Americans sign letter to Saudi Arabia, offer to take lashings for “blasphemy” blogger

01/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Now at the Univ. of Minnesota, former Asst. Secretary of State Eric P. Schwartz oversaw the resettlement of tens of thousands of Muslims to the US in the early Obama years.

I found this little bit of news interesting for one reason, one of the signatories of a letter from the American Islamic Forum for Democracy to the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US is former Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (in the early Obama years), Eric Schwartz, a Soros protege who we discussed here at RRW on many occasions.

Click here for many critical posts we have written about Obama’s original choice to head the refugee program at the US State Department, clearly a representative of the Hard Left.

Now at the AIFD he has put his name on the letter spearheaded by Islam reformer Zuhdi Jasser. Read all about it here (hat tip: Cathy).

I don’t know if there is any significance to this laudable PR campaign to help save the Saudi blogger being flogged for blasphemy, but could we be turning a corner where some in politically-correct academia are beginning to understand the threat shariah law poses for the world? Or, do they just hate Saudi Arabia?

From the American Islamic Forum for Democracy:

PHOENIX (January 20, 2015) – Five notable religious freedom advocates, including Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, AIFD President, have signed and presented a letter to the Saudi Ambassador calling on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to immediately release Raif Badawi. If they do not release him, they are asking that the Kingdom take them in the place of Raif Badawi in the meting out of his corporal punishment. Badawi was sentenced to prison, a monetary fine, and 1000 lashes for “blasphemy” based on his website which allowed the free exchange of religious and political ideas. His 1000 lashes are being delivered on a weekly basis every Friday in front of a mosque in Jeddah by the Saudi regime. His health was compromised by the first 50 to the point that last Friday the second 50 were delayed.

The signatories to the letter are Princeton Law Professor Robert P. George, Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Daniel I. Mark, who teaches political science at Villanova University, Eric Schwartz, Dean, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, Hannah Rosenthal, CEO, Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and Katrina Lantos Swett, President of The Lantos Foundation. The letter requested a remittance of his punishment but further stated that in the absence of a full dismissal, each was requesting to receive 100 lashes in the place of Mr. Badawi.

Hmmmm! What do you make of this?

US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey: we need to worry about security with ‘refugee’ migration to Europe

01/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More in our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series….

Dempsey (right) in Rome on Monday. Refugee migration a topic of concern.

From Stars and Stripes yesterday:

NAPLES, Italy — The U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman and Italian officials said Monday that Washington and Rome share concerns about the flood of migrants into Italy from the Middle East and Africa amid heightened terrorism fears in Europe.

IOM spokeman Joel Millman: Move along, nothing to see! Just poor refugees, no evidence of terrorists among them. Photo: http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/news-and-views/media-contacts.html

The U.S. has warned in the past about the possible flow of foreign fighters through Europe’s southern borders as refugees flee Syria, Libya and other warring nations. European governments are increasingly worried about their own citizens who have traveled abroad to train with terrorist groups and then return home. The recent attacks in Paris and the thwarted attacks in Belgium have underscored those concerns.

Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey met with Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti and Chief of Defense Adm. Luigi Binelli Mantelli on Monday. He was joined by U.S. Ambassador to Italy John R. Phillips.

The meeting included discussions about U.S. and allied operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Both sides expressed concern about foreign fighters, according to a Defense Department release, and Dempsey said countries that migrants are leaving should be a part of any discussion about extremism.

Federal refugee contractor, the International Organization for Migration (the agency that processes refugees abroad for resettlement to your US cities), downplays concerns. You have to be a complete idiot to not assume Jihadists are using the refugee flow as cover to get into Europe.

More than 170,000 migrants have entered Italy in the past year, crossing the Mediterranean Sea. That’s roughly four times the number in 2013, according to estimates released last week by the International Organization for Migration.

But an IOM official said those trying to cross into Italy are refugees and asylum-seekers escaping war or impoverished conditions.

“We don’t have any reports of infiltration or what we think would be characterized as al-Qaida or something like that using this as a launching point,” spokesman Joel Millman said.

