Liar Liar pants on fire! Fake Syrian boy viral video filmed on Malta

11/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve had this story in my queue for a few days, and see today that anger against the film maker, Norwegian Lars Klevberg and producer John Einar Hagen, has only increased over the last few days. Leading the mob to tar and feather them (Europe’s Jonathan Grubers!) is Human Rights Watch.

Before I get to Klevberg’s apology here is the basic story I meant to post a few days ago. More red meat for all of our readers from Malta. For other readers, I bet you haven’t heard so much about Malta in your lifetimes as you have in recent months here at RRW!

The cast and crew of ‘Syria Hero Boy’ high-fiving! “It was not a cynical way to get attention. They had honest motivations,” Ase Meyer, short film commissioner for the NFI.

The ends always justify the means for these Leftist ideologues! From the BBC:

Millions of YouTube viewers have been captivated by the ‘Syrian hero boy’ who manages to rescue a little girl while under gunfire. Now a group of Norwegian filmmakers have told BBC Trending they are behind it. They say it was filmed on location in Malta this summer with the intention of being presented as real.

Lars Klevberg, a 34-year-old film director based in Oslo, wrote a script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. He says he deliberately presented the film as reality in order to generate a discussion about children in conflict zones.

“If I could make a film and pretend it was real, people would share it and react with hope,” he said. “We shot it in Malta in May this year on a set that was used for other famous movies like Troy and Gladiator,” Klevberg said. “The little boy and girl are professional actors from Malta. The voices in the background are Syrian refugees living in Malta.“

Were they comfortable making a film that potentially deceived millions of people? “I was not uncomfortable,” Klevberg said. “By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool that’s often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video.”

Read it all.

A lot is happening on that little dot in the Mediterranean Sea!

Now here comes the half-hearted apology and Human Rights Watch‘s anger. From The Local:

The Norwegian filmmakers of ‘Syria Hero Boy’, a short movie that duped millions around the world into thinking it was shocking real-life footage, have apologized, it was reported on Sunday.

Many media commentators reacted angrily to the fact the mock-umentary style reportage belittles real journalism and war coverage. Charity organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, believe their work and intentions now faces unnecessary scrutiny by the negative consequences of the fake movie. [LOL! We always believed they needed scrutiny—ed]

Fred Abrahams of Human Right Watch said: “If their video achieved any short term purposes by directing the attention towards children in war, then it has become overshadowed by undermining people’s trust of professional reporting and consentious fact-based reporting of war crimes.”

The film’s producer John Einar Hagen said to AFP: “We stand by our good intentions, but we are also sorry if this is creating anger and if it makes documentation and reporting from war zones any more difficult.”

The video’s scriptwriter and director, Lars Klevberg, admitted on Saturday he deliberately made the mockumentary to generate debate about children in conflict zones.

See our entire archive on Malta by clicking here. It is of great interest to us since the US State Department has (since the Bush Administration) turned Malta’s mostly Muslim illegal aliens into “refugees” bound for America.

US Bishops’ lobbyist threatens White House with ‘fence jumpers’ if Obama doesn’t act on executive amnesty

11/17/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Of course, Kevin Appleby says he is speaking “politically” when quoted by the New York Times last week here:

Many pro-immigration groups and advocates — as well as the Hispanic voters who could be crucial for Democrats’ hopes of winning the White House in 2016 — are expecting bold action, having grown increasingly frustrated after watching a sweeping bipartisan immigration bill fall prey to a gridlocked Congress last year.

“This is his last chance to make good on his promise to fix the system,” said Kevin Appleby, the director of migration policy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “If he delays again, the immigration activists would — just politically speaking — jump the White House fence.”

Money! Money! Money!

For new readers (and everybody) always keep in the back of your mind that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops migration fund is almost completely–98%–funded by federal grants and contracts. They will benefit financially from an amnesty as they will be tasked with getting the “new Americans” signed up for all their social services. You probably pay Appleby’s salary!

Also, I think the Bishops were actually promoting the rush on the border when they traveled to Central America in late 2013 and Appleby authored their report on the coming border surge. Could they predict the surge of “children” because they helped create it?

