Category: Africa

Somali gangs on the move across Canada, guns coming from the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story mostly about Somali drug gangs in Canada (focusing on Edmonton where there have been many Somalis murdered in recent years), but there is some interesting information about the US as well,   Did you know that there is a Lewiston, Ohio and Somalis are moving there?

From the Vancouver Sun:

EDMONTON – Somali drug gangs appear to be highly mobile and loosely organized without the hierarchy of traditional criminal gangs, says Staff Sgt. Jim Peebles of Edmonton city police.

These gang members work a circuit — Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary to Fort McMurray and Ottawa, Peebles said in a recent interview, moving cocaine and guns around the country.

“The group is in Edmonton one day, then they turn up in Ft. McMurray and next week we see them in Toronto or Ottawa,” he said.

Guns are coming from the US and the gangs are highly mobile.

Police here believe gang guns are imported from Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

Unlike most criminal organizations, Somali gangs also don’t have strict territories they protect. The activity is “all commodity based,” he said. The fight is over selling more drugs or conflicts between new operators and established groups. Also, unlike street gangs that identify publicly with gang colours and membership rules, Somali gangs keep a low profile. Membership is not about establishing group identity but rather about getting fast cash, he said. “This is all driven by money.”

From the Minneapolis police, watch out Lewiston, Ohio!

As for guns, “it’s possible” guns move across the border to Canada from Minneapolis. Three guns stores were recently robbed by Somalis and only a few of the guns have turned up.

The Somali community is mobile, moving to where there are jobs, good public assistance, housing and an openness to immigrants, she (Officer Jeanine Brudunell, the Minneapolis police department’s liaison officer for East Africa communities) said. A group is now moving to the smaller community of Lewiston, Ohio, for instance, she said.

Interesting!  We all know that Lewiston, Maine was (still is!) a Somali magnet and now it is Lewiston, Ohio!   Doesn’t it make you wonder if a bunch of Somalis were saying go to Lewiston and they didn’t know there was more than one!

For new readers:

The US has admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US since the early 1990′s (they were trickling in in the 1980′s).   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.  The “teen” would-be bomber in Oregon was one of the refugees.

Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge (has been on the verge for months and months!)  of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008.  See the latest on new regulations, here.

Now, also, Somalis are coming illegally across our borders and ironically asking for asylum because of the radical Islamic Jihadists (including Americans!) in Africa.

Lewiston mayor testifies in Senate: Everything is going great with Somali “energy” in Lewiston…..

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..the town benefits culturally and economically, BUT we need more federal money!  

From the Morning Sentinel:

WASHINGTON – Lewiston’s experience with an influx of Somali immigrants shows the economic energy they can bring, but also the need for the federal government to do more to help the new residents settle into their new life, says Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert.

Gilbert testified Tuesday at a Senate hearing on immigration reform, a session that mostly focused on the system for attracting and retaining high-skill foreign workers in fields such as computer sciences and engineering.

But Gilbert was one of three mayors from around the country invited to address the broader topic of the economic impact of legal immigrants on local communities.

“Fixing a broken immigration system is not just about highly skilled immigrants,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration, refugees and border security. “An immigrant comes here wanting to make a better life for his family” and in the process helps pump vitality into the U.S. economy.

About 5,000 immigrants, primarily from Somalia but also from Sudan and Djibouti, have moved since 2001 to the Lewiston-Auburn area and they are “bringing new life and energy” with them, Gilbert told the committee. Lewiston’s population in the 2010 census was 36,592, an increase of 2.5 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census website.

In downtown Lewiston, formerly vacant storefronts are occupied by immigrant-owned businesses, from restaurants to clothing stores to tax preparation companies. Many downtown apartments in large buildings that used to be occupied by Franco-American mill workers are now home to Somali and other immigrant families, Gilbert said. [I have to laugh over the ‘tax preparation companies’—they are learning how to get money they never put into our tax system through the Earned Income Tax Credit—ed]

“Our immigrant population is having a positive impact on the social fabric of our community and our local economy,” Gilbert said.

Which is it Mr. Mayor?  If the large African Muslim population is helping the local economy, then why do you need more federal taxpayers’ money?

But more support, some of it from the federal government, is needed to help the immigrants living in Lewiston in areas such as workforce training and learning English, Gilbert said.

[…..]

The “inadequate federal funding associated with a refugee resettlement program simply does not meet the many needs of our refugee residents,” Gilbert said.

Readers, we have written dozens of posts on Lewiston, ME and its problems.  Use our search function for ‘Lewiston’ to learn more.  You might first wish to visit this post about Maine as the welfare magnet.

