Tag: Chattanooga

Daniel Greenfield: Chattanooga shooter possibly linked to Palestinian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update 2: Shooter traveled to Jordan in 2014, WSJ here.
Update:  If Dad is a Palestinian who left Kuwait, this family could indeed be resettled refugees or successful asylum seekers we gave shelter to. Here is what wikipedia says about the expulsion of Palestinians (Jordanian citizens) from Kuwait after the first Gulf War.   I don’t have time to dig around, but if you do, I’ll post your links here!  I have to get on to my work on “Welcoming Ohio” this morning.
Everyone I know is asking if the Islamic-motivated shooting of 4 unarmed Marines is somehow linked to our refugee program.  I don’t have the answer yet.

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez

We don’t take very many refugees from Kuwait nor do we take very many Palestinians, but we do send many Muslim refugees to Tennessee.
If anyone sees a mention of the year the killer’s family entered the US it might help us narrow this down.  Remember there are several legal immigration programs through which this family could have been admitted to the US.
One possibility is that a family member (the father?) entered the US in some legal fashion (tourist visa?) then applied for asylum and subsequently brought the family over behind him (like the Tsarnaev Boston Bomber family did).
Everyone keep an eye out for any news about how they got into the US!
Holly Johnson
As the Director for the Tennessee Office for Refugees, Holly Johnson would be able to put the question to rest by telling us whether or not the killer’s family came to the US as refugees or possibly were granted asylum status after getting into the country through some other means.

The refugee program in Tennessee is a Wilson-Fish program which means it is run jointly by the US State Department and in this case Catholic Charities of Tennessee (Tennessee Office for Refugees)—they would both know if the Abdulazeez family came here as refugees or successful asylum seekers. 
Also, the primary resettlement contractor in Chattanooga is Bridge Refugee Services (a subcontractor of Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries, two of nine major contractors).
Bridge has been operating in Chattanooga since 1982 so they would know if this family was one of theirs!
My guess is that the refugee contractors in Tennessee will not be forthcoming.
Daniel Greenfield writing at Frontpage magazine has this bit of information:

This is still preliminary as the story is developing. So take it as that.

The media is reporting that the Muslim attacker in the Chattanooga shootings is Kuwaiti. That may not be accurate, based on the current reporting, it would appear that his mother Rasmia Abdulazeez is indeed from Kuwait, but his father Youssuf Abdulazeez is from Nablus in Israel.

This is not especially significant as a lot of self-described “Palestinians” used to live in Kuwait. At least until the Kuwaitis kicked them out for collaborating with Saddam. With the approval of Bush I.

If you see more on how the family got into the US, please send it our way.
By the way, one of the first posts I ever wrote at RRW was about this agency, Bridge Refugee Services, joining the ACLU and CAIR to fight a 2003 request by the US Dept. of Homeland Security for information under the Patriot Act.  The national security agency was looking for information on resettled Iraqi refugees.  The resettlement contractor refused to cooperate.
So they are not likely to talk now!

Here is another Daniel Greenfield story on this topic.

Meanwhile Presidential candidate Bobby Jindal says Muslim immigration to America might more correctly be called “colonization.”

At Breitbart:

According to a recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), approximately 2.5 million immigrants from “predominantly Muslim countries” reside inside the U.S. right now. Abdulazeez was apparently one of them. Jindal has questioned whether all the Muslims coming into the United States right now is really truly “immigration” or if it’s actually a “colonization.”

About Holly Johnson:  This is her contact information if any investigative reporters want to try to get an answer—good luck!

Holly Johnson, Director
Tennessee Office for Refugees
Office: (615) 352-9520 ext. 222
Fax: (615) 352-0701
Email: HJohnson@cctenn.org

Refugees “just dumped off” in Chattanooga; try to communicate with neighbors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This must be refugee-news-story-dump day.  Just when I have other things I have to do, and thought I could get away from the computer, along comes one more story that should be posted today (hat tip to a friend from TN).

From the Times Free Press:

Evariste Simbananiye has a furnished apartment but prefers squatting on the floor. Photo: Dan Henry

Evariste Simbananiye lives in a fully furnished apartment in Boynton Terrace but prefers squatting, as he did in his native Burundi, to sitting in a chair.

Simbananiye, 64, is among a handful of refugees from at least three countries who live in or near the public housing facility. They’ve been there since 2007, but Boynton residents say some refugees still don’t have the support they need to adjust to a new culture and language.

Another Burundi refugee has had so many apartment fires that some residents say he shouldn’t use the stove. Instead of using a pot or pan to hold his cooking food, he holds it directly over the electric burner, much as he would have done with a fire in his homeland.

Before coming to the United States under a federal resettlement program, these refugees may only have known life in a refugee camp. Once here, they often cling to their old way of life because they can’t communicate well enough to understand and adapt to cultural differences.

“They were brought here and just dumped off,” said Bennie Haynes, president of the Boynton Terrace Resident Council.

The result can be friction with neighbors, and even public safety or health problems.

One of the things Boynton Terrace residents say needs to be communicated is not to use the bathroom in public places like the elevator.

So, I wonder why Bridge Refugee Services is closed (did the State Department shut them down? hmmmm!)

Two people from Burundi and one from the Sudan live in Boynton Terrace, said Haynes. Two families from Cuba and another from the Ukraine live in Boynton or other public housing buildings, according to Bridge Refugee Services.

The federal program to relocate refugees has closed, so no more are expected to come, said Marina Peshterianu, coordinator of Bridge Services.

Thousands of refugees fled war-torn Burundi in 1972. Some spent 30 years in refugee camps before being resettled here and elsewhere.

Between 2005 and 2008, Bridge brought about 80 of the Burundian refugees to Chattanooga.

Most have since relocated to other areas, said Peshterianu.

Simbananiye is 64 years old, has been here for going on 6 years, is unemployed and can’t speak English!!!!  He obviously lives off of the kindness of the US  and Tennessee taxpayers!

So, I guess one day we will be paying for his nursing home care too and the poor nurses won’t understand what the heck he is saying.  So much for Christian charity brought to you by Church World Service!

Endnote:  Back in 2007, Bridge, a subcontractor of CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, was the subject of one of the first posts I wrote at RRW and it was about the agency filing a lawsuit (with CAIR and the ACLU) to block the FBI from getting some information it wanted on Iraqi refugees who had passed through Tennessee.