motive for taking up the first issue of this committee:  The Federal Cost Shifting of the Refugee Resettlement program.

As one article stated: “A newly-created legislative committee met for the first time Wednesday to investigate the indirect fiscal impact of refugee resettlements. They were given an unsatisfying answer: no one is keeping track.”

That is the problem.   Each year, lawmakers are responsible for passing a budget and certainly have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayer to know where these dollars are going.  Except….in this case…they don’t!!!

Chairman Judd Matheny CLEARLY laid out the parameters of the discussion:  It was ONLY about the COST SHIFTING to the states.  It was NOT about the value of the refugee resettlement program, it was NOT about what the refugees bring to this state, it was NOT about the work that the providers or participants do.

It is not just Tennessee lawmakers that  have these concerns.  Two years ago, the National Governors Association stated: “The federal government’s unwillingness to provide adequate funding for costs attributable to migration and resettlement services has resulted in a dramatic shift of program costs from the federal government to state and local taxpayers.”

The first speaker, Kasar Abdulla,  started telling her personal story, which, of course, was compelling. However, as was stated earlier, the value of the program was NOT the subject of the hearing.  Chairman Matheny asked her a couple of time to please stick to the topic, but she did not and, in fact, clearly was not prepared to do that.  So the Chairman called for the next speaker, Holly Johnson, State Refugee Coordinator, Tennessee Office for Refugees, Catholic Charities of TN, Inc.  After Miss Johnson spoke, Don Barnett and Joanne Bregman, Esq.  addressed the committee.  Bregman’s testimony was incredible as she revealed the cold, hard facts and figures.  The last speaker  Stephen Fotopulos, with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition was totally out of line with his testimony.

Just as a snapshot, Sen. Mark Green, M.D., observed that using the two numbers provided in the testimonies, the refugee program would be costing TennCare between $7.2million  and $12.1million over a four year period.  This is the kind of information that is desperately needed for budget purposes and that we have not been able to get hard figures on.  The committee passed a motion to ask the Fiscal Review Committee to do a comprehensive study of all aspects of this program with emphasis on any cost shifting, expenses incurred, what enabling legislation they are acting under, including a proportionality of refugees coming to TN versus other states to present at the November 12 meeting.

Click here to watch the proceedings.  For more on Tennessee and refugees, click here.

Photo is from this story about a Wilson-Fish (Office of Refugee Resettlement) meeting in Washington, here.  When you click that W-F link you can see if your state refugee program is now being run by a non-governmental agency.

Oops!  Depending on your screen size, in an earlier version of this post, the TEF logo blocks Johnson’s face… should have checked that first!