Don’t forget to call your Representative and US Senators today to demand they oppose Obama’s Executive Amnesty!

We are up against BIG-money “religious” groups operating on your dime!

Two more immigrants sentenced in Maryland food stamp fraud cases; wanted an immigrant scams reporter!

11/17/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Baltimore convenience store where Yemenis ripped off US taxpayers for millions. You can’t make this up! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/02/07/baltimore-two-citizens-of-yemen-plead-guilty-to-2-million-in-food-stamp-fraud/

For new readers, a side hobby of mine here at RRW has been to report on immigrant-run convenience stores ripping us off with food stamp fraud. I’m not talking about the petty stuff, it is the multi-million dollar trafficking fraud I’m talking about.

(For the most part this doesn’t involve refugees except that they use a lot of food stamp dollars and they are probably among those selling their benefits.)

I’m going to tell you about this latest sentencing right here in Maryland of Abdulmalik Abdulla and Ahmed Mohssen, in a minute. They ripped us off to the tune of $1.1 million and got only 4 years in prison (which we have to pay for too!).

Supposedly they will pay restitution, but where will they get that kind of money running a legitimate business? And, besides especially with the Middle Easterners, most of the money has long ago left the country! Why not just deport them!

But first, here is my pitch (I’ve done this on many previous occasions, but have a lot more readers now). WILL SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BLOG DEVOTED TO FRAUD SCHEMES PERPETRATED BY IMMIGRANTS. Every single day I see stories about food stamp fraud, medicare/medicaid fraud, housing fraud and other welfare fraud, so you would have lots of material to write from!

And, all day long I get e-mails from people who must spend many hours reading news on far-flung subjects, why not devote that same time to one or two things, become an investigative reporter, write a blog or other website and get something important accomplished! We have enough news junkies to go around and besides we can all read Drudge! What we don’t have are enough brave investigators!

And, truthfully, if someone doesn’t do it soon, I’m quitting RRW to start such a blog.

For our critics: If you are saying to yourself—Americans commit fraud too—then write your own blog on American scammers! After all, it is a free country (at least for now).

Sorry for my rant! But, here is the news from Baltimore directly from the US Attorney’s office. There was no sense directing you to a half a dozen stories that amounted to 3 paragraphs each in the mainstream media. Unfortunately though, just like the mainstream media, we don’t learn the immigration status of some of those convicted. When you see that ICE was involved, you know something was suspicious about their status in the US.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Abdulmalik Abdulla, age 37, and Ahmed Mohssen, age 54, both of Baltimore, today each to four years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for food stamp fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash. Judge Bennett also ordered Abdulla and Mohssen, who were convicted on August 8, 2014, after a four day trial, to forfeit and pay restitution of $1,185,583.09.

[….]

The evidence presented at the four day trial showed that the defendants, who operated Sam’s NY Grocery, a convenience store on North Milton Street in Baltimore, received over $1.1 million in federal payments for transactions in which they did not provide any food, but split the proceeds with food stamp recipients. According to testimony at trial, the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, typically paying half the value of the EBT benefits in cash and keeping the rest for themselves. The testimony at trial also showed that the defendants accepted food stamp benefits to sell individual cigarettes removed from a pack at a substantial markup. As a result of the unlawful transactions, the defendants obtained more than $1.1 million in EBT deposits for transactions in which the store did not provide food.

Then check out the others recently convicted of food stamp fraud in Maryland. Do you see a pattern?

In separate cases, the 10 convenience store owners or operators indicted in September 2013 in connection with schemes to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash have pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and/or wire fraud. Abdullah Aljaradi, age 52, and Ahmed Ayedh Al-Jabrati, age 56, both citizens of Yemen residing in Baltimore, were each sentenced to two years in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $1.2 million. Jung Kim, age 52, of Ellicott City, Maryland, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and ordered to forfeit $95,453.50 and pay restitution of $205,000. Amara Cisse, age 51, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $654,349.24, and his wife, Fanta Keita was sentenced to two months in prison. John Cunningham, age 55, of Baltimore, was sentenced to two years in prison. Retailer Hyung Cho, age 40, was sentenced to 38 months in prison, and his mother Dae Cho, age 67, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Chos were also ordered to forfeit $371,439.21 and pay restitution of $1.4 million. Abdo Mohamed Nagi, age 54, a citizen of Yemen residing in Baltimore, and Kim Man Chu, age 39, of Rosedale, Maryland, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 46 months and 18 months in prison, respectively. Nagi was ordered to forfeit $1.2 million and Chu was ordered to forfeit $834,996 and six firearms along with ammunition.

