Tag Archive for: Syria

VIDEO: Tuberculosis [and others diseases] a ‘ticking time bomb’ in Muslim migrant flow to U.S.

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BugWhile we fixate on a terrorism threat coming from not thoroughly vetted refugees, could there be a more likely security and safety risk with the myriad diseases permitted entry into the US in the refugee population (and in the stream of Unaccompanied Alien Children)?

In fact, when I first began writing RRW, it was a shock to learn that the Allen County (Indiana) health department was being overwhelmed by the number of TB cases among the newly resettled Burmese refugees.  Treating them was breaking the health department’s budget.

New “welcoming” communities (Reno***, Rutland, Missoula, Ithaca?) have you considered the cost and the health risks to your citizens?

Be sure to see the Minneapolis Star Tribune of only a week ago where we learn that after 20 years of decline, the US TB rate is moving upward. Reporters begin their story with a Spanish teacher in Vermont who learns she has TB! 

So, what has changed in 20 years?  Could it be the massive flow of migrants from TB hotspots around the world into America?

Reporter Michael Patrick Leahy has been reporting at Breitbart about Tuberculosis over the last week.  Here is his story from yesterday.  And, don’t miss the earlier one about the high levels of latent TB in the Somali population in Minnesota, here.

Theres_a_Deadly_Flesh_Eating_BLeahy yesterday:

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, is criticizing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for allowing refugees to enter the United States without screening and treatment for latent tuberculosis.

Seven of the agency’s own public health experts said such screening and treatment “would potentially save millions of dollars and contribute to United States TB elimination goals” in a research article published in December.

“Admitting people who might cause an epidemic makes no sense whatsoever from a public health standpoint,” Orient tells Breitbart News.

“It suggests that those who favor it do not care about the cost in suffering, death, and expense to Americans,” Orient says, adding she agrees with the public health experts currently or formerly employed at the CDC who concluded that screening of refugees for latent tuberculosis and successful treatment of those who test positive for the disease prior to their entry into the country is the proper public health policy for the United States.

But the political leadership at CDC does not appear to be following the screening and treatment recommendations of the study done by its own experts, and has not yet responded to inquiries from Breitbart News whether it plans to change course.

“If for humanitarian reasons we wish to help people fleeing persecution, there is still no need to release them into the general population of susceptible individuals. Officials who place politics above the health of Americans need to be held accountable and removed from positions of authority,” Orient says.

Be sure to watch the video linked in this next paragraph and consider the FACT that you, the US taxpayers, are paying for this expensive treatment for Drug Resistant TB, so that these people can move to your towns!

Even those refugees treated for active Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, as shown in the below video of Burmese refugees who have the disease being treated in a refugee camp in Thailand, are allowed to enter the United States despite recent studies that indicate that between 4 percent and 5 percent of those deemed successfully treated experience a recurrence of tuberculosis within 2 years.

Child refugee? Photo: Twitter

There is much more, continue reading here.

See our extensive ‘health issues’ category with 292 previous posts by clicking here.

*** In that Abstract we discussed a week ago for the new resettlement site in Reno, the Abstract indicates that the wait time for health screening of refugees arriving there will be 15-30 days.  I doubt that refugees are quarantined during the wait time!

RELATED VIDEO: Flesh-eating skin disease grips ISIS-controlled areas in Syria WARNING: GRAPHIC

RELATED ARTICLES:

City Journal: Refugees bring numerous health problems with them to your towns; more reporting needed

CDC says 157 pregnant women in U.S. test positive for Zika

Flesh eating disease spreads in terrorist-controlled Syria

‘Faith’ group exploring bringing refugees to Cape Cod and Nantucket

Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program

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This is a press release from FAIR/IRLI in response to a request for public comment on the FY2017 Refugee Admissions Program. Comments closed at 5:00 p.m. on May 19th. (Hat tip: Joanne)

FAIR logo 2

(Washington, D.C.) – This week, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (“IRLI”) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (“FAIR”) filed a public comment (attached here) with the Department of State (“DOS”) regarding its proposed 2017 Refugee Admission’s Program. In their comment, IRLI and FAIR raised three broad concerns regarding the Obama Administration’s current policies and practices:

  1. The DOS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) are not complying with statutory requirements.Under U.S. law, only a person who has been persecuted or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” can be admitted to the U.S. as a refugee. This Administration appears to have unlawfully adopted the United Nation’s definition of refugee, which includes those fleeing from natural or economic disaster, civil strife, war, crime or other societal afflictions.
  2. DOS has not addressed the extensive fraud and abuse in the refugee application process. The problems with vetting applicants do not end at ensuring each applicant properly complies with the statutory requirements. Extensive fraud and abuse of the application process has been found, yet the Government does not properly address these findings. Such fraud and abuse will only become more prevalent as the President seeks to fulfill his 10,000-Syrian refugee quota by the end of the fiscal year.
  3. The American public is still not adequately protected under the current refugee screening process. The President’s refugee goals are not properly considering the severe national security concerns that face the country in light of the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, where the female terrorist passed the Government’s security screening. While the President, Jeh Johnson, and DOS officials say that the security checks for refugees are rigorous, the screenings are not sufficient to protect American citizens. Other government officials who are deeply involved in screening refugees state that the current background investigation produces little, if any, information on those being screened.

