Religion of Peace strikes again!
It is very early, but reports are that any hostages who can recite passages from the Koran are freed. http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/11/20/allah-hu-akbar-shooting-hostage-situation-way-radisson-hotel-mali/
From the BBC (minutes ago):
Gunmen have launched an attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel in the centre of Mali’s capital, Bamako, with three hostages reported to have been killed.
Two people have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees in “a hostage-taking situation”, the hotel’s US owners said.
Gunmen entered the hotel, which is popular with expat workers shooting, and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.
A Malian army commander told the AP news agency that about 20 hostages have been freed.
Those hostages able to recite verses of the Koran were being freed,a security source has told Reuters news agency.
Update: According to The Hill, top administration officials couldn’t get support from large number of Dems following briefing.
If you are looking for me to have the definitive word this morning on what has happened in the last week and where we go from here, I don’t have it. A week ago Thursday, at the request of ACT for America, Don Barnett and I participated in a briefing of Hill staffers on the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and then Friday night hell broke loose in Paris. In 7 days the refugee resettlement program has been completely turned on its head in a way I could never have imagined this time last week. Speaker Paul Ryan and President Obama agree: there will be no preference given to Christian refugees from the Middle East (98% of those arriving in the last six weeks are Sunni Muslims). Selecting only Christians would be “offensive” said Obama. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-syrian-refugees_564cb1f9e4b00b7997f878f3 Over 30 governors have said ‘NO’ to Syrian resettlement, so federal resettlement contractors who are ‘welcoming’ Syrians now on a daily basis are in turmoil trying to figure out where to send them. The House Judiciary Committee has held its first serious hearing on the program since before 9/11 and the full House has passed the only bill maybe since 1979(when the law creating this program passed both houses) that seeks in any way to control the monstrosity that the program has become. And, to top it off, talk-radio and cable news are talking about refugees 24/7! Can I retire now?
All of that is to say, I need to sort through the news, so much of which you are getting faster than me because Drudge is on top of it (Drudge even posted one of my posts on Somali refugees—don’t forget there are hundreds of Somalis coming into the US every month!).
That said, this is a good summary of the House action from Leo Hohmann at World Net Dailywho has made this issue a top priority in his reporting since at least July 2014 (when we first posted on his work). Emphasis below is mine:
The House voted Thursday to approve a bill that would require a new “certified” screening process for refugees coming from Iraq and Syria, but the bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate, says Minority Leader Harry Reid, and some conservatives are saying the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough in keeping America safe.
The House vote was 289-137 and included 47 Democrats, just two votes shy of enough to override a presidential veto.
“[The American SAFE Act] is simply putting a pause on the Syrian refugee program until we can be assured … they can be properly vetted and background checks can be done before they are brought in,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. “Also, we require certification by the secretary of Homeland Security, FBI director and director of national intelligence. I think this is a very measured, well-balanced bill.”
[….]
Two Republicans voted against the bill: Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Steve King, R-Iowa, likely because the bill doesn’t go far enough in their eyes.
Critics have said the proposed law wouldn’t stop a single Islamic refugee from entering the U.S. And there are much tougher bills sitting in committees, including Rep. Brian Babin’s HR 3314, which would stop all refugee resettlement until the Obama administration can give a full accounting of the costs and national security risks.
“Speaker Paul Ryan is trying to protect Obama’s Syrian refugee resettlement programs today by passing a bill that only ‘pauses’ the program instead of stopping it,” said William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. “Also, Ryan’s bill is based on the false premise that refugees from Muslim countries can be adequately vetted when they can’t, as Sen. Jeff Sessions is pointing out.”
[….]
The legislation will now go to the Senate, where it may face a tougher path to passage.
Reid, D-Nev., vowed to block the House bill if it is considered by the upper chamber after the Thanksgiving recess.
[….]
When asked about the prospect of Obama vetoing the legislation, Reid said, “Don’t worry, it won’t get passed. Next question?”
[….]
WND reported earlier this week that Ryan was lining up a “meaningless show vote,” quoting a senior staffer on Capitol Hill. That’s exactly what happened, with a vote allowing Ryan and the GOP to sound tough on ISIS without providing any real teeth because the legislation still depends on the Obama administration to “certify” that every refugee is not a terrorist.
This is impossible, critics such as Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., say, because many of the refugees have clean backgrounds and become radicalized after they arrive in the U.S.
The day before the vote, Speaker Paul Ryan made it clear that Christian Syrians would not be given preference over the mostly Sunni Muslim Syrians being admitted right now, here at the Huffington Post. (By the way, I could argue that with an arrival rate of 98% Muslim, that we are giving preference to Sunni Muslims for admission to the US!).
Find our hereif your “faith group” is backing Obama in his Syrian Muslim resettlement efforts. Appropriations?
Rep. Bridenstine and others propose a bill to cut the funding, here. I don’t know the future of efforts to bring the issue to a head on the FY2016 government funding measure that Congress must pass by December 11. But, here is news from before the vote that such an efforts was being prepared in the House.
In addition to the Oklahoma representative Bridenstine, the other three warriors on this effort were/are:
Joining Bridenstine were Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Lamar Smith of Texas and Brian Babin of Texas.
Will try to get more news from Washington in the coming days…..
Since my two previous posts are so popular—the first is on Syrians admitted to the US in FY2016 (which began on Oct. 1) and the second on Somalis admitted in those same 6 weeks, I thought you might like to know about the Iraqis who have been coming into the US (over 100,000 since Obama took office.Hereis one summary through 2013 and a large portion of 2014. I’ll get more complete numbers later).
My Somali post made it to Drudge! What an honor!