Wow, looks like one American-sounding name in the whole bunch. And, a bunch of citizens of Yemen in the group—how did they even get federal approval to run a business that involved food stamps? Who helps them buy the stores? What sort of investor visa or other program could some of them be using to get in here? Do they teach Scamming the Infidels 101 in the Middle East? Does anyone in our government follow their money trail abroad?

See all of our posts on food stamp fraud (we haven’t written much in recent months), but I bet we are going on a hundred posts over the years. Some are real doozies!

The Asylumist blog takes a whack at Wyomingites opposed to refugee program; perpetuates the big lie

11/17/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wonder what blogger and immigration lawyer Jason Dzubow thinks of the Somali scheme (surely encouraged by Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains who resettled thousands of Somalis to CO to work in meatpacking) for “refugees” to high-tail-it to Wyoming to pick up subsidized housing vouchers to take back to Colorado (our top post for two weeks now! see also here) and thus rip-off the needy people of Wyoming.

We missed this blog post by Dzubow ten days ago (I’m not a regular visitor). But, this morning when I wanted to see what he has to say about the “unaccompanied alien children” issue, I saw this post, entitled: Wyoming, the “Equality State,” Is Anything But.

Dzubow:

There is only one state in the Union without a refugee resettlement program–Wyoming. Late last year, the state’s Republican governor, Matt Mead, took some tepid steps toward establishing a public-private partnership to help resettle refugees in the Equality State. Predictably, those efforts were met by fierce resistance, both from inside and outside the state.

He credits Congolese refugee Bertine Bahige with getting the campaign going to bring refugees to Wyoming. Truthfully Bahige doesn’t have that much power, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains located in Colorado was already casting around for fresh territory as Colorado is in refugee overload. (Reportedly an Idaho office was looking for fresh turf as well.)

A former refugee, and now a Wyoming resident and high school math teacher, Bertine Bahige, began a campaign to change the situation and encourage Wyoming to join the rest of the country and establish a refugee resettlement program. As a result of his efforts, in September 2013, the Governor made some preliminary inquiries with HHS about establishing a resettlement program.

[….]

But once word got out that Wyoming was considering thinking about possibly creating a resettlement program, hundreds of people called the Governor’s office to express opposition to the plan. In response, a spokesman for the Governor issued a statement, “Wyoming is not setting up a refugee camp…. This is still very preliminary.” [As I have said before, this comment about a “refugee camp” is meant to make the opponents look stupid—it is the Jonathan Gruber (voters are dumb) strategy being played out by elitists including this Republican governor.—ed]

Next, Dzubow suggests fear of fraud by the “religious charities” is of little significance.

Remember Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains wanted their efforts in Wyoming kept secret until they were further along in the process. In my view, since Lutheran Family Services is almost completely funded with tax dollars it has forfeited the right to be called a “religious charity.” It is a quasi-government agency and thus open to taxpayer scrutiny and accountability. Here is Dzubow with his “religious charity” mumbo-jumbo:

Mr. Barnett is also concerned with fraud in the refugee system. Of course, fraud and costs are legitimate concerns, but so is protecting refugees, and to me, Mr. Barnett’s throw-the-refugee-baby-out-with-the-bathwater approach mischaracterizes and unfairly distorts the life-saving work of the religious charities.

Now here comes the BIG LIE!

In the final paragraph of Dzubow’s little lecture to Wyomingites, he says a state can determine how many refugees it will take! That is a myth. In reality, once a city or state has a refugee office opened (by one of the contractors or subcontractors of the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services), it takes an enormous and sustained effort by state and local elected officials to stop the flow—and it isn’t ever stopped completely once the office has begun bringing in the refugees. The best they can do is get a brief slowdown.