Dale L. Wilcox, IRLI’s Executive Director commented, “The Obama Administration’s unilateral expansion of our democratically-enacted refugee laws will lead to increased fraud and greater chances for terrorist-activity as well as pressure on our state and federal welfare budgets, and on the social-cohesion of our communities.” Wilcox continued, “Not only is this Administration ignoring the laws which define who can come into our country as a refugee, it’s ignoring the immigration catastrophe in Europe that’s resulted from those governments being too open to manipulation from foreign migrants. The American people are tired of both the lawlessness and the extreme naiveté on the part of the political class when it comes to immigration policy.”

Go here to see all of our information (including copies of testimony) submitted for the FY2017 Presidential determination on the “size and scope” of the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program. (LOL! They are pretending to care what you think even as Obama has already said he is going for 100,000 refugees for his last shot at changing America as he exits the White House!).

RELATED ARTICLES:

Lutheran refugee contractor in Lehigh Valley area of PA to close, running out of money

Is Tuberculosis a ticking time bomb in refugee/migrant flow to America?

Ten reasons for a Moratorium on the UN/U.S. Refugee Admissions Program

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I am sending a list of the ten reasons for a Moratorium to the U.S.State Department today.  If you have followed RRW for years you will recognize this as a modification of the first testimony I sent in 2012.  Frankly, nothing much has changed!

Some things have gotten worse. Only one issue I raised then has been improved—they get the ORR Annual Reports to Congress done more quickly.  They still aren’t getting them to Congress when the law says they should, but almost.

One issue that is much worse is the prospect that an Islamic terrorist could slip into the refugee flow to America with the huge increase in the number of refugees coming from Syria, Iraq and Somalia.

However, for the first time in the almost 9 years I’ve written this blog, there is a little window of hope that the Refugee Admissions Program could be dramatically altered if President Donald Trump does half of what he says he will do (and Congress does its job of reviewing the entire program).

If Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders are elected President, this program will continue on steroids. There will be no reform.

Here are ten points slightly modified, but essentially the same as I sent to the State Department 4 years ago.

Ten Reasons there should be no refugees resettled in the US in FY2017—instead a moratorium should be put in place until the program is reformed (or abolished), the economy completely recovers, and we are assured that security screening will protect us.

american out of work illegalsWhy?

1)    Refugees take jobs that low-skilled Americans and teens need. The program was never meant to be simply a way to import impoverished people to the US and place them on an already overtaxed welfare system. Those that do find work are taking jobs that American citizens need.

2)  The program has become a cash cow for various ‘religious’ organizations and other contractors who very often appear to care more about the next group of refugees coming in (and the cash that comes with each one) than the group they resettled only a few months earlier. Stories of refugees suffering throughout the US are rampant.

Indeed, there is no accountability for the billions of tax payer dollars going to the program. Short of a complete halt to resettlement-by-contractor, taxpayers should be protected by legally requiring financial audits of contractors and subcontractors on an annual basis.

3)   Terrorist organizations have threatened to use the program that still clearly has many failings in the security screening system.  Indeed consideration should be given to halting the resettlement of Muslims altogether.  Also, the UN should have no role in choosing refugees for the US.  There is no reason we can’t make the decision about who we want to ‘welcome’ to America without UN meddling.

4)    The public is not confident that screenings for potential terrorists (#3) or the incidences of other types of fraudulent entry are being properly and thoroughly investigated and stopped.  When fraud is uncovered—either fraud to enter the country or illegal activity once the refugee has been resettled—punishment should be immediate deportation.

5)    Congress has not specifically disallowed the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government, especially using certain refugee populations to address other foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians, Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis, and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

6)    The State Department and the ORR have so far failed to adequately determine and report (and track once the refugee has been admitted) the myriad communicable and costly-to-treat diseases entering the country with the refugee population. Refugees suffering from serious (and expensive) mental health issues should be screened-out.

7)  There is no process for alerting communities to the impending arrival of refugees that includes reports from the federal government (with local input) about the social and economic impact a certain new group of refugees will have on a city or town. Such a report should be presented to the public through public hearings and the local government must have an opportunity to say ‘no.’

8)  The federal government should not be acting as head-hunter for corporations (like the meatpackers!). Congress needs to investigate and specifically disallow any connection between this program and big businesses looking for cheap and captive labor.

9)  If Congress and the President determine we must have some refugee program, a mechanism should be established that would help a refugee go home if he or she is unhappy or simply can’t make it in America. 

10) If during a moratorium, the Congress and the President decide that a refugee program of some sort is needed, the VOLAG system should be completely abolished and the program should be run by state agencies with accountability to the public through their state legislatures. The system as presently constituted is surely unconstitutional.  (One of many benefits of turning the program over to a state agency is to break up the government/contractor employee revolving door that is being demonstrated now at both the State Department and ORR.)

For these reasons and more, the Refugee admissions program should be placed on hold and a serious effort made by Congress to either scrap the whole thing or reform it during the moratorium.  My recommendation for 2017 is to stop the program now.

The Office of the President/US State Department could indeed ask for Congressional hearings to review the Refugee Act of 1980-–more than three decades is time enough to see its failings and determine if reauthorization is feasible or if a whole new law needs to be written.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Pakistani with Fake Ecuadorean Passport Enters U.S. via Mexico Multiple Times

22% of Resettled Refugees in Minnesota Test Positive for Tuberculosis

Somalis carrying millions of dollars out of US in suitcases; are welfare benefits going to Somalia?

How a Syrian seed community will be built in Eugene, Oregon (around one initial seedling)

Testimony to the US State Department from Shoemaker in South Carolina

International Rescue Committee expanding, Richmond added to sites in Virginia

Gird your loins Nevada: Ready or not Muslim migrants on the way to Reno

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I’ve been reporting in recent weeks about the new sites being targeted for refugee seeding by the the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program (most recently yesterday it was Rutland, VT***).

