Category: Iraqi refugees

Norway: Former Iraqi refugee sentenced for online threats including threats to kill the locals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I guess he didn’t do much assimilating while in Norway for over 20 years.  And, the supposition is always made that those Iraqis escaping the Saddam Hussein regime were all good guys.

Here is the AP story:

OSLO, Norway — An Iraqi-born Islamist cleric has been given a one-year prison sentence for making death threats against Norwegian politicians, influencing witnesses and inciting terror.

The Oslo District Court convicted Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad, also known as Mullah Krekar, on Wednesday of posting online threats during an earlier trial, including encouraging the killings or kidnappings of Norwegians.

[…..]

He came to Norway as a refugee in 1991.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian court sentenced the mass murderer Anders Breivik to 21 years, but did not declare him insane (a victory for Breivik).   Breivik maintained throughout his lengthy trial that he was fighting to stop the Islamization of Norway that is happening through mass immigration.  See the BBC report from last Friday, here.

I don’t suppose they will put Breivik and the Mullah anywhere near each other in the big house.

Kentucky: Iraqi refugee pleads guilty, avoids trial

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….Obama Administration thus sweeps the case under a rug!

A highly anticipated trial in Kentucky was called off Tuesday when former refugee Mohanad Shareef Hammadi plead guilty to charges he conspired to help al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq from his comfy home in Kentucky.

See our most recent coverage of the case, here.

Here is the brief story:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An Iraqi refugee in the U.S. pleaded guilty Tuesday to 10 charges of conspiring to send weapons, money and explosives to al-Qaida in Iraq.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 24, also pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to the federal government about his association with a terrorist organization. He will be sentenced Dec. 5 in Kentucky, where he was arrested in May 2011. Co-defendant Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty earlier and will be sentenced Oct. 3.

Hammadi had been scheduled to go to trial Aug. 28, but he entered his plea after U.S. Justice Department attorney Larry Schneider told the court Tuesday that the government has “definitive proof” linking him to insurgent attacks after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“He was either part of Al-Qaida in Iraq or a group affiliated with Al-Qaida in Iraq,” Schneider said.

Prosecutors said Hammadi and Alwan came to Kentucky as refugees in 2009 and soon began trying to send cash, guns, Stinger missiles and other explosives to al-Qaida in Iraq but were foiled by a government informant working on a sting.

Can you just hear the sigh of relief at the State Department and among the refugee resettlement contractors?  Whew!  No more public discussion of how these guys got in!  And, they avoided the spectacle of those US National Guardsmen in the courtroom who believe these two were involved in killing their fellow soldiers.

The Holder Justice Department probably offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse in order to sweep this case under a rug.

Five Iraqi refugees arrested in Colorado in brutal rape case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and one of them helped American troops in Iraq and they helped him get here!  

Must be Iraqi crime day at RRW!  So much for that highly touted refugee screening process.

This is from the Colorado Springs Gazette from earlier this week.  I had missed it until I had a look at The Religion of Peace just now—a website I recommend that you visit from time to time.   Be sure to check the mugshots.

Colorado Springs police arrested five Iraqi men Tuesday in connection with what they called a “rare” and “horrific” sexual assault on a woman early July 22. The arrests included one man who was a central character in an Army’s sergeant’s memoir of an Iraq deployment.

Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed and Jasim Mohammed Hasin Ramadon were taken into custody on suspicion of sexual assault. Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji, Ali Mohammed Hasan Al Juboori and Yasir Jabbar Jasim were arrested on suspicion of accessory to sexual assault. All are in their 20s.

Lt. Howard Black, who heads the Police Department’s special victim’s unit, said the severity of the attack made it rare in the city, adding that the woman’s injuries could have been life-threatening.

“We don’t see these types of assaults typically in Colorado Springs,” he said.

Ahhhh! A soldier helped “Steve-O” get to the US!   And before this serious crime ol’ Steve-O already had a record!

Ramadon was featured in “A Soldier’s Promise,” a combat memoir by Army First Sgt. Daniel Hendrex  published in 2009 . Hendrex met the 14-year-old Ramadon  while deployed to Husaybah, a town in Al Anbar Province in Iraq , according to book reviews on www.amazon.com. According to reviews, Ramadon encountered Hendrex’s soldiers in December 2003, and pleaded with them to arrest him in exchange for key information about local insurgents. The book chronicles Ramadon’s relationship with Hendrex’s unit, of which he became an intricate part, ultimately earning the nickname Steve-O, the review reads.  Later, in exchange for his services, Hendrex helped Ramadon immigrate to the United States.

How much do you want to bet they are never deported?  They will claim that they will be killed if returned to Iraq, so we get to keep them.  Yippee!

Police said all five men had established “lawful permanent resident” status within the past five years but could face deportation if convicted of the crimes.

Read it all.

For new readers with stamina, I just realized we have written 534 posts on Iraqi refugees since 2007!  See our Iraqi category here.

Iraqi refugee terrorist trial to begin in Kentucky on August 28th

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 23:  Former refugee pleads guilty, saves Obama Administration further bad publicity about refugee resettlement.

“I was a little bit worried these guys could get into our country so easily” 

(Pennsylvania National Guardsman who will be at the trial.)

