Category: Africa

UN setting the stage for increased Somali resettlement to the West

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story sent to me by a reader from the UK yesterday.   I’m reading between the lines of course, but I see this as lobbying pressure for the US to take thousands more Somalis.   From UN News Centre:

3 May 2010 – Thousands of Somalis fleeing the violence in their homeland are expected to cross into neighbouring countries this year where they will add to already overcrowded and under-resourced conditions in camps, the deputy United Nations chief for refugees said today.

“The burden for these countries is enormous,” said Alexander Aleinikoff, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, following a two-week visit to camps in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“If there was one resounding call from the refugees we met with it was this: please find me a new home,” Mr. Aleinikoff added.

[….]

The agency has helped resettle thousands of refugees in new countries, mostly in the United States – but acknowledged that the numbers represent “a tiny fraction of those stuck in limbo.”

For new readers, more Somalis are already on the way:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US (this linked post continues to be one of the most widely read posts we have ever written) in the last 25 years and then in 2008 had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened (that we know of), but will be soon. 

Nevertheless, thousands of Somali Muslims continue to be resettled by the State Department as I write this. We recently learned that we will be taking 6000 Somalis this year from one camp in Uganda and as many as 11,000-13,000 total from around the world.

Why are Justice Department facilitators needed in Ft. Morgan, CO?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Off and on for almost two years I’ve been reporting on Ft. Morgan, CO, another of those meatpacking towns flooded with Somali workers.  This town, or at least its newspaper, has been working really hard to show how welcoming Ft. Morgan is to the African influx.  As a matter of fact, I noted this editorial in September of 2008 in which the editor of the Ft. Morgan Times seems to be pointing a finger of criticism at us—RRW—while professing that everything was just great in Ft. Morgan! 

Now I see that although the entire article published on Friday about a touchy-feely meeting in Ft. Morgan makes it all sound so congenial, there must be more to the story or why were Justice Department mediators called in?

Members of the Morgan Area Ministerial Alliance and their congregations sat down with some local Somali refugees, as well as some Somali representatives from around the state, on Monday to try to bridge the communication gap. [What gap?  I thought everything was peachy in Ft. Morgan?–ed]

It was an effort to help immigrants and the community to come together, to understand each other and to work on issues that may bother either side, said Brenda Zion, executive director of OneMorgan County, a group which works to help immigrants adapt to their new land and helps the welcoming community to understand the newcomers.  [Who is not understanding the newcomers?-ed]

“Facilitators” from the US Justice Department—trying to keep a lid on something?

On hand were representatives of the Community Relations Servcie, a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

CRS is not a law enforcement agency but a “peacemaker” organization that helps communities deal with conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color and national origin. It was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, said Philip Arreola, regional director of CRS for the Rocky Mountain Region.

CRS helps communities develop mutual understandings and agreements as alternatives to coercion,violence or litigation, and to take proactive measures to prevent ethnic or racial tension, he said.

Essentially, it is a mediation agency which helps deal with cases involving changing community demographics, hate crimes, demonstrations and emotionally charged issues, Arreola said.

“We are mediators,” said Christopher “Kit” Chalberg, a conciliation specialist for CRS. “We are facilitators.”

We got that, you are mediators (facilitators, peacemakers), but why are you there if Ft. Morgan has been so welcoming?

For all of our posts on Ft. Morgan, and there are  more than I thought, go to the Ft. Morgan archive, here.

HONOR KILLING?   I hadn’t checked on the status of the Ft. Morgan Abdi murder from last fall in some time, so while visiting the Ft. Morgan Times I learned that not much has happened.  The trial is scheduled for June.  However, I did learn one important fact that may confirm my suspicions—the victim was the step sister of the murderer.  Sure sounds like an honor killing to me!  (see post coming next).  By the way, not a peep about the murder in the peacemaker meeting I see.

Comment worth noting: maybe we found one of the 270 missing Somalis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Back in February we told you that ICE was looking for 270 illegal Somalis who have reportedly disappeared into the US.  Today we got this comment to that post from a reader calling himself “Money.”   Normally we don’t post comments with foul language but I thought this comment was telling.

U knw we are muslim we supports each other who said that somalis are poor ? If somalis are poor cn’t live 20yrs witout covernment cn’t do busness over this s*** world ‘, somalis are richiest people on this world ‘ f*** u america , they kill us and they kill us mind , there isn’t terrorists in thiz world , america are terrorists , who made terrorists? and who supportz terrorists? america access money to terrorists ‘ u knw alshabal in somalia , where did they get money ? America access money to shabab ‘the fact is that , we are n’t blind , we have eyes , and we will kill you someday in ur home yeah , we got experience last 20yrs ,and we knew ever road to come your home , f*** u america , don’t think that somalis will ends , america will ends before somali , f*** u america im going to kill ur home someday  f*** u f*** u ,

Charming huh!

Al Qaeda is looking into disguising terrorists as refugees to get into Israel

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have scarcely any time to post these days, but I wanted to bring this article from Haaretz to your attention:

The Yemen-based arm of Al-Qaida is examining the possibility of infiltrating terrorists into Israel disguised as Somali refugees crossing the border from Egypt or even as new immigrants from Ethiopia.

Shi’ite rebels yesterday sent another letter to Haaretz, the latest of several, in which they quote from a letter sent by Al-Qaida to members of a Salafist group in the Gaza Strip that is opposed to Hamas.

(Italics are because the icon for indenting has disappeared and I don’t have time to figure it out. That’s a quote from the newspaper. My comment follows.)

Israel has traditionally had a humane policy toward refugees, lax even until recently. Trust Islamic terrorists to find a way to take advantage of it.

11 Somali pirates brought to Virginia to stand trial for piracy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t often get into the Somali piracy issue, but this story is concerning.  For firing on Navy vessels, shouldn’t these guys be treated as military combatants.  Why are they in civilian courts in Virginia?  Think about it, we are going to pay for their trials, then their incarceration for life (if they get life in prison) and what if they don’t, say they are released in a few years, where do they go then—will they seek asylum here?  We don’t send asylum seekers back to ‘war-torn’ Somalia!

The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Eleven suspected pirates from Somalia have been brought to the United States to face piracy and other charges for attacks on two U.S. Navy ships off the coast of Africa, the Justice Department said on Friday.

It said the suspects were scheduled to appear on Friday in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia. The 11 men had been held on U.S. ships for weeks off Somalia’s coast as U.S. officials decided what to do with them. [You can bet Holder’s gang in the Justice Dept. was saying, s…, we can’t send them to Gitmo]

Five defendants were captured after the March 31 attack in which the Navy frigate, the USS Nicholas, exchanged fire with a suspected pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean west of the Seychelles, sinking a skiff and confiscating its mother ship.

Two of the accused pirates opened fire at night on what they believed to be a merchant ship, but it actually was the Navy vessel, according to U.S. court documents filed in the case.

In the other incident, six defendants were charged with the April 10 attack on another Navy vessel, the USS Ashland, in the Gulf of Aden. They allegedly opened fire on the vessel with small arms from their boat.

In addition to piracy, the criminal charges included attacks to plunder a vessel, assault with a dangerous weapon, and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

If convicted of piracy, the suspects face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, a Justice Department spokesman said.

Thomas Jefferson knew what to do with Muslim pirates on the African coast and he didn’t bring them to Virginia to stand trial in a civilian court.

For more information, see this post from April of last year about how quasi-American Omar Jamal of Minneapolis (now of the UN!) dashed off to NYC to defend the only other pirate brought to the US.  Look for more of the same sort of publicity hounds as this story develops.

Update:  Andrew McCarthy weighs in on piracy here.