Norway terror attack used to distract King hearing on Somali radicalization

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you want to learn more about what happened surrounding Rep. Peter King’s hearing this week on the recruitment of US and Canadian Somali refugees by the Islamic terror group Al Shabaab, I encourage you to google around—there are tons of reports and commentary.  I’m too weary of the subject to pull it all together for you!

But, since I mentioned the hearing previously, I felt obligated to give you some report.  Here is one from WNYC radio in New York, seems the New York Times has made some equivalency between the Norway horror and King even asking questions.  And, so it is, the Left will use Norway from now until doomsday to shut people up.

From WNYC:

Rep. Peter King conducted the third in his series of hearings examining radicalization in the Muslim American community, this one focusing on the recruitment of Somali-American youth by the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. But the hearing frequently went off-track, with Democrats using the occasion to attack the very premise of the hearing and King pushing back against criticism from the media in recent days, namely The New York Times.

“I note that certain elements of the politically correct media,” said King in his opening remarks, “most egregiously the vacuous ideologues at the New York Times—are shamelessly attempting to exploit the horrific tragedy inNorway to cause me to refocus these hearings away from Muslim-American radicalization.”

“Let me make this clear to the New York Times and their acolytes in the politically correct, moral equivalency media,” he continued. “I will not back down from holding these hearings.”

The hearing featured just one Somali witness, Canadian Ahmed Hussen. He said that low employment within the Somali diaspora allowed some to become alienated “and fall victim to a narrative that turns them against Canada and the United States.”   [It’s never about the Jihad imperative, just give them jobs and it will all go away!—ed]

“This dangerous and constant anti-western narrative is fed to them by radicals in our community,” said Hussen, “who do not hesitate to use these vulnerable youth as gun fodder in their desire to establish a base for the Al Qaeda terrorist group in Somalia.”

Read on.

For new readers:  We’ve been reporting on the Somali-youths-going-to-Jihad-training story since it first broke in 2008 here.

And for your information, the US has admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US since the early 1990’s (they were trickling in in the 1980’s).   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.  The “teen” would-be bomber in Oregon was one of the refugees.

Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge (has been on the verge for months and months!)  of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008.  See the latest on new regulations, here.

Now, also, Somalis are coming illegally across our borders and ironically asking for asylum because of the radical Islamic Jihadists (including Americans!) in Africa.

Palestinians in Libya have no place to go

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As the Obama/NATO bombing continues in Libya, here is a writer who says that Gaddafi had welcomed Palestinians (most Arab countries do not resettle Palestinian refugees) to the country, many have been there for decades, and now, desperate to escape, they have no place to go.

The article is a bit confusing but some things I gathered from it:  Palestinians have died in the bombing, the UN agencies are confused over who has authority for helping Palestinians since they have their own UN agency (UNRWA), but its jurisdiction is geographically limited.  UNHCR then has helped some, but its outside their authority. The Palestinian Authority has sought permission from Egypt for some to be transported across Egypt to Gaza, but that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.  Egypt has refused them entry into Egypt.  Israel offered to take 300.  Some may be be supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood rebels, others deny it.

The trapped Palestinians sent out this appeal, so far no response:

“We the Palestinians living in Libya, some for more than 35 years have come from Lebanon to flee (civil) war and resided among our brothers in Libya where we got married and worked. However, after the 17 February insurrection and the worsening security situation, we are trying to leave the country via its ports but were not allowed because of inadequate travel documents. We are now stranded and sell our belongings to eat; we do not have work or shelter and do not know what to do or where to go.”

Read the whole article.  It’s the first I’ve seen about Palestinians trapped in Libya.

An afterthought!  I just remembered that in 2009 when NO ARAB COUNTRY WOULD TAKE ITS FELLOW PALESTINIAN ARABS trapped in Iraq, we started to bring them to the US, here.

Clearing up a Somali backlog

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have so many articles open to write about, and therefore in order to move on to other issues, below are just some Somali stories you might want to visit:

Another Somali “youth” involved in helping former refugees return to Africa for Jihad training has plead not guilty.  His mother says he has a brain tumor, here.

One Minneapolis Somali tries to keep the “kids” from going to Africa, here.

The newly formed country of South Sudan has banned Somalis from entering the country, here.  Changes its mind, here.

Drought stricken Somalia needs humanitarian aid but we won’t send it unless Al-Shabaab promises not to steal it or kill the aid workers, here.

Another Somali “youth” killed in Edmonton, Canada, here.   Arrest made—Arab Mursal Sugule, here.

Amnesty International says the “international community” must stop recruitment of child soldiers in Somalia, here.  Hey, Amnesty, why don’t you go do it—tell the Islamic Jihadists in Al-Shabaab to stop being so bad ’cause the international community doesn’t like it.

Three Somali pirates charged with murdering Americans, here.

Movin’ on, getting bored with all the Somali problems….