Afghan refugees being pushed out of Iran

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an article that puzzled me.   It seems that millions of Afghans left Afghanistan, some at least 25 years ago, and sought refuge in Iran.  Now Iran wants them all out.  Many have voluntarily returned to Afghanistan but Kabul isn’t ready for a huge wave all at once.    What really caught my eye was the last couple of lines in the story.

Since 2002, some 4 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan under a coordinated voluntary repatriation of refugees from Iran and Pakistan. They receive limited assistance from the UNHCR to resettle in their homeland.

Why would the UNHCR (United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees) not help these people, especially since the UN has such a cozy relationship with the Ahmadinijad regime (or is that just all about embarassing the US with speeches)?     Here are my guesses:

a) Helping the Afghanis go home would indicate their homeland is improving since the US pushed the Taliban into the mountains.  Giving the US any credit is not part of the UN agenda.

b) There are no big bucks involved from a guilt ridden country.  Can’t soak the US taxpayer for this as they are for the Iraqi displaced persons.

c)  They would be moving Muslim refugees from one Muslim country to another instead of moving Muslims to the west.

d)  The UN is afraid of Iran.

Maybe its a combination of all the above?   I invite our readers to suggest your guesses, or if you know the answer tell us!

Somali Community of Nashville, busy little beavers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you haven’t gone back to see what’s up in Shelbyville lately, here is a followup to our post on the Shelbyville Times-Gazette Reporter, Brian Mosely.    The Somali Community of Nashville has been busy lately posting demands in Tennesee and then in Emporia, KS as well.  (hat tip: Blulitespecial)  I’m guessing they sent their lengthy, well written I might add, screed to Emporia as a threat.

The Somali Community of Nashville condemns the unprovoked and undeserved public defamation of Somalis in Shelbyville, TN, by Brian Mosley and the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. We also advocate the following:

____

§ A prompt and public apology by Brian Mosley and the Shelbyville Times-Gazette to the Somali community in Shelbyville, TN,
§ The immediate cessation of the baseless and negative reporting on Somalis,
§ A sincere effort to build bridges of understanding between the residents of Shelbyville and the newcomers from Somalia instead of fueling the fires of prejudice and xenophobia,
§ And the adherence by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette to journalistic integrity by providing its readership with fair and accurate reporting on sensitive issues relating to community relations and refugee resettlement.

Sometime ago we told you about this case involving the Somali Community Center of Nashville and I’d like to know if it is the same group.  Just now I tried to find the website that had existed at one time for this outfit and it seems to be gone.   Is the Somali Community of Nashville the same people as the Somali Center of Nashville?

According to annual reports, the Somali Center in south Nashville receives $400,000 per year in taxpayer dollars from federal, state and local governments.

——–

But what has some asking questions is how the center’s executive director, Abdizirik Hassan, is still getting grants after pleading guilty to making false statements during a government investigation.

——–

In 2001, Hassan’s Nashville bank was shut down by counter-terrorism investigators because they said the bank was linked to Al-Barakat. Al-Barakat is a bank and wiring transfer service that is linked to al-Qaida, according to investigators.

——–

Hassan was arrested and charged with felony illegal banking.

———

While out on bond, Hassan and the Somali Center were awarded a grant in the amount of nearly $500,000 by the same federal government that indicted him.

Check out the forum at the Emporia Gazette, there are over 1000 comments there stretching over the last couple of months.  Scroll down to near the end to see the Somali Community of Nashville demands posted there too.

UN wants $261 million from US in 2008 for Iraqi refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars: 

I guess Will can call me an evil and stingy person, but we send our men and women to fight and die for Iraq’s freedom, and their people run and hide in surrounding countries and then we pay for that too.   Except for the truly persecuted Christians, the rest should just go home and tell the insurgents to get out.   As a matter of fact, I wonder how many would flee if it weren’t for the United Nations holding out to them the alluring possibility of life in the West through resettlement.

GENEVA, January 8 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Tuesday launched an appeal for US$261 million to fund its operations this year on behalf of hundreds of thousands of those uprooted by the conflict in Iraq.

_______

Chief UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva that the Iraq Situation Supplementary Appeal covered programmes for many of the 2.2 million Iraqis displaced within Iraq, as well as the 2 million who have fled to other countries in the region, including Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and several of the Gulf States. The agency also cares for some 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, including Palestinians, Iranians, Turks and others.

_______

Redmond also noted that UNHCR, which is funded primarily through voluntary contributions from governments, now has nearly 350 staff directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region.

350 UN employees!  I wonder how much gravy is sloshing around in those salaries?    And then there are the Palestinians:

The appeal also makes special mention of the dire situation facing some 13,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq, many of whom have been targeted by armed groups and who have been unable to find sanctuary in other countries. “UNHCR will continue to seek solutions for the Palestinians, including the possibility of resettlement for the most vulnerable,” Redmond stressed.

Back in October I posted on a Brookings Institution Study that said the Palestinians were in Iraq because they were favored by Saddam Hussein.  Could their association with Saddam be the reason they are targeted?  If you go back to that October report you will see there is a lot more to the story than poor suffering Iraqis running from violence.  Some of those Iraqis in Syria have been there for years, long before our arrival in Iraq, others are men who got out of Iraq when the surge began.

Steps to create a movement–#1 research

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday in a comment here in response to something Infinicat said, I said I would start putting some ideas out on what we need to do to bring about reform of legal immigration.  Our biggest handicap is that unfettered immigration has become such an entrenched part of American public policy, involving loads of money, paid lobbyists, volags (voluntary organizations), politicians on both sides of the aisle, big business benefits, politically correct media,  but not much for the ordinary citizen who pays for it in more ways than one; and, who must work on reforming it as volunteers who don’t have the luxury of spending whole days at it.

The first step in creating a successful movement is research and education.  We are well on our way with education thanks to the internet and blog proliferation.   But, now we need some hardcore research.   We need people to really begin documenting the problems with legal immigration and that means research on a very deep level using State Public Information laws and the Federal Freedom of Information Act and other types of document gathering.  Some national groups do a good job researching statistics etc. on a national level, Center for Immigration Studies comes to mind, but we need local documentation.  

And, then I’m asking all of you to start your own blogs.  Infinicat this means you too!   Don’t just rehash stuff in the news all the time, but start posting hardcore data—the kind of thing good investigative reporters used to do but don’t anymore except for a few exceptions like those at the Shelbyville Times-Gazette.   Just pick some aspect of this monstrous issue and start working on it!  Become an expert!

Believe me, blogs are free and easy to do!  If you don’t want to do it on your own then help us research and we’ll post it.  But, if you had your own blog it will have greater impact.  Contact me, I have loads of ideas on what needs to be researched!   Help move blogging to another level!   You will be absolutely amazed about how much you can move the political process with publication of documented facts.

P.S. to infinicat, I look forward to visiting your blog sometime soon!