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Carina Black

It is my educated guess that the federal resettlement contractors are wearing out their welcome in the 190 or so places in the US where refugees are already being resettled(and in many cases have been resettled for decades) and that perhaps one of the limiting factors is government-funded housing (not to mention other important things like lack of jobs!) and are thus scouting fresh territory.

Also, remember that Obama has upped the refugee stream to America this year from the 70,000 number of recent years to 85,000 by September 30th.

Starting October 1, Obama says he will be recommending 100,000 for FY2017 (even though he will be out of the White House for most of it).

Digressing for a minute, Congress will have a huge role to play in September when Obama makes his final determination about the number of refugees coming for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and we will be watching to see if the gutless Congress does anything about it!

So back to Reno (and other sites) which are being prepped for the even bigger wave of refugees expected to begin October 1. By the way, I’m wondering if the low-skilled refugees will compete with Nevada’s large Hispanic population for jobs.

From KUNR radio:

The U.S. State Department has greenlighted a Northern Nevada nonprofit to help resettle refugees escaping hotbeds of conflict around the globe beginning this fall.

Carina Black, executive director of the Reno-based Northern Nevada International Center, says their application to become an official resettlement agency was approved in February. They’ve since been laying the groundwork, and building a stakeholders’ network, before those first few families arrive.

“Those stakeholders include people from the health industry, from education, from ESL… people in the faith communities have been coming forward and showing a huge interest in helping us,” she says. “So we’re still basically conducting a lot of training…and getting ready for this new endeavor.”  [Remember readers that you are a stakeholder too! Maybe since you are paying for all of it, the biggest stakeholder of all!—ed]

Black says initially about two families — approximately 10 people — could arrive by September. For the federal fiscal year running Oct. 2016 through 2017, they’ve asked to resettle at most 75 refugees.

[….]

The full list of countries include: Cuba, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

El Salvador and Guatemala have never been refugee-sending countries, that is, until Obama magically turned the unaccompanied alien minors from Central America into refugees.  He was re-writing the Refugee Act of 1980 without Congress and Congress let him get away with it!

The mayor had concerns.  It is up to citizens of Reno to speak up NOW if you have similar concerns!

Mayor Hillary Schieve was quoted last November saying she would prefer a “pause” on the program, following the terrorist attacks in Paris, but Black says she’s since had productive meetings with Schieve and other city council members to assuage their concerns.

Recently we told you that sites are getting ready to open in Ithaca, NY, Missoula, MT, and Rutland, VT.  I’m betting there are at least 30 new sites in the works where plans are being made in secret to bring the joys of multiculturalism to your neighborhood.  The only way you or I will know if your town is next, is if it appears in a local news story like this one. And, you can bet you will not see any of this in the mainstream media or cable news!

You might want to visit ‘Ten things your town needs to know‘ by clicking here.

***The major refugee contractor for both Rutland and Reno is the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (more to come on this!).  Stay tuned!

RELATED ARTICLES:

These Palestinians are illegal alien criminals, not heroes for trekking across the world to get here

Vermont: Rutland citizens say, let’s take care of our own first!

One more Somali terror trial underway in Somali capital—Minneapolis

Democrats pressuring Maryland Governor to ‘welcome’ Syrian Muslims

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Thanks to Richard at Blue Ridge Forum you can now see who the Maryland reps are who support the placement of Syrian Muslim refugees in Maryland.  See here.  So what are the Republicans going to do to come to the governor’s defense?

Even though Governor Larry Hogan can’t (as things stand now) stop the resettlement of refugees to Maryland, a group of Maryland Democrats are pressuring him to publicly welcome them.

The letter was initiated by Jamie Raskin (D) running for Congress using this as one more campaign stunt. But, voters make note that Raskin is advocating for more Muslims to be placed in Maryland.

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Jamie Raskin (D)

And this is really stinky timing for the refugee pushers because the lead agency behind the pro-Syrian Muslim refugee lobbying campaign is none other than the International Rescue Committee that made big news yesterday because it is under investigation for fraud in Turkey where it is supposedly helping Syrian refugees.

If you are a new reader there is something you need to know when reading this story.

Governors do not have the power (yet) to stop the placement of third worlders into their states.

However, they do have the power to withdraw the state from the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program as the governors of Kansas and New Jersey did in April. Although it causes bureaucratic confusion and brings media attention (both good things!), the gesture is meaningless unless the governor then files a States’ rights lawsuit that is waiting and ready to go at the Thomas More Law Center.

Frankly I don’t see Maryland’s Republican governor with that much gumption to protect the taxpayers of the state. I hope he proves me wrong!

As I mentioned above, be sure you read yesterday’s post on the corruption investigation of the IRC which is one of the primary refugee resettlement contractors operating in Maryland.

So below is a bit of the news yesterday at the Washington Post (emphasis is mine):

Several dozen Maryland state lawmakers, including Democratic House nominee Jamie B. Raskin, have written Gov. Larry Hogan (R), urging him to endorse the settlement of Syrian refugees in the state.

Hogan joined other governors last year in saying he would oppose the entry of refugees unless the federal government could provide specific assurances that they are properly vetted and do not pose a security threat.

State Department officials have said repeatedly that all refugees — including Syrians — undergo rigorous screening before being granted refu­gee status.

IRC Maryland

Ruben Chandrasekar

But Hogan spokesman Matt Clark said Wednesday that the governor’s position has not changed. “To my knowledge, the federal government has not provided any additional information on changes . . . in the process,” Clark said.

[….]

