Tag: Minnesota

St. Cloud, MN: Reader asks 'where is the transparency' from federal refugee resettlement contractor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In a bunch of states in America, citizens concerned about the secrecy and the expense of the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Department are asking questions and demanding answers about how their tax dollars are being spent. 
One of those states is Minnesota arguably one of the most densely refugee-populated states between those being placed there by several resettlement contractors including Lutheran Social Service of MN (see here for background) and those moving there from other resettlement cities (to be with their fellow Somalis).

Obama: ” Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.”

When I read this letter from Minnesota resident Bob Enos in the St. Cloud Times, one of the things I wondered about was whether the US State Department and its contractor LSS got the memo from the White House to ALL FEDERAL AGENCIES (that would include the US State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services (ORR) right?) and their contractors!
Here is President Barack Obama:

Transparency and Open Government

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

There is more here.
Enos at the St. Cloud Times (emphasis added is mine):

Lutheran Social Service recently had a meeting at the Stearns County Service Center in Waite Park.

This was a meeting of “stakeholders” involved with Lutheran Social Service’s contract with the federal government for relocating political refugees to the St. Cloud area. The meeting has not been publicized. Evidently, it is closed to the public.

Even though refugee resettlement in St. Cloud is fueled with federal tax receipts, Lutheran Social Service, as a private contractor, appears to be under no legal or moral obligation to provide transparency to the public. This is deceptive and underhanded, and it must end.

Furthermore, the public must demand a long-overdue accounting of the program, an independent audit of both the use of our tax dollars and the financial impact upon Stearns County taxpayers in areas such as social services, schools, subsidized housing, transportation and public safety.

If Lutheran Social Service ran this program with proceeds from the Sunday collection plate, that would be voluntary charity, and the public might have little say in the matter. Paying taxes, however, is not voluntary.

Lutheran Social Service must be held to the same standard of transparency as any government organization.

Doesn’t it make you wonder if Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, in crafting the Refugee Act of 1980, set up the present contracting system for the purpose of keeping the public in the dark?  I would argue that these contractors, which receive the vast majority of their funding from taxpayers, are required to follow the President’s orders!

To citizen activists:

Note to the growing groups of grassroots activists looking to bring this secretive program out of the shadows, go here to the list of resettlement subcontractors working near you, ask them for the FY2015 R & P Abstract (see two posts on abstracts before today) for the city and ask them when the next “consultation” or “stakeholders” meeting will be held.
By the way, we have learned that the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm for the resettlement contractors) has instructed its members to NOT give citizens any information, so don’t be surprised if you are treated disrespectfully (or they pretend they don’t know what you are talking about!) when you call.  But, do it anyway!
Demand transparency! 
Demand that Obama’s executive order be respected!

Minnesota Somalis: 'We would rather be in Somalia'

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Or, at least in a country that follows shariah law!
That is the gist of the comments a film maker received from several young Somali men and women interviewed on the streets of “Little Mogadishu” (aka Minneapolis) recently.
Here is World Net Daily late yesterday:

On Friday a camera crew with the David Horowitz Freedom Center released a video posted to Robert Spencer’s blog, Jihad Watch, in which documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz interviews Somali men and women on the streets of Cedar Riverside.

Young Somalis who grew up and were educated in America (on your dime!) still believe it is o.k. to kill people, like Pamela Geller, who do not agree with the teachings of the Koran and exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech.

Their answers to questions about Islamic law, American law and issues of peace and freedom were revealing.

Continue reading here. They discuss their hatred for Pamela Geller in addition to extolling the virtues of following Islamic law—shariah—which of course would permit them to kill her.   Then this near the end:

The interviewer asked one final question: If they had a choice, would the Somalis rather live in America or back in Somalia?

“I’d rather to live a Muslim country with my people,” the young man with the Brooklyn Nets cap said without hesitation. “I’m not Americanized. I just speak fluent (English) and I’m articulate, and I can articulate what I’m trying to say. That’s about it. But as far as that my culture and my preferences and everything, it’s still Somali, you know what I mean?”

“I would rather live in Somalia,” said the man in the sunglasses.

“For me, I think Somalia,” said the woman in the pink hijab.