Go here for our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series, and for more on poor Italy’s migration mess, click here.

I wonder when (if!) Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey will speak about Muslim migration to America as a security threat? Not holding my breath!

Utica (the town that loves refugees) is suing the state of NY for their refugee-generated school funding crisis

01/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I first started this blog in 2007, this 2005 United Nations report about Utica was being blasted around America! The news today shows what ten more years of overloading a city with refugees will do.

They really should file a case against the refugee contractors and the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement too!

This is an incredible piece of news published at the Wall Street Journal yesterday and thanks to the ever-watchful ‘Pungentpeppers’ for spotting it.

This needs to be a lesson to every one of the 180 plus “welcoming” cities that host federal refugee contractors! You will not escape the same fate; it’s just a matter of time.

Before I get to what the WSJ reported, here is the propaganda the UN and the US State Department reported from Washington ten years ago:

“Utica loves refugees,” Gene Dewey, former Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in Washington, told a Senate hearing in 2005. Utica’s size has stabilized at around 65,000 and 10,000 of these residents nearly one in six are refugees. They come from around 30 countries and have vastly different backgrounds. Thirty-one languages are spoken in city schools. Utica has benefited from refugees. The town was going downhill, but it is now reviving because of refugees.

Entitled, ‘Small Cities Fight for More School Aid From New York State,’ the WSJ begins with the predictable struggling student profile and then says this below (by the way, why are we still bringing refugees from Cambodia?). Emphasis below is mine:

District officials say Utica schools lack enough resources for their 10,700 students, including 1,800 who are foreign-born. Hundreds of refugees from Somalia, Myanmar, Iraq and other war-torn lands settle in the area each year through a federal program.

Utica is one of eight small cities fighting for more state aid in a legal battle that will begin oral arguments Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Albany. The attorney general’s office has sought for six years to get higher courts to throw out the lawsuit. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the court’s ruling could affect needy districts statewide.

[….]

On average, New York’s per-pupil education spending is the highest of any state, though there are wide gaps from district to district. According to state data, Utica spent $15,323 per pupil in the 2012-13 school year, compared with the state average of $21,118. Some affluent districts, such as Great Neck and Briarcliff Manor, spent more than $30,000 a student.

Utica officials are grappling with high poverty rates, rising enrollment and big deficits. [But wait, we were told the refugees were bring the city back from the brink of poverty!—ed]

[….]

Other cities in the case, Maisto v. New York, are Poughkeepsie, Jamestown, Port Jervis, Niagara Falls, Mount Vernon, Kingston and Newburgh.

[….]

Each city has its own concerns. Utica gets hundreds of refugees a year through a federal partnership with the nonprofit Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees***. The newcomers move into inexpensive housing that was left vacant as the local manufacturing sector has waned over the past half-century. The area has lost textile mills and a General Electric plant, among others.

Utica now serves children speaking 42 languages, including Nepali, Somali Bantu, Arabic and Bosnian. Teachers say they need smaller classes and more interpreters, social workers, guidance counselors and tutors to help students who lag behind, including American children from low-income families. [Remember in 2005, the number of languages spoken in the school system was 30!—ed]

Many of the city’s children enter kindergarten with the skills of a 2-year-old and would benefit from more individual attention, said Lori Eccleston, the district’s curriculum director. Some arrive suffering from malnutrition or lead poisoning. Several students born in African refugee camps are blind, she said, because they didn’t get drops in their eyes at birth to prevent infections.

[….]

In Utica, 15% of children in grades three to eight passed state tests in language arts last year, and 19% did so in math. Statewide, 31% passed in each subject.

There is more, read it all!

By the way, the next time “WELCOMING AMERICA” (a federal contractor and UN propaganda pusher) shows up in your town peddling one of those economic studies supposedly showing how refugees and immigrants will bring your struggling city back to economic boom times, show them the door!

New York residents should know that your state is always in the Top Five states welcoming new refugees.

See all of our previous posts on Utica by clicking here.

*** Be sure to see the glowing praise for the Mohawk Valley refugee contractor from Hillary Clinton, here at their website.