The letter was initiated by Raskin, a state senator from Montgomery County and the Democratic nominee to succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D), and Dels. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore) and David Moon (D-Montgomery).

[….]

Ruben Chandrasekar, an official of the International Rescue Committee in Baltimore, said the agency has resettled 60 Syrian refugees in Maryland in the past two years and is prepared to place as many as 100 in the coming year.[99% of the Syrian refugees entering the US now are Muslims—ed]

“If President Obama follows through on his promise to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees, we hope to have a very busy summer,” said Chandrasekar, whose organization worked closely with the advocacy groups that spearheaded the letter from lawmakers to Hogan.

Ruben Chandrasekar runs the Maryland office of the IRC and just yesterday it was revealed that his organization was being investigated for corruption involving Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Yeh, I will bet the IRC worked closely.  They are paid by the head to resettle refugees into your towns and cities and it is in their financial best interests to keep the spigot open.

Most refugees in Maryland go to Baltimore or Silver Spring, but hundreds of others are scattered around the state. Most recently a resettlement contractor was making inquiries in Hagerstown again.

If any reader finds a copy of Raskin’s letter, send it my way! We do need to publish the names of all who signed it.

And, don’t hold your breath that the Washington Post, which is happy to pimp for Raskin, will report on the corruption scandal surrounding the IRC!  The alternative media is on the story however, here Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily digs deeper.

RELATED ARTICLES:

African migrants now launching from Egypt

Major US refugee contractor, International Rescue Committee, embroiled in corruption probe

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of President Obama on February 3, 2016 at a Baltimore mosque.

85% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats believe Middle East refugees pose a major threat to U.S.

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cost of illegal immigrants…get this! 40% of Democrats agree!

I love how this is written.  The Reuters reporter says only 40% of Dems have the same fear.  Holy cow, that is a lot of people! Consider also that 74% of plain vanilla Republicans also worry about the resettlement of Middle Eastern refugees into their towns.

I would have guessed the Dems would be a far lower percentage than 40% (so does that mean there might be inroads into the Democratic electorate for Trump?).

Reuters:

Supporters of Donald Trump, the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee, see refugees arriving from Iraq and Syria as one of the greatest threats to the United States, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

Eighty-five percent of respondents who said they supported Trump saw the refugees fleeing the Islamic State militant group as a threat, compared with 74 percent of Republicans overall, said the study.

[….]

Only 40 percent of Democrats viewed the refugees from the region as a major threat.

The Dems must be told over and over again that Hillary will continue the Obama push for more and more Syrian and Iraqi refugees to colonize America!

RELATED ARTICLES:

Islamic State recruiters arrested, worked at Moscow airport and for Russian intelligence

North Dakota State legislator signals interest in suing feds over refugee program

Hungary to hold referendum on refugees this fall

ACLU of New Jersey asks Christie to NOT withdraw from federal refugee program

American Husband and Wife Islamic State Recruiters Killed

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The couple, who were killed in a drone strike in Aleppo, was especially active recruiting Westerners from overseas and online.

An American husband and wife Islamic State team were killed in their house in Aleppo, Syria. The couple, who were identified only by their Arabic nickname names Abu Issa Al-Amriki and Umm Issa Al-Amrikiah (Father of Jesus the American and Mother of Jesus the American).

The couple was especially active recruiting Westerners from overseas and online, according to social media accounts of the Islamic State, which also stated the two “were hit in their house by the airstrikes and they both attained shahadah [martyrdom].”

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported the couple was killed by a drone strike, however, it is unknown whether the drone was operated by the U.S. or Russia.

The wife was particularly active recruiting other women through female-only social media accounts, where she tried to make joining the terror group appealing. In one post, she appeared lifting up a suicide belt, saying she hoped to use it herself to murder “infidels.”

More than 150 U.S. citizens have joined or tried to join terror groups in Syria, according to a 2015 statement by National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen.

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Sweden Fears ISIS Cell May Attack Eurovision Song Contest Final

A Shiite Extremist Plunges Iraq into Crisis

VIDEO: Hungry Canadians move over — Here come the Syrians looking for free food!

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According to CBC Canada, almost 27,000 Syrians have arrived in Canada since November and already (in 6 months) their private sponsors are falling down on the job and even government-funded refugees are scurrying to local food banks because they have no jobs and no money.

In photo op, Canada’s boy wonder, Justin Trudeau, greets Syrians at the airport. But, has he invited any home for dinner or planned how to feed them all so they aren’t running to the media with tales of woe? Photo and sickening propaganda video:

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Canada PM Justin Trudeau, greets Syrians at airport.

CBC Canada (begins by describing the plight of one hungry family dependent on food banks for indigent Canadians), then this:

“When we come here, we didn’t expect we get any kind of help, and, unfortunately, that was the ugly truth,” she said. “So, we are alone, and we struggle still.”

[….]

Demand is growing for food banks and the organizations that supply them.

From February to March, Daily Bread, which supplies its own food bank and 200 other food programs in Toronto, including the Scott Mission, saw a 20 per cent jump in the number of clients using its services.

[….]

It was the largest increase in recent memory, said head of research Richard Matern, and most of it was because of the influx of Syrian refugees.

“We are being overwhelmed at the moment,” he said.

Across the country in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, more than 700 government-sponsored refugees have used the local food bank since February. [of the 1,500 resettled there—ed]

Canada has a bifurcated system.  Some refugees are government-funded (like in the US) and some are privately sponsored. Clearly they didn’t screen the private sponsors very well!  But, as reported above, even the government-sponsored refugees are devouring the supplies at local and regional food banks.