Here is what happens: The resettlement contractor brings in the original “seed community” (their term) and then they proceed to bring in the family members and then use a guilt-trip on those who say—it is too many! we can’t afford more!—suggesting that the complaining citizens of the city/state are mean-spirited, “unwelcoming,” greedy, racist boobs.

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement might even call in the dogs (contractor ‘Welcoming America’) to calm the “pocket of resistance.”

Here is Dzubow’s final little lecturing guilt-trip (including the big lie) to Wyoming. Blah! blah! blah!

In some ways, though, this is all a tempest in a tea pot. I doubt Wyoming would ever accept more than a handful of refugees (although it is a large state, it has a small population), and so in practical terms it wouldn’t mean much one way or the other. However, in symbolic terms, I think it is important. The United States has committed to protect a certain number of refugees each year. This commitment reflects our values as a nation and our position as the leader of the Free World. In fulfilling our commitment, it would be nice to see all 50 states doing their share. So come on Wyoming, we’re all waiting for you to join us. I think you will be glad you did.

Visit The Asylumist here for the whole post and contact information.

See our continually growing archive on Wyoming and Governor Matt Mead’s refugee ambitions, here.

On Friday, Veep Biden announced expansion of refugee program for the “children”

11/17/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Gotcha! Joe Biden along with Ted Kennedy created the Refugee Resettlement Program in 1979 (Carter signed it into law in 1980), but you can count on one hand (sometimes two) the number of refugees resettled in Biden’s home state of Delaware.

I saw the news, as many of you did, and just didn’t get around to posting it (also figured most of our readers saw it anyway), but just to keep our historical record up-to-date, here is what Breitbart said about the latest Obama Central American invasion plan.

Why did Obama send Biden out to do the dirty work? To continue to diminish any chance Biden has of running for the Presidency? The rumor is that Obama doesn’t want Hillary or Joe to follow him.

Breitbart (emphasis is mine):

On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden promised that the White House would allow an expansion of the United States’ refugee program to offer refugee status to children and young adults from Central America. He made the announcement in a speech at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. This announcement comes on the heels of President Obama’s vow to pass additional sweeping immigration reforms by executive order before the end of the year, a move strongly opposed by Republicans in Congress.

Previous U.S. immigration policy included a program that allowed up to 4,000 people a year from Cuba and Columbia to apply for refugee status. The new policy, as described by Biden, would expand that program to people under age 21 from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras who already have a parent in the U.S. legally, to allow them to come and join their parents.

“It provides those seeking asylum a ‘right way’ to come to our country, as opposed to crossing the border illegally,” said Biden about the new policy. “The program will provide a safe, legal, and orderly alternative to the dangerous journey that some children make — and some children don’t ever arrive, don’t ever make.”

The program would begin in December, and according to a statement by the State Department, applications would be initiated in the U.S. by the parent who was legally here. If a second parent still remained with the child in the home country and was legally married to the parent in the U.S., the second parent could also be added to the application.

More at Breitbart, here.

One parent has to be here legally?

This business about the parent filing the application having to be already legally in the US doesn’t make sense. That parent, if a citizen or legal permanent resident, could have already applied to bring a minor child to the US.

Are they going to DNA test the “children” and the “parent” to be sure the parent is really the parent?

Remember the African scam that shut down family reunification for Somalis in 2008. Tens of thousands of so-called family members were not related at all and we admitted them for decades before discovering the fraud.

And, here is something else I want to know. If the “legal” parent is legal through merely the Temporary Protected Status program, which is how tens of thousands of Central Americans get to stay and work in the US, will those parents be permitted to bring in their children as “refugees?” Those kids then would be on a fast track to citizenship while their parents are not (unless Obama gives the parents amnesty).

And, btw, see our fact sheet for all of the welfare goodies legitimate refugees get from you.

What a tangled mess Obama has created in our immigration system! Or, was that the plan all along?

See all of our coverage of the ‘Unaccompanied minors’ going back several years by clicking here.