Category: Africa

UN will be pushing more (a lot more!) Somali refugees our way in 2010

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dadaab is the massive Somali refugee camp in Kenya run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and it is growing daily as radical Islamists continue to throw Somalia into chaos—-their goal is for strict fundamentalist Islam to reign supreme in the Horn of Africa.

The US began taking Somali refugees in a serious way in the early 1980’s and since then we have resettled over 80,000 Somalis.   The numbers have varied over the years but more than half of the 80,000 plus came since 9/11 (see data here).  In FY2008 we resettled 2,523 Somalis in the entire year, most of those must have been “free cases” because fraud had shut down the larger P-3 “family reunification” portion of refugee resettlement half way into the fiscal year.

Although family reunification is still suspended, in FY 2009 we have already resettled 2,232 Somalis.   Now comes this news about the UNHCR:

The resettlement of the 270,000 Somali refugees in third countries is the most viable alternative to repatriation and local integration. Although it is fraught with difficulties, it remains the dream of most of the refugees. UNHCR, which runs the camp, is hoping to resettle around 8,600 refugees in 2009. Even it if resettles that many and reaches the 2010 target of 20,000 people, the arrival of new refugees means that the population at Dadaab is unlikely to decline.

The US takes the lions share of refugees worldwide.  I couldn’t find the percentage off hand but we top the other resettlement countries including various European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by a wide margin.   So, if the UNHCR gets its way, I guess that means we will be ‘welcoming’ the lions share of 20,000 Somalis in 2010!

‘Our boys’ fighting in Somalia, give up luxuries to sacrifice for Islam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, ‘our boys!’   Somali refugees that we fed, clothed, educated and heck, we probably even fixed their teeth have returned to Somalia along with others from around the world to fight with radical Islamists to overthrow the relatively moderate government, and it looks like they may succeed.   Think about it, these Somali missing refugee youths that might not have lived to manhood if left in Africa became healthy strapping fighters—on our dime. *

From The Nation  earlier in the week:

Islamist Al-Shabaab political and regional officer Sheikh Hussein Ali Fidow has praised the solidarity his group received from foreign fighters against the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia.

Sheikh Fidow warned Somalis against calling the ‘Muslim brothers,’ aliens.

Speaking in Mogadishu, Sheikh Fidow responded to claims from government officials that foreign combatants were fighting alongside Al-Shabaab fighters in the latest clashes in Mogadishu.

Sheikh Fidow made it clear that foreign fighters were in Somalia offering his movement solidarity.

“Jihadists from all corners of the world have been here with us since we confronted the infamous warlords in Mogadishu three years ago,” said Sheikh Fidow.

“They have been coming to Somalia to fight the ‘enemy of Allah,’ including the Ethiopian troops, the African peacekeepers and those who brought them to the country,” he added.

For all do-gooders who think American life (an Ipod, baggy pants and admission to Harvard) can wipe out the desire to kill for Allah:

“These people left luxuries in their countries to sacrifice for the Somali people to have an Islamic state,” said Sheikh Fidow.

Now, three days after the Nation article, Fox News is reporting that violence explodes and stabilization fails.  Foreign fighters may be making the difference.  Hat tip Blulitespecial.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Hundreds of foreigners fighting alongside Somali Islamic insurgents have driven this week’s fierce battles against government forces, which have killed more than 100 people, the U.N. envoy to Somalia said Friday. [Reader remember that the government the radicals are attempting to overthrow is already an Islamic government!]

Yes, it would be “unacceptable” if Al-Shabaab takes over Somalia.

The African Union is concerned about the deepening influence of foreign fighters in Somalia’s insurgency, said Nicolas Bwakira, the African Union envoy to Somalia. He said that there are up to 400 foreign fighters in the Horn of Africa nation.

“It would be unacceptable that the Shabab, Al Qaeda, takes over the government in Somalia. This is a group of war criminals,” said Bwakira, referring to a Somali extremist Islamic group that is fighting the government. The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda, something the group denies.

Looks like the vaunted Obama-Hillary diplomacy is failing in Somalia (Pakistan too).

* Kind of reminds me of what Kevin Myers said in the Irish Times that brought the wrath of  the Multiculturalists down on him:

The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

Common sense on Somalis and immigration from John Derbyshire

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

John Derbyshire, curmudgeon extraordinaire and writer for National Review, ended a blog post on Somalia’s chaos and Somalis with “And for crying out loud, keep them out of our country.”  

Naturally he was taken to task by a reader. Here is his very sensible reply:

An outraged reader:

Mr. Derbyshire — You say “And for crying out loud, keep them out of our country.”

Keep who out? Somalis? But most Somalis are not terrorists. On what grounds can we keep them out?