Under federal guidelines, private sponsors are legally required to cover the cost of food, rent and other living expenses for up to a year, a minimum of roughly $27,000 for a family of four, according to government estimates.

But in Asoyan’s case, her family’s sponsor, Sarkis Shaninian, is unemployed.

He had a job when he signed up to sponsor the family but has been without work for three months.

“Money, I don’t have money to help them, no,” he said in an interview with CBC News.

[….]

At last count, 26,921 Syrian refugees had arrived in Canada since last November, and thousands more whose applications are still being processed are expected to arrive by the end of this year.

Can Canadians impeach prime ministers (just wondering)?

See our complete Canada category (177 posts), here.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Human Rights First: Obama still going (too) slowly with seeding Syrians into American towns

Big news! Kansas watching Tennessee on refugee lawsuit, but bigger still, so is Texas!

Lutheran pastor calls for boycott of Lutheran Social Services over preference for Muslim refugees

Guest post: A report from someone on the inside (information you should know!)

Kansas: Governor withdraws from federal Refugee Admissions Program…But

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Hold the applause! The real test for the Governor will be if he brings a states’ rights lawsuit against the feds, which he can do now that he has withdrawn the state from the program.

But, it simply means that the US State Department/Health and Human Services and their NGO contractors will resettle refugees there anyway as they do in 12 other so-called Wilson Fish States.  See the Tennessee lawsuit.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback listens to a reporters question during a news conference in his Statehouse office in Topeka, Kan., Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Governor Sam Brownback (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

But, will he explain why he vigorously supported the resettlement of third worlders to the country while he was a US Senator (see 2003 VDARE article), and even as recently as 2014 when he signed a letter with Grover Norquist and others to the GOP to encourage more refugee resettlement for America.

But, here is the true test for the governor—will he take the Thomas More Law Center’s offer of free legal work and file a states’ rights case against the feds once they resettle refugees in the state (expending state money in the process) against the express wishes of the governor.

Kansas citizens need to get to work — no praise for the governor (who helped get America into the fix it is in with refugees) until he takes this final step to redeem himself!  It does not require the state legislature to act as the plaintiff (TN was a special case with a refugee-supporting governor).

Don’t let him get away with saying this withdrawal is all he can do!

Governor Sam Brownback could be the plaintiff in the most important case ever to determine whether the federal government has the right to place a financial burden on state taxpayers by dropping needy third worlders into its towns and cities.

Here is the news from the Kansas City Star from yesterday (hat tip: Joanne):

Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday he is withdrawing Kansas from the federal government’s refugee relocation program because of security concerns.

Despite the state’s withdrawal, refugees will continue to be resettled in Kansas, federal officials said.

Brownback had already issued executive orders barring state agencies from assisting in the resettlement of refugees from Syria and other countries that posed a safety risk. The decision announced Tuesday removes the state from the program completely.

Feds to Brownback: we will shove it down your throats anyway (“welcoming” or not)!

But federal officials told Brownback that if the state withdrew, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement would work directly with local refugee resettlement organizations and refugees would continue to come to the state.

“If the state were to cease participating in the refugee resettlement program, it would have no effect on the placement of refugees by the State Department in Kansas, or the ORR-funded benefits they can receive,” wrote Mark Greenberg with the federal Administration for Children and Families in an April 13 letter to Brownback.

Continue reading here.

Click here for our Kansas archive where we have reported on some big problems in Kansas with refugees, esp. with overload in schools systems.  And, go here to the handy list and see who the feds have hired for the seeding of Kansas.

And one more thing…..

The U.S. State Department is taking testimony right now for the FY2017  RAP program (Obama’s last refugee importation plan) and there is no reason that state officials, including this governor, couldn’t send in testimony as well!

RELATED ARTICLES:

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“Alternative safe pathways” could bring ten times more Syrians to your towns than first proposed

Is yours about to be a refugee ‘welcoming’ community? Call the mayor of Amarillo, TX first!

Surprise! Missoula, Montana expected to get mostly Muslim refugees after all

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Abboud, center, waits with his family at the International Airport of Amman, Jordan headed to Kansas City, KS on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Christian Syrians: Pope Francis Left Us Behind in Lesbos

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You knew the minute you heard it—that the Pope choosing 12 Muslims to take to Rome with him on his plane—was one of the more troublesome actions (of a long list) of this Socialist Pope.  See our post on the Pope’s Syrian Muslim refugees by clicking here.

Christian Syrian

Christian Syrian refugee woman Pope Francis left behind on Lesbos. Photo: Daily Mail

Now from the Daily Mail yesterday.  It answers our primary question—weren’t there any Christians and other religious minorities to choose from?

And, this bureaucratic (red tape!) excuse for passing up this brother and sister is ridiculous.

A Christian brother and sister from Syria say they have been ‘let down’ by the Pope after he left them behind in a Lesbos refugee camp despite promises they would be given a new life in Italy.

Roula and Malek Abo say they were two of the lucky ‘chosen 12’ refugees selected by the Vatican to be taken from the desperate camp and housed in Rome.

But what seemed like the chance of a lifetime was cruelly snatched away when they were told the following day they couldn’t go. Instead three Muslim families were taken.

Neither Community Sant’Egidio, the charity which organised the trip, or the Vatican would explain the selection process over which migrants were picked.

Spokesman Massimiliano Signifredi called the incident ‘regrettable’ – adding: ‘The problem here is the three Syrians arrived after the March 20 deadline. They arrived just after the agreement between the European Union and Turkey.

Mr Signifredi said: ‘Our staff went to Lesbos and spoke with the people who were selected. But everything was decided by the Vatican.