For new readers:

Check out some of our earlier posts.  See this one from 2011‘Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis’ which describes the decades’ old ‘work’ of federal refugee resettlement contractors:  Lutheran Social Service of MN, Catholic Charities and World Relief (now called ‘Arrive Ministries’) that continue to resettle Somalis in Minnesota (over 10,000 in the last ten years alone).
And, don’t miss Lutheran Social Service of MN—-doing well by doing good! (here and here).

Your tax dollars raise terrorists as one more refugee wages Jihad

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We haven’t written about the very brave American hero Pamela Geller and what happened in Garland, Texas, when she and other organizers of a ‘draw Muhammad’ contest flushed out a pair of jihadists living in our midst, because you would have to be living under a rock to have missed the news.

One more recipient of American generosity and good will! I bet you will never see the mainstream media mention the ‘R’ word (refugee) when reporting on Muhammed Hassan (aka Miski)

However, it now appears that another of the Somali “youths” you raised to adulthood with your tax dollars is at the center of the attack.

Remember readers that Somalis do not “find their way” to America.  The vast majority of Somalis in the US came (and continue to come!) through the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.  You feed them, you house them, you give them medical care and you educate them!

Minnesota, where Muhammed Hassan is from, is Somali-central having received 10,000 Somali refugees in ten years directly from Africa and elsewhere around the world thanks to ‘Christian’ resettlement contractors.   (We are not counting the ‘secondary migrants’ who moved to Minnesota after being resettled somewhere else in the US and then move to join their kind of people in MN).

In the first six months of FY2015 we have admitted 4,425 Somalis to the US. Why are we bringing in any?

From ABC News:

A mysterious ISIS recruiter known online as “Miski” was in close and repeated social media contact with Elton Simpson for months before the Sunday attack in Garland, Texas, an ABC News investigation has found.

Miski is well known to FBI officials who say his real name is Muhammed Hassan, a fugitive since 2009 when he fled Minneapolis as a teenager to join terror groups in Africa.

Speaking in late April about the forthcoming Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest – the one targeted in Gardner Sunday – would-be shooter Simpson tweeted “When will they ever learn?”

A few minutes later Miski responded, “Where are the warriors of this Ummah [community]?” And then, “The brothers from the Charlie Hebdo attack did their part. It’s time for brothers in the #US to do their part.”

[….]

Since leaving the country in 2009, Miski has popped up repeatedly online as a vocal proponent of jihad. Each time Twitter shuts down his account, he simply returns in under a slightly different username and quickly reconnects with his supporters and potential recruits.

“His influence is quite extensive,” David Ibsen, Executive Director of the Counter Extremism Project, told ABC News. “He’s known as one of the go-to individuals online who individuals who want more information about how to travel to ISIS-controlled territory, who want information about what these radical groups are doing, they go to him.”

For new readers, we first began following the ‘missing Somali youth’ news way back in 2008, here.

We must demand a moratorium on the resettlement of Muslims from anywhere in the world—from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Burma, Uzbekistan and Syria to start with—if we want to have any hope of surviving!  Let the rich Arab countries take them!

St. Cloud, MN letter-to-the-editor about Somali constitution brings firestorm of comments

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The debate we helped start here a little over a week ago continues in St. Cloud, Minnesota as a letter writer says Somalis must choose between Somalia’s constitution based entirely on sharia-law and the US Constitution.

Somalis in Minnesota: Time to choose, sharia law or US Constitution? Photo at MN Historical Society

Here is Willmar resident Bob Enos this past Thursday.  As of this minute (on Sunday morning) there are 153 comments!  You should get in on the action, submit a comment and continue to educate the readers of the St. Cloud Times!

Thank you for your coverage of Ann Corcoran’s recent visit to St. Cloud concerning Somali immigration. With regard to Islamic Sharia law, if your fact-checkers read the Provisional Constitution of Somalia, here is what they would know.

Article 2 – “Islam is the religion of the State. … No other religion than Islam can be propagated in the country. … No law can be enacted that is not compliant with the general principles and objectives of Shari’ah.”

Article 8(3) states: “A person who is a Somali citizen cannot be deprived of Somali citizenship, even if they become a citizen of another country.”

A country’s constitution represents the hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations of its citizens.