On the grounds that we can grant, or deny, permission for a foreigner to enter our country, according to what we perceive to be our interests. Otherwise, in what sense is this our country? And in fact we do have procedures for deciding who may, or may not, enter the U.S.A. If a foreigner wants to settle in the U.S.A., the procedures are even longer and more burdensome. I know they are; I’ve been through them. This is at is should be.

If the objection is, that we ought not base this decision on some factor as broad as national origin, I can only say I disagree. We should not let people enter if we have no way of verifying what they tell us about their background and intentions. Somalia has been in a state of utter chaos for decades. We have no effective consular presence there. There is no way we can verify what any aspiring Somali immigrant tells us about himself. Since there are a great many jihadists there — the place is on the point of being taken over by them! — the wisest thing, for our own security, would be to admit no Somalis. What is wrong with this reasoning?

Of course I know that most Somalis are not terrorists. Some Somalis are terrorists, though, and we have utterly no way of distinguishing them from the others. So let’s play safe and keep ’em all out. Again, I don’t see what’s wrong with this. In fact, I think our public discourse has come to a sorry pass when I even have to say the things I just said.

As Ann pointed out last week, our admissions of refugees have increased this year despite the recession, including 2,232 Somalis.

The making of a Minnesota suicide bomber

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the title of the Minneapolis Star Tribune investigation into the life of Shirwa Ahmed,  the US’s first (that we know of!) American-citizen suicide bomber.    Ahmed had been one of the Somali missing young men before it was learned that he was no longer missing, but bits of him had been identified in Somalia at the site of a suicide bombing—Ahmed was identified as the bomber.

Read the detailed story here and see how it is possible for a young man from a refugee camp to come to America and by all accounts become ‘Americanized,’  but inspite of his apparent assimilation was not immune to fundatmentalist Islamic ideas that drove him to martyrdom.

We first told you about the FBI returning his tiny remains to Minneapolis in December here.

Newsmax story links Somali pirates to al-Shabaab

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s the catchy theme of this article but for us the more interesting part is that Somalis are once more pouring into the US through the Refugee Resettlement Program of the US State Department and as early as June the flow could turn into a flood as the fraud-riddled and  presently suspended family reunification program is reinstated.   Hat tip:  Blulitespecial.

The Obama administration is preparing to reinstate a fraud-riddled immigration program that has brought over 36,000 Somalis into the United States under questionable circumstances, including two dozen Minneapolis men that the FBI fears may be planning a terrorist attack.

The FBI has launched an “aggressive” manhunt for the men, who have “gone to ground” and have mysteriously disappeared, terrorism experts tell Newsmax. Authorities fear the men may have been recruited by extremists to carry out suicide attacks inside the United States, or abroad.

Critics of the State Department programs that brought the Somalis to America express grave concerns about the practice of admitting refugees from failed nation-states known to harbor extremists. It can be difficult or impossible to verify a person’s identity in such a country, let alone obtain knowledge of their past associations, several experts tell Newsmax.

Important note!  We are back to admitting Somalis at a very high level without the family reunification program in place.  In the first seven months of FY 2009 we have admitted 2,232 Somalis while in the whole of last year we admitted 2,523.   It seems that neither the threat of terrorist recruitment, a record of fraud among Somalis or the recession has slowed anything.  See numbers of Somali admissions since 1983 here, note that more than half of the 80,000 plus came since 9/11!

Pirate-terrorist linkage suspected.

Critics of the program that grants immigrants their refugee status, even when their past activities and associations cannot be thoroughly documented, point out that since 1991 Somalia has exhibited the same type of failed-nation status associated with the rise of Islamic extremism in Afghanistan. That nation provided al-Qaida with a safe haven prior to 9/11.

[…..] 

Conservative foreign-policy expert Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, is among those who perceives a definite link between Somali’s pirates and its violent Islamic extremists.

“Shariah-adherent Somali pirates are a threat to the world’s shipping,” Gaffney tells Newsmax. “Their refugee counterparts being dumped into American communities are a threat to our country and its people. It adds insult to potentially enormous injury that, as the State Department has acknowledged, 80 percent of those refugees are here on the basis of fraudulent family-reunification grounds.”

Gaffney says the State Department “imports pirate/jihadist types into this country.”

We reported extensively on the P-3, family reunification program and its suspension here.   And, last month we told readers that the program would likely be running again by year’s end, here.   Whether June or later, it appears certain that the program will be back in 2009.

Barnett [Don Barnett a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies] tells Newsmax that the State Department is prepared to resume the troubled P-3 program in June. He also criticizes the P-1 program, due to U.N. refugee programs he describes as “one big long running fraud.” He adds: “The U.N. referral program itself has been subject to bribery and fraud.”

The State Department spokesman tells Newsmax it is unclear if the P-3 program will be reinstated by June, adding, “We do anticipate that the program will restart. A little later this year, we will have this program reinstated.”

Read the whole Newsmax article, its long but full of other interesting information.