‘The question why the Pope took only Muslims is difficult to understand and he was suffering, I think, because he wanted to do something also for Christians as the chief of the Catholic Church. But he couldn’t because there is this international agreement [with the EU].’

There is much more here.

See our ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.

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Comment worth noting: ‘7delta’ answers Hetfield of HIAS, Inc.

Are you within a 100-mile radius of a resettlement site? If so, you are in the (ever-expanding) target range

‘Report card’ on Syria, Iraq and the Islamic State

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Rescue of victim of Assad regime bombing, Aleppo, Syria, April 11, 2016

Rescue of victim of Assad regime bombing, Aleppo, Syria, April 11, 2016. Source: yahoo.com.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria spoke at the Pensacola Tiger Bay Club Friday, April 15, 2016. The author and Florida State Rep. Mike Hill, a good friend of Israel, were among the attentive audience while he gave his ‘report card’ on the sectarian impasse in the civil war in Syria with an estimated 300,000 deaths and the failed reconciliation in Iraq among majority Shia, minority Sunni and Kurds. A Pensacola News Journal report of his Syria-Iraq ‘report card’ covered the major points of his presentation, “9 Things to know about Syria and Iraq.”

Not included in this PNJ report were his responses to questions that we posed on whether he supported the alleged covert CIA plan to overthrow Assad in 2012 as depicted in the new book, Left Boom by ex CIA operative Doug Laux. See our Iconoclast April 5, 2016 post on this issue. The other question from an audience member was directed at whether the Obama failure to implement the 2012 red line over alleged chemical weapons release that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta was a lost opportunity.

As regards the question about the covert plan to overthrow Assad, Ford demurred answering that directly. However, it was evident in his response that the US had lost credibility by not undertaking pinpoint operations as push back against the Assad regime. A regime who he suggested helped to foster the rise of the Islamic State by attacks on major Sunni centers in Syria and release of fundamentalists. He did allow that the al Maliki regime torpedoed the Sunni Awakening, at the core of the Surge Plan by not continuing payments to Sunni workers and targeting leaders of the Sunni Awakening with reprisals. That he suggested drove them into the ranks of the Islamic State. Meanwhile Shia Militias fomented sectarian razzias against Sunni centers under current Iraqi PM Haidar al- Abadi. The sectarian impasse was graphically portrayed in pictures this week of fights inside the Baghdad parliament among the Shia, Kurdish and Sunni members. The drop in world oil prices hasn’t helped the situation.

LiveLeak-dot-com-a80_1460114240-3_1460114328

Liveleak.com screen grab of Kurdish PYD-YPG victim of Jaysh al-Islam chemical attack on April 7, 2016 in Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo, Syria.

On the matter of Obama’s failure to follow through with his 2012 red line threat against Assad he noted that Obama was not concerned about the complete removal of prohibited chemical weapons indicating less concern about chlorine and more about Sarin gas. The irony of the President’s response is reflected in confirmation from multiple sources of the use of Chlorine gas mortars by the Jaysh al-Islam militia in the April 7, 2016 attacks against Kurdish PYD-YPG forces in the Kurdish enclave of Sheik Maqsud district of Aleppo province. Ambassador Ford tends to rely on reports from both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch attesting to Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces pushing tens of thousands of Sunnis fleeing not to the North but South into the Islamic State.

Watch this LiveLeak report on the Jaysh al-Islam chemical mortar attack on the Kurdish enclave of Sheikh Maqsud district in Aleppo Province.

A Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report indicated that Jaysh al-Islam has claimed responsibility for the use of alleged Chlorine gas and investigating the field commander’s use of “unauthorized weapons.” We note that Jaysh, a Salafist rebel force backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, is a terrorist organization designated by Russia, Iran and Egypt had a representative at Friday’s Syrian peace talks, while the PYD-YPG was barred from attending.

His former Iraqi period colleague, Bret McGurk, Obama’s special envoy on the war against ISIS would probably disagree as he has made common cause with the PYD-YPG as the only effective boots on the ground in Syria fighting the Islamic State.

He also expressed the view that Israel’s government is speaking increasingly of the necessity of removing Assad via some political deal.

With fighting raging in Syria’s north between rebel forces, the regime, and ISIS forces, Syrian refugees caught on the frontier with Turkey are being prevented from sanctuary there.

On the matter of Syrian refugees, Ambassador Ford was not able to respond to that publicly, although we understand that he views US admissions of Syrian Refugees as a humanitarian gesture with those brought in, largely women and children.

Here were the key points in Ambassador Ford’s Syria-Iraq report card:”And it has a way of looking at things which is very frightening,” he said.