The question to our Somali-American citizens: You’ve sworn allegiance to an Islamic theocratic state and a U.S. secular, democratic state, each founded on diametrically opposed ideals. You can’t believe that both are correct.

You need to make a choice.

Go here and see what all the buzz is about, add some of your own!

For new readers, we have an extensive archive on St. Cloud, here.  Our earliest post (I believe) was this one (in 2008!) written by blog partner, Judy, about Somalis threatening a service dog and his owner at a St. Cloud area school.  The dog-owner subsequently dropped out of the teaching program.

Hey Obama! Those Minnesota Somali youths arrested for attempting to join ISIS were not without prospects for a good future

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Everyone was asking yesterday, are we sure these are REFUGEES or the children of refugees resettled in Minnesota (or somewhere else in the US)?   Yes, we are 99% sure, but the mainstream media isn’t going to use the ‘R’ word unless they absolutely have to!

Most Somalis in the US are here through the Refugee Admissions Program of the US State Department.  A few entered illegally and a few are here under Temporary Protected Status, but the vast majority are refugees.

And, what frosts me and it should you as well, is that the Minneapolis Star Tribune describes them as young people who grew up in America with good educations and a chance to be something other than a Jihadist!

One of the alleged ISIS fighter-wannabes even thumbed his nose at the US when YOU and YOUR tax dollars paid for his upbringing!

Why are we wasting more of your tax dollars keeping them here?

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

I bet community organizer Mohamud Noor knows more than he is saying!

An eight-year federal investigation into terrorist recruiting yielded what authorities say is one of its biggest breakthroughs Monday, when six Somali-Americans from Minnesota were charged with planning to leave the United States and fight alongside Islamic extremist groups.  [Breakthrough?  It appears the only reason they got a break is that some other Somali youth got cold feet and snitched!—ed]

Two of the six were arrested by the FBI on Sunday in San Diego, where they intended to pick up passports and then cross into Mexico to board a flight to the Middle East, federal authorities said.  [By the way, way back in around 2009 we reported on these Somali youths/jihadists getting out of the US via San Diego (large Somali community there) and going out across the Mexican border—ed]

The other four were arrested Sunday by FBI agents at various locations across the Twin Cities.

All six were charged Monday with conspiracy to aid and support a terrorist organization, specifically the group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Hey, ever think of the possibility that their paths crossed at a local mosque?

It’s not clear how the six men, who the Justice Department said range in age from 19 to 21, met or how well they knew each other, but it appears that their paths crossed again and again as they grew up in Minneapolis. After graduating from South High, Farah, Musse and Omar enrolled at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC). Farah and Musse majored in liberal arts; Omar was a pre-nursing student. Abdurahman, also a graduate of the Minneapolis Public Schools, enrolled at MCTC and studied computer support.   [Not poor and without prospects!—ed]

“I’m through with America.”  Guess what?  We are through with you too!

One of the men, in a conversation recorded by an FBI source, describes his disgust with living in the United States. “The American identity is dead. Even if I get caught, whatever, I’m through with America. Burn my ID,” he said, according to a transcript filed with the case.

Everyone needs to be paying attention to these supposed Somali community support groups.  

And, by the way, what are the legal non-profits this community organizer referred the budding jihadist to?

Mohamud Noor, executive director of the nonprofit Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, said one of the men came into his office seeking help earlier this year.

“He had been interviewed by the FBI, and he said he and his friends had been followed for some time,” Noor recalled, declining to say which of the men came in to see him.

The man was calm, Noor said, but said he was looking for legal representation and a better sense of what his rights might be. Noor referred him to a pair of nonprofits that provide free or low-cost legal assistance.

Maybe Noor should have been thinking about reporting the visit to the FBI instead of helping him fight for ‘his rights!”

Readers, let me know if you see any news report from the mainstream media that uses the word “refugee” in conjunction with those arrested.

And remember, we are admitting 800-900 new Somalis to the US EVERY MONTH.

See Minnesota seeded with 10,000 in ten years!  Who brought most of them to Minnesota—Catholic Charities, World Relief (Evangelicals), Lutheran Social Services and Church World Service!

P.S.  MN Police looking for Somali murder suspect, here.