Category: Obama

Bipartisan vote in House: no immigration benefits to Gitmo asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Another nail in the coffin to halt the release of Guantanamo prisoners into the US was delivered by a House Committee vote yesterday to deny “immigration benefits” to Gitmo prisoners released in the US.  Interesting that AP calls this a Republican win when it obviously must have required a significant number of Democrats to pull off the 34-24 vote.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on a key House panel won a vote Friday to make doubly sure that Guantanamo Bay detainees won’t be given immigration benefits that would allow them to stay in the United States if they’re released.

[….] 

The House panel’s plan, by Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., would block the government from providing “any immigration benefit” to Guantanamo detainees. It was amended to clarify that bringing detainees in for their trials is permitted.

Guess this means the Top Ten (Volag) Government Contractors won’t be fighting over who will get these high value “refugees” as clients.  They come with no money.

Gitmo detainees: Obama make up your mind already!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, yet another update:  Firestorm erupting in Bermuda over government decision to take in Uighurs, here.

Update a few hours later:  House committee sends Obama a message:  no immigration benefits to Gitmo prisoners released in US, here.

Gheeesh!  Obama could you please tell a straight story!   Only a few days ago we heard that all 17 Uighurs (Chinese Muslims) held at Gitmo would go to Palau.  For its pains Palau would get a little US taxpayer compensation to sweeten the deal.   Now comes news that four have gone to Bermuda and some may still come to the US.   Has Palau gotten cold feet?

A little waffling going on?

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House spokesman says the Obama administration hasn’t decided whether or not to release Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States.

[…..]

A tentative plan to release some Guantanamo detainees in the United States drew fierce opposition from Republicans and many Democrats in Congress, forcing the Obama administration to shelve the plan to bring some Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs to Virginia. The Uighur detainees at Guantanamo were found not to be enemy combatants by the Pentagon, but few nations have been willing to accept them, out of fear of angering China.

This past week, four of the 17 Uighurs being held at Guantanamo were sent to Bermuda, and the Pacific islands nation of Palau said it would accept others.

For new readers, use our search function for “Uighurs” to learn all about how this hot potato is being tossed around.  If the Uighurs come to the US they will be treated like asylees with all the privileges that refugees receive—-subsidized housing, food stamps, employment help, English lessons, and the list goes on.

Inspector General finds non-profit grant fraud and Obama fires the IG

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 13th:   Byron York of the Washington Examiner has a lengthy article with more details here.  For those of us concerned with grant fraud generally it gives us a window into the process that involves “suspension and debarment” of organizations that have misused federal grants.   Allegations against the Somali Center in Nashville come to mind!

Your tax dollars:

O.k. so you say this story from AP entitled, “Obama ousts AmeriCorps’ IG who investigated friend” has nothing to do with the refugee program.  Well, you are right at least  this scandal has no direct connection that I know of.   However,  if  I had enough hours in the day, I would be writing a blog on this issue—non-profit groups that receive government (taxpayer funded) grants and who push policy and misuse public funds need to be exposed.    I’m not talking about legitimate non-profits, but the phoney ones, the ones that pretend to be non-profits but are literally policy arms of the political left  or those who enrich themselves under the cover of a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization all the while using the people’s money.

In this case, the Inspector General appears to have done his job and recovered taxpayer money and returned it to the Treasury and what did he get for his work?  Obama fired him!

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.

Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled the investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy, a nonprofit group that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program.

St. HOPE Academy ended up repaying more than $400,000 in government funds.

“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” Obama said in a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as president of the Senate. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Senator Charles Grassley* sent a letter to Obama wanting an explanation.

Grassley said Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and “it appears he has been doing a good job.”

Here is what the fired IG uncovered:

The IG found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.

So it seems that instead of encouraging exposure of non-proft group abuses, Obama’s action today will further put a chill on anyone in an official position to expose fraud and protect the taxpayers of the United States.

You know that Tides Foundation I told you about last week, they get federal money too.  I wonder if anyone has investigated them.  How do we know if the taxpayer money passing through that foundation doesn’t end up being used for illegitimate purposes?

* Senator Grassley must be a one-man watchdog of the non-profit groups.  Here is a racket he uncovered involving the Nature Conservancy—one I personally knew was happening nearly 20 years ago.

Is Obama paying off Palau to take Uighurs?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 13th:  People in mostly Christian Palau are pretty unhappy with the, now 13 Uighurs, coming to Palau.  AP has the report here.  The other 4 have already gone to Bermuda.

Apparently getting desperate and trying to find a “home” for 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration first tried Europe and Canada to no avail.  They have finally settled on the tiny Pacific Island country of Palau which has agreed to take them— temporarily—whatever that means.   Hat tip:  Blulitespecial

But is Palau getting a little extra sweetner for its lemonade?  From Fox News:

The South Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to “temporarily resettle” the 17 Uighurs, or Chinese Muslims, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, an official with the Palau government told FOX News.

“Palau’s accommodation to accept the temporary resettlement of these detainees is a humanitarian gesture intended to held them be freed from any further unnecessary incarceration and to restart their lives anew in as normal a fashion as possible,” according to a press release provided to FOX News by the official.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, said the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

The issue of what to do with Chinese Islamic radicals that China wants returned has been plaguing the Obama Justice Department for some time.  Afterall, China wants a chance to torture its own Islamic separatist terrorists.

We have been following this issue since it began because one option was to treat them as asylees and release them to a neighborhood near you.  Needless to say, no one wants them in their back yard.

One controversial option considered was to release the Uighurs into the United States. In fact, a federal court ordered the U.S. government to do just that, but an appeals court blocked the move, ruling that the federal court lacked the necessary authority.

The US resettlement option was pretty much killed by the Uighurs themselves when they had a few choice words about America and a question for our dear leader.

Last week, during a press tour of their detention camp, some of the Uighurs approached the fence around the facility and — with phrases written on an art pad — compared the U.S. government to that of China and Nazi Germany. One Uighur asked in English, “Obama is a Communist or a Democrat?”

Read more about how sweet-natured the Uighurs sound and what they think of the United States in Judy’s post of last week, here.

Then, believe it or not, a lawyer for the Uighurs says, ‘well maybe they don’t want to go to Palau!’  Let’s see Gitmo, China, or Palau?

Sabin Willett, a lawyer for six of the Uighurs, said he has been left in the dark about the U.S. government’s plans for the Uighurs. If Palau has in fact agreed to take them, he said, “the real question is whether the Uighurs will want to go.”

Hey, here’s a thought, maybe Obama could hand them over to the Chinese government in exchange for a favor from China—afterall, we desperately need China to cut us some slack on Obama’s national debt.  

I also would like to know who is going to guarantee they stay put in Palau?

Thorough analysis of Obama’s Cairo speech at VDARE

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I couldn’t bring myself to watch President Obama’s speech to the “Muslim World” last week, but it was interesting to read Brenda Walker’s analysis of it here at VDARE yesterday.    Entitled, “Obama In Egypt: Multiculturalist Meets Muslims. Muslims Win,”  here is a brief segment:

Obama apparently doesn’t realize that there is a strain of Muslim supremacism that believes everything of value springs from Islam.

[…..] 

Under this loopy view, we infidels are lost little sheep who don’t understand we are already Allah’s property and just need to be re-educated. Loose talk by the American President to aggrandize himself in this manner has potentially very dangerous consequences, because it adds fuel to the fable that America is Islamic territory to be reclaimed.

Read it all.  The concept Walker raises here is central to understanding the fact that certain groups of Muslim immigrants have no intention of assimilating and respecting American culture and values.