  1. ISIS started as al-Qaida in Iraq. Eventually, its leader cut off ties to the main al-Qaida organization and declared a caliphate in spring 2014.
  2. ISIS has a literalist interpretation of early Islamic jurisprudence dating back to the 7th Century, along with a large bureaucracy. Ford showed photos of tax receipts, as Christians must pay a tax if they choose to continue to follow Christianity.
  3. ISIS controls oil wells that fund its activities. Before some were recaptured, the group was estimated to earn up to $70 million per month on the black market. The loss of those assets has caused it to cut in half the salary it pays its soldiers.
  4. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, is a group of Syrian Kurds the U.S. has supported to fight ISIS. The PYD, however, is allied with Turkish Kurds who commit acts of terrorism in Turkey. “The Turks are saying, ‘Why are you helping one group of terrorists against another group of terrorists?'” Ford said.
  5. When the Kurds have taken back land from ISIS, Ford said, they have committed war crimes against Syrian Arabs in the area. ISIS is then able to recruit displaced people who flee.
  6. There is a vacuum left after the conquest of an ISIS-controlled area and there has not been a good nonmilitary follow-up. “If we don’t have people to take this over and make sure the electricity is running, get the hospitals going and make sure the schools are running,” Ford said. “If there is a vacuum, you know the extremists will fill it.”
  7. The Syrian military will lay siege to cities to starve out the population, cut off water, electricity and medical supplies and personnel. As a result of one such siege, a famous Syrian goalie joined ISIS. Ford said this would be the equivalent of a major league baseball star joining a terrorist organization. “What I want you to understand is, the Syrian Civil War is driving people, even prominent people, into the Islamic State,” he said.
  8. Shia militias in Iraq who fight ISIS will go door-to-door, pull people out of their homes and shoot them. In the city of Diyala, ISIS detonated three car bombs in January. Militias responded by killing between 50 and 100 people and bombing seven Sunni mosques.
    Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime would facilitate the flow of jihadists across Syria to attack U.S. troops fighting al-Qaida in Iraq. “The people who want us to support Assad don’t understand what kind of a snake he is,” Ford said.
  9. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime would facilitate the flow of jihadists across Syria to attack U.S. troops fighting al-Qaida in Iraq. “The people who want us to support Assad don’t understand what kind of a snake he is,” Ford said.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

PODCAST Herman Cain Show: Discussing the U.S. response to the Islamic State

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Earlier today I was on Herman Cain’s radio show, discussing the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), and the Obama administration’s willful ignorance regarding the jihad threat.

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Hillary vs. Jihad: A Nightmare Scenario

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Over at PJ Media today I discuss how the potential Commander-in-Chief is dangerously divorced from reality.

It’s a nightmare that could all too easily come true: the Republican Party denies Donald Trump the nomination, he bolts, and Hillary Clinton, unindicted by a sympathetic Obama Justice Department, becomes president. If she does, it is virtually certain that the Obama administration’s lackadaisical and fantasy-based response to the jihad threat would continue.

Hillary made that clear Tuesday morning in her response to the latest jihad terror attacks in Brussels, in which at least 28 people were killed.

The mass murders were “deeply distressing,” she said, but the “dream of a whole, free Europe … should not be walked away from,” and “we’ve got to work this through consistent with our values.” Her implication was clear: any response to what is rapidly becoming a state of war in Europe must not reject the multiculturalist fantasies that created the state of war in the first place. The Muslim migrants, including any number of jihadis, must continue to stream into Europe, for to stop them would end the “dream of a whole, free Europe” and not be “consistent with our values.”

Her lockstep establishment response was no surprise. In November 2015, Hillary tweeted: “Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.” Did even she believe these words as she wrote them? She may indeed subscribe to the mainstream Leftist view that Muslims have nothing to do with terrorism, and that any Muslim who does get involved with terrorism ceases at that very moment to be a Muslim. But she has never bothered to explain how she proposes to deal with those troublesome people who identify themselves as Muslims and not only commit acts of terrorism, but justify those actions and find recruits among peaceful Muslims by pointing to Islamic teachings.

Hillary Clinton — and everyone else in the world — clearly knows that all too many Muslims do in fact have something to do with terrorism. And the fact that many millions do not tells us exactly nothing about the content of Islamic teaching, and whether or not the Qur’an and Sunnah contain material that makes many Muslims think that Islam is indeed our adversary. President Hillary Clinton will have no chance of defeating the Islamic terror threat when she is this divorced from reality.

She has been adhering to and enforcing this denial for years. In October 2009 when she was secretary of State, the Obama administration joined Egypt in supporting a resolution in the UN’s Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to the freedom of speech for “any negative racial and religious stereotyping.” Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council, the resolution called on states to condemn and criminalize “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”

The effect of this criminalization would be to forbid all criticism of Islam, including analyses of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. The jihad would then proceed unopposed, as to stand against it would be “incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence.”

“Incitement” and “hatred” are in the eye of the beholder — or more precisely, in the eye of those who make such determinations. The powerful can decide to silence the powerless by classifying their views as “hate speech.” The Founding Fathers knew that the freedom of speech was an essential safeguard against tyranny: the ability to dissent, freely and publicly and without fear of imprisonment or other reprisal, is a cornerstone of any genuine republic. If some ideas cannot be heard and are proscribed from above, the ones in control are tyrants, however benevolent they may be.

But with this resolution, no less distinguished a person than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave her imprimatur to this tyranny.

She affirmed the Obama administration’s support for it on July 15, 2011, when she gave an address on the freedom of speech at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference on Combating Religious Intolerance. “Together, she said, “we have begun to overcome the false divide that pits religious sensitivities against freedom of expression and we are pursuing a new approach. These are fundamental freedoms that belong to all people in all places and they are certainly essential to democracy.”

But how could both religious sensitivities and freedom of expression be protected?

Clinton had a First Amendment to deal with, and so in place of legal restrictions on criminalization of Islam, she suggested “old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.” She held a lengthy closed-door meeting with OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in December 2011 to facilitate the adoption of measures that would advance the OIC’s anti-free speech campaign. But what agreements she and Ihsanoglu made, if any, have never been disclosed. Still, the specter of an American secretary of State conferring with a foreign official about how to restrict the freedom of speech in order to stifle communications deemed offensive to Muslims was, at the very least, chilling.

