Kentucky: One of two convicted Iraqi refugee terrorists wants his sentence reduced

We have so many new readers and I suspect many of you don’t even know that in 2011 two Iraqi refugees living in Bowling Green, KY (Rand Paul’s hometown) were arrested and ultimately convicted of working for al-Qaida in Iraq.  I think you can find most of our coverage of the case by typing ‘Kentucky Iraqi terrorists’ into our search window.

Hammadi
Mohanad Hammadi is serving a life sentence. ” Hammadi also admitted to lying on U.S. immigration paperwork about his involvement in Iraqi insurgent operations against American troops.”

However, for a quick review, see this report at ABC News of all places!
From the Bowling Green Daily News (hat tip: Robin):

LOUISVILLE — An Iraqi refugee and former Bowling Green resident serving a life sentence for federal terror-related offenses testified in federal court Tuesday morning that his former attorney assured him he would get a lesser sentence if he pleaded guilty.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 28, has sought to have his sentence vacated on the grounds that his court-appointed lawyer, James Earhart, was ineffective.

Hammadi pleaded guilty in 2012 to all charges in a 12-count indictment that accused him of attempting, with fellow Iraqi refugee and Bowling Green resident Raad Alwan, to provide weapons, explosives, money and other resources to al-Qaida in Iraq on multiple occasions in 2011.

More here.
By the way, as a result of the arrest, the State Department held up Iraqi resettlement for months while Homeland Security rescreened thousands of other Iraqi refugees (or so they said!).
One of the most shocking pieces of information that came out of the investigation was that the fingerprints of one of the accused was found on IED fragments recovered in Iraq at the scene of the deaths of American National Guard troops from Pennsylvania.
The pair had lied to get into the US Refugee Program.

The next time someone tells you there have been no Islamic terrorists in the refugee flow to America, and that we screen them so well, remember these two!

Endnote:  A ‘pocket of resistance’ is forming in Bowling Green, see here.

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