Category: Africa

When an NGO isn’t an NGO

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update February 15th:  Egypt accuses US NGOs of bringing anarchy to Egypt, here.

NGO stands for Non-governmental organization, with the emphasis on NON!

From time to time I’ve pointed out that the Arab Spring thing everyone was so excited about only twelve months ago had actually brought Islamists to power in Egypt and set off one more refugee stampede across north Africa and more problematically across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tell me what good is it to America if a pro-democracy movement brings the Muslim Brotherhood to power?  Oopsie!

More confirming news that Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton and the media were applauding prematurely over the “revolution” came in the last few days as (gasp) the Egyptian government is now saying it will put on trial detained NGO workers in Egypt.   Here is the story from the Washington Times:

CAIRO (AP) — Ignoring a stern U.S. threat, Egypt on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

The decision marked a sharp escalation of the dispute between Cairo and Washington over Egypt‘s crackdown on U.S.-funded groups promoting democracy and human rights. The two countries have been close allies for more than three decades, but the campaign against the organizations has angered Washington and jeopardized the $1.5 billion in aid Egypt is set to receive from the U.S. this year. [good!—ed]

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Egypt‘s foreign minister that failure to resolve the dispute may lead to the loss of American aid. The Egyptian minister, Mohammed Amr, responded Sunday by saying the government cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary.

[….]

Among the Americans sent to trial is Sam LaHood, the head of the Egypt office of the Washington-based International Republican Institute and the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

[….]

Already, Egyptian authorities are preventing at least six Americans — including Mr. LaHood — and four Europeans from leaving the country, citing a probe opened last month when heavily armed security forces raided the offices of 17 pro-democracy and rights groups. Egyptian officials have defended the raid as part of a legitimate investigation into the groups’ work and funding.

The NGO in question here—International Republican Institute—isn’t really a NON-governmental organization.  How could it be?  Check out its most recent Form 990 here.  Out of a budget of $85,479,348, they received $85,142,213 from the American taxpayer.

Did you happen to notice who is Chairman of the Board of IRI—Senator John McCain.  Senator Lindsey Graham is on the board too.   So we gave these guys $85 million to help bring us a radical Islamic government in Egypt—but a democracy none-the-less.

Oh, and it’s not just the rightwing “democracy” activists, but the leftwingers are agitating in Egypt too.  Kind of makes me think maybe Ron Paul is on to something after all.

What does the middle class American taxpayer get out of all this—less money in their pockets and more refugees on the way!

African refugee killed by Hispanic thug in Allentown, PA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The article in the Lehigh Valley’s Morning Call does not give us the nationality or legal status of the alleged killer—Enrique M. Ortiz—but I am sure your guess is as good as mine!

Hagos F. Mezgebo, an African refugee living and working in Allentown, had been out with friends last month celebrating the start of his holidays with a few drinks in a bar at Ninth and Chew streets.

Around the same time, about eight blocks away, Enrique M. Ortiz had been thrown out of an Allentown nightclub and punched his girlfriend in the face during an argument about who would drive home.

The two men did not know each other, authorities said, but soon their lives would be tragically connected.

On Tuesday, Ortiz, 25, formerly of Allentown, was charged with gunning down Mezgebo early Jan. 7 at Fountain and Emmett streets, a short distance from the bar he had just left.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said an investigation showed that the two men did not appear to know each other and could not say what prompted the shooting of Mezgebo, a 22-year-old man who fled war-torn Eritrea in the Horn of Africa and resettled in Allentown through the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Allentown.

Mezgebo was one more African refugee that Catholic Charities (with funding from you, through the US Conference of Catholic Bishops the federal contractor)  installed in a meat packing job.

Mezgebo came to Allentown in December 2010. He fled Eritrea in the spring of 2008, making a dangerous, five-day journey to a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia. If he stayed, Mezgebo would have been forced to fight in a war between the two countries that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Mezgebo lived in a home on N. 13th Street with other refugees and worked at a meat-processing plant in the city.…

Diversity sure is great for American cities and towns.   Just a reminder, they had (may still be having) a lot of problems in Grand Island, Nebraska between Hispanics and Africans working at meat packing plants and living in close proximity.  Remember this January 2010 “chaotic anarchy” story.

Somali sex-trafficking case inching toward trial in Tennessee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

New readers may first wish to review stories about the indictments of 29 Somalis back in November 2010, here.

The case is expected to go to trial in March if the court and more than two dozen lawyers for the defendants can get it all together.