If Clinton is, against all likelihood, indicted or otherwise falters, Bernie Sanders is unlikely to stand any more strongly than she would for the freedom of speech and against the global jihad. Last October, Muslim student Remaz Abdelgader referred to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s statements about not wanting a Muslim president, saying to Sanders: “Being an American is such a strong part of my identity, but I want to create a change in this society. I’m so tired of listening to this rhetoric saying I can’t be president one day, that I should not be in office. It makes me so angry and upset. This is my country.” Sanders’ response? “If we stand for anything we have to stand together and end all forms of racism in this country. I will lead that effort as president.”…

Read the rest here.

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American-Mideast Coalition for Trump calls on voters to support the ‘freedom candidate’

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WASHINGTON, D.C. /PRNewswire/ — The Co-Chairs of American-Mideast Coalition for Trump (AMCT) Tom Harb and John Hajjar issued the following statement in support of Donald Trump for President:

We, representatives of Middle East-American groups in the United States, from various ancestries, ethnicities and religions, announce the launching of the “American-Mideast Coalition for Trump” in support of the U.S. Presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump.

As representatives of United States citizens from Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi, Arab, Assyrian, Syriac, Yazidi, Sudanese, Berber, Iranian, and other communities from the Greater Middle East, we see Mr. Trump as our favorite candidate in the primaries because of the following reasons:

  1. His opposition to the destructive Iran Deal signed by the Obama administration with the Ayatollah regime in Tehran;
  2. His firm opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist influence in the United States;
  3. His determination to destroy ISIS and push back against all terror groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and all other Jihadi terror groups;
  4. His willingness to take action in defense of the persecuted Christians and Yazidis in the Middle East;
  5. His determination to help in the creation of free zones inside Syria and Iraq to resettle the refugees;
  6. His support for the formation of an Arab coalition against terrorists;
  7. His vision to help the Middle East become stable and prosper.

Based on these seven principles, we extend our support to Donald J. Trump to become the Republican nominee and later be elected as the President of the United States.

We call on all our friends who are members of the Republican Party and all citizens who can vote in the Republican primaries to select Donald J. Trump as their choice. It is important to give Mr. Trump a clear, early and decisive victory in the primaries so that he becomes a strong nominee able to begin engaging in the national election and then be elected as President on November 4, 2016.

We are calling on millions of Americans from Mideast background to join us in supporting Mr. Trump.

Defending Free Speech in an Islamic Europe

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“Keep the Faith. Don’t be intimidated. You might as well be killed standing than crawling on your knees.” – Lars Hedegaard

LISTEN to this interview with Lars Hedegaard Founder of the Danish and International Free Press Societies that aired on the Lisa Benson show, Sunday, March 13, 2016:

Hedegaard discusses his struggle and survival fighting a Palestinian émigré shooter disguised as a Danish postman in an attempted assassination in February 2013 by who fled Denmark. Today he lives under 24/7 protection of the Danish security police in what he calls “a near Fort Knox-like complex.” He addresses Denmark’s inundation in the current massive wave of Muslim immigration, desperate assertion of border control and repression of free speech concerning the Islamization of Europe.  See our original interview with Hedegaard published in the New English Review Press collection, The West Speaks. 

Hedegaard was forthright, honest about his experience in the face of the attempt on his life in February 2013 by a Palestinian émigré, a well educated engineer who had become radicalized.  The perpetrator, “BH”, as Lars discussed on the program fled Denmark only to be arrested in Turkey in April 2014, later traded to release Turkish diplomats in Mosul, Iraq in October, despite Danish extradition requests. “BH” could have ended up in Syria with the Islamic State, as did a colleague who Hedegaard said had been killed by the Americans recently. Almost Kafkaesque  was Hedegaard’s discussions of the fines levied recently on him and others in the Danish Free Press Society publishing group, other Danish  media and Pegida.dk for revealing “BH’s” true identity.

His discussion of the political and social environment in neighboring Sweden, that we heard from Kent Ekeroth, Sweden Democrat and Riksdag parliament deputy in our interviews with him, is appalling. Hedegaard spoke of Geert Wilders being denied speaking in Sweden by hordes of protesters, persecuted Jews of Malmo fleeing Sweden for safety and the rapine misogyny of Muslim migrant males inflicted on unwary Swedish girls and women.  In Sweden, today, “it is nearly impossible to hold an open meeting.”

Hedegaard gave to truth to power about the ineptness of the current center right ruling coalition government in Denmark.  He suggests that the public outrage in his country presages a move to the right politically in the hopes that might stanch Islamic immigration and bolstering free speech from intimidation by the EU and sharia Islamic blasphemy.

While Denmark’s Jews may not be as threatened as our Sweden’s; nevertheless, Hedegaard cited the recent occurrence of a 16 year girl Islamic convert from Kundby, Denmark and her 24 year old boyfriend, an ISIS returning fighter ‘mentor’, caught attempting to bomb a Jewish Day school in Copenhagen. More of that, as Hedegaard opined, might spur sending Denmark’s 6,400 Jews to Israel, Canada or the US which as he pointed the Jewish community made many contributions to the Scandinavian country.

Hedegaard readily admitted that he is not a man of the right by virtue of his former Marxist political background that he now rejects. Nevertheless, he believes that background has enabled him to analyze the dangers of Islamization to his country, Europe and the West.  His response to a final question about what message he wanted to send to the Lisa Benson Show program listeners, “Keep the Faith. Don’t be intimidated. You might as well be killed standing than crawling on your knees.”  Brought a rejoinder from host Benson about a General saying, “keep up the fire.” That reminded this writer of how Danish editorial cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, responded to a similar question in a 2009 interview , “free speech, use it!!”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.