This is an incredible story from the Associated Press about how a Pennsylvania National Guardsman learned about two Iraqi refugees arrested in Kentucky, here, in June of last year and studied court documents and has concluded that those two arrested for allegedly planning to send aid to Al Qaeda in Iraq may have helped kill his fellow soldiers.

Here is AP (emphasis mine):

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An Iraqi refugee accused of plotting to help terrorists back home may himself have been an insurgent during the war. When he goes on trial this month, watching from the gallery will be several U.S. soldiers who suspect his roadside bombs killed their comrades in Iraq in 2005.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 24, is scheduled for trial Aug. 28, but not in connection with the battlefield deaths of six Pennsylvania National Guardsmen seven years ago. Instead, Hammadi and another Iraqi refugee living in Kentucky, 30-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan, were charged with trying to send weapons and cash back to al-Qaida in Iraq after they came to the U.S. Alwan has pleaded guilty.

Several current and former soldiers from the same National Guard unit believe Hammadi and Alwan could have had a hand in two roadside bombings that killed six of their buddies in August 2005, when their unit was stationed near the city of Bayji in the volatile Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad. Those six were among 85 U.S. military deaths in Iraq that month.

Documents reviewed by The Associated Press show Hammadi and Alwan were insurgents in the same area around Bayji at the time the Pennsylvanians’ Task Force Dragoon was stationed there and hit.

“It’s going to be extremely hard to hold my temper, extremely hard to keep cool,” said former Sgt. Brandon Miller, one of several former members of the task force who say they plan to attend the trial.

One of the guys we gave refuge to told an informant:  “lunch and dinner would be an American.”

Multiple sources place Task Force Dragoon in the same violent area where Alwan and Hammadi told an FBI informant they worked two years into the American-led war. Those sources include motions filed in court, criminal complaints and indictments of Alwan and Hammadi, search warrants for the two men’s shared apartment and computers, media accounts of the task force’s deployment and interviews with soldiers.

[…..]

Court documents say Alwan and Hammadi worked as insurgents in Bayji, about 130 miles north of Baghdad. It was an area where former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had a base of support, starting shortly after the invasion in 2003.

Alwan told a confidential informant working for the FBI that as part of his work he filled roadside bombs with ball bearings, nails, even gravel, and drew diagrams to show how it is done. He also bragged about repeatedly killing Americans in Iraq, saying he was very good with a sniper rifle and that his “lunch and dinner would be an American.”

Alwan told an FBI informant in Bowling Green last year that prior to one Humvee explosion, he had planted improvised explosive devices near a Bayji street detour.

Both the Iraqis and the soldiers described the area as the main road used by American convoys in Bayji.

The Pennsylvania National Guard’s Alpha Company of the First Battalion of the 111th Infantry, which included Hedetniemi, lost six soldiers in two separate roadside attacks in the area in August 2005.

Court records don’t explain how we let these two in!  But, how many more got through the supposed refugee security screening?  That is the question!

Alwan and Hammadi each immigrated to the United States in 2009 after gaining refugee status. Court records do not explain why they were granted that status.

Please read the entire AP story in Mercury News, you likely won’t see it in your hometown paper.

New readers, I’ve written many posts on this case.  Here we learned that Alwan and Hammadi lied (what else!).  Here we were heartened that Senator Rand Paul wanted answers.  Here we were assured (ha!) that all Iraqi refugees in the US were being re-screened.  And, here, the whole refugee security screening process has slowed refugee resettlement causing federal resettlement contractors to squawk.

Canada: Former Iraqi refugee charged with stabbing to death another Iraqi refugee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There has got to be more to this story!

The alleged killer has been in Canada for a couple of decades and helps other Iraqis get to Canada and then kills one of them?  Hmmmm!

I’ll bet you a buck, the alleged killer has been running some sort of crime ring.   Why do I think that?  Convenience stores—he owned three of them!   In the US, immigrant run Convenience stores have become the hub in many cities for illegal drug activity and food stamp fraud.

From The Star:

An Iraqi-Canadian who helped fellow refugees find safety in Canada has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of one of his own.

Azize Sepan, 48, fled Iraq in 1985 as bombs exploded around him and thousands of people died in the Iran-Iraq War. He was a registered refugee, sponsored by the Canadian government.

Since arriving in Canada, Sepan chose to help other Iraqis make similar transitions. He worked alongside World Vision, helping more than 100 Iraqis make the move.

On Wednesday, police arrested Sepan in connection with the fatal stabbing of 29-year-old Evan Gorgees — a fellow Iraqi who moved to Canada two years ago.

[…..]

It is unclear whether Sepan knew Gorgees or helped him move to Canada.

The Star directs us to another five-year-old story about Sepan where we learn of his “businesses” in Toronto.

Sepan, who owns three convenience stores, a flower shop and a trading company in Greater Toronto, was disheartened last August when his godfather’s application was denied. “It just doesn’t make sense,” said the 43-year-old Vaughan resident. “Private sponsorships don’t cost the government a penny. None of the people I helped sponsor here has taken a penny of social assistance.”

Someone should write a blog (or a book) about Convenience store crimes!  Do the work old time investigative reporters used to do!  Search RRW for Food Stamp Fraud and you will have the outline for your blog or book!