From The City Paper:

The federal courthouse in downtown Nashville was abuzz on Friday, Jan. 20. Outside, Occupy Nashville staged a small protest against corporate greed, using theatrics to hammer home their point.

But eight stories above, in courtroom A859, there was no acting.

Somali women, their heads wrapped in colorful cloth, smiled and waved to their family members and friends as 28 handcuffed defendants entered the room. Some of the accused returned the greetings. A federal marshal quickly stepped into the crowd and reminded one of the women in the crowd that she can wave, but can’t communicate with the defendants.

[…..]

The interaction was surprisingly cordial considering the violent, socially deviant nature of the defendants’ alleged crimes. According to the federal indictment, the defendants all played a role in child sex trafficking. They are charged with transporting pre-teens and teens between three states and forcing them to engage in commercial sex acts.

The defendants are all associates or members of gangs like the Somali Mafia, the Somali Outlaws and the Lady Outlaws, according to the government.

“I would call this one of the more significant cases we’ve investigated in recent memory,” said John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, at the time of the indictment in November 2010.

For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years.   In FY2010 which ended September 30th the US State Department resettled 4,884 Somalis (here) to towns near you.   (I know, I need to update my numbers!)

Dutch called “intolerant” for new ban on Somali drug khat

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one of those diversity is strength reports from Europe.  Since we know Europe is ahead of us in its reverence for multiculturalism, take heed.

From AFP news:

UITHOORN, Netherlands — A small Dutch city less than 20 kilometres from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport has become the hub of Europe’s sales of khat, a plant chewed for its stimulant qualities, soon to be banned in the Netherlands.

In a discreet warehouse tucked away in the city of Uithoorn, around a hundred Somalis and Yemenis were haggling over the latest delivery: a tonne of khat.

“The arrival of the delivery varies daily, depending on the flight from Kenya,” said a khat importer of the plant which drug authorities say produces a natural amphetamine when chewed.

The men sit around and chew the stuff, talk politics, and get high in the welfare capitols of Europe (especially as this report points out, in Scandinavia).

Residents of this ‘khat market’ city have had it.

Three khat deliveries a day, weighing about a tonne each, are taken to Uithoorn by truck from Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, 15 kilometres (nine miles) to the northwest. From Uithoorn it is sold to wholesale dealers and then resold throughout Europe.

But 15 of the European Union’s 27 states and Norway have already listed khat as an illegal narcotic and the Netherlands too announced earlier this month it would ban khat.

Local businesses have also complained about the commotion at the “khat market,” one of the reasons for the Dutch decision.

“Some days there may be more than 200 cars in the street,” sighed Uithoorn mayor Dagmar Oudhoorn.

Residents are tired, she said, adding “there is a real fear of crime and traffic problems.”

[…..]

Two-thirds of the khat at Uithoorn were exported illegally from the Netherlands, mainly to Scandinavia, the Somali importer told AFP.

The Somali khat “importer” goes on to wonder why the Dutch are so intolerant, but brushes it off with a promise to find another way to get his khat and make his illicit drug money when the Dutch ban goes into effect.

We’ve written about khat in the US from time to time.  It is here too.  This is our khat archive (Minnesota, Kansas, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and more!).

Note to readers:  I’ve been meaning to mention that on the many days lately that I don’t get time to post here, I can always be sure my reader numbers stay up because hundreds of people search every day for posts here on Somalis—Somalis in Minnesota, Somalis in Maine, Somali numbers,  Somalis in Canada, why so many Somalis and so forth.  See what I mean, go to the right hand side bar and look at “Top Posts” to see what old posts everyone is reading.

“New Americans” prominent in Al-Shabaab

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Jerry Gordon brings our attention today to yet another news story about immigrants we welcomed to America turning their backs on the good life to join a Jihadist group in the Horn of Africa.

Gordon at New English Review:

Americans have risen to the fore in the Somali al-Shabaab terrorist leadership. That doesn’t surprise us. We have written extensively about Somali naturalized citizens recruited through fundamentalist Mosques in major émigré centers like Minneapolis, Columbus and Nashville. Then there are Kurdish immigrant naturalized citizens like Jehad Mostafa from San Diego, California and Omar Hammami, a son of an American Baptist mother and Syrian immigrant father from Daphne, an upscale community on Mobile Bay, Alabama’s Eastern shore.

[….]

What has always concerned us has been that many of these American Jihadis fighting for Al Shabaab were welcomed to the US as humanitarian refugees under the Refugee Act of 1980.  This multi-billion dollar program administered by the State Department Bureau of Population, Migration and Refugees and the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services has been fraught with massive immigration fraud.

Read on!