This is where the 1,070 have gone in the last six weeks. Top five Iraqi resettlement states so far this year are: Texas, California, Michigan, Washington and Colorado.
And here is how their religions break down (directly from the Refugee Processing Center data base, these are their categories and spelling):
Atheist: 3
Catholic: 69
Christian: 24
Moslem: 44
Moslem Shiite: 427
Moslem Suni: 435
Orthodox: 20
Yazidi: 40
Interesting isn’t it! When you see almost equal numbers of Shiites and Sunis don’t you wonder why we are bringing in both sides of the warring factions?
Supposedly the bill being supported by Speaker Paul Ryan that seeks to get administration assurance that no terrorists are getting in through the refugee stream to America only involves Syrians and Iraqis. What about Somalis? And, isn’t it a bit late considering we have admitted over 100,000 Somalis and over 100,000 Iraqis to live in your towns and cities?
Anyone want to write a book on the Iraqi resettlement, we have 673 previous postsgoing back 8 years on that resettlement.
Are they all seeing the window (doors!) open in Obama’s last year in office?
Barack and good ol’Joe: 2016 is our year to get it done—to flood America with impoverished migrants and thus to change America by changing the people! As a Senator, Joe Biden was (with Ted Kennedy) one of the architects of the Refugee Act of 1980.
This is a story I didn’t get around to last week the morning after Paris, but clearly written before BP (before Paris). It is from the Los Angeles Times(hat tip: Joanne) and says that numbers are increasing again at our southern border and that possibly a new surge is on the way. Here is a bit of what that article says:
The number of families illegally crossing the southern U.S. border has more than doubled over the same period last fall, prompting concern about a new surge of migrants from Central America.
Many more unaccompanied children are also crossing, with 4,476 apprehended in September — an 85% increase over that month in 2014, according to new Border Patrol data.
[….]
The concern among immigration officials and advocates is that the situation is building up to a repeat of the unprecedented influx on the southern border in 2014, when more than 68,000 unaccompanied children and as many families crossed illegally, mainly into Texas.
Here come the Syrians!
However, the big news yesterday and this morning is that Syrians may be among the OTMs (Other than Mexicans) headed to the US. I’m guessing that half of the third-world is eyeing the window of opportunity as Obama heads into his last full year in office figuring they need to make the move now in case an immigration restrictionist Republican like Trump heads to the White House at the end of the year.
2016 could well be the most critical year to CLOSE our borders. Could we get the minutemen back in business???
We have two stories now about Syrians headed to America.
The first is here, from AFP at Yahoo.news, about 5 Syrians detained in Honduras with fake passports and the second one, here, at Breitbartclaims eight Syrians crossed into Texas recently. They will all likely be asking for asylum. Illegal aliens? Economic migrants? Refugees? Asylum seekers? Asylees?
A quick primer on terminology….
We all know what illegal alien is, that is everyone here who has either crossed a border without permission or over-stayed a visa. Economic migrants is a term used for those illegal aliens who are on the move to find a better life. They are NOT refugees. Refugees (US bound) are selected abroad mostly by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and our US State Department. We fly them here and a resettlement contractor gets them comfy with all their taxpayer-funded goodies and puts them on the track to US citizenship. This is the group we are arguing about now while discussing Syrian resettlement. Refugees must have proven they would be persecuted for race, religion, political persuasion, or because they belong to a particular group—like being a homosexual—if they returned to their home country. We have been taking around 70,000 a year in recent years from many areas of the world. Asylum seekersare those who get in here legally with a visa or illegally and then ask for political asylum using the same claims of persecution that refugees have used. The only difference is that asylum seekers get here on their own while we fly in the refugees (defined above). There is a legal process the asylum seekers must go through to prove they would be persecuted if we deported them. The vast majority of those flooding Europe will be seeking asylum while we expect most are really economic migrants. By the way, Obama wants the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ crossing our borders as illegal aliens to be ‘refugees’ through the asylum process. Asylees are those granted legal asylum, legal protection. We grant asylum to somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 asylum seekers a year. Often times those seeking asylum through our system are free to move to a location in the US where they have a relative even before their case is adjudicated. If given permission to stay, asylees can avail themselves of all the welfare goodies available to “refugees.” And, they are often referred to as “political refugees.” The Tsarnaev family of Boston Bomber fame were successful asylum seekers. A reader suggested last night that we should get in the habit of referring to those who are here to stay as refugees/asylees. And, I think that is a good idea.
When the Leftwing No Borders gang (including the resettlement contractors***) claim that no refugee has committed a terror act they are parsing words. A large number of refugees and asylees have been convicted of terror-related (most before the act was actually committed!) and other horrific crimes. Have they forgotten the Kentucky Iraqi refugee terrorists and the Boston Bombers (asylees are refugees just as much as those admitted in the regular resettlement program)?
See crimes here. And, don’t forget the Idaho Uzbek refugee terror case!
*** The nine major federal resettlement contractors determining the futures of your cities and states like to call themselves VOLAGs (short for Voluntary agencies)—a joke considering how much federal money they receive(some of it to care for those unaccompanied alien children crossing the border). They all lobby for amnesty for illegal aliens while being funded mostly by you, the taxpayer:
The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security had previously scheduled this hearing before all hell broke loose with the ISIS terror attack in Paris and the subsequent political explosion here in the US about the Obama plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees across the country before the end of September 2016. Go here for information on the hearing (I assume there will be live-streaming).
There is also expected to be a vote tomorrow on the bill many believe Speaker Paul Ryan is using to distract attention from the much more significant way of halting this unpopular resettlement plan and that is to cut the funding. Go here to learn more about all of that.
