Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

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Trying to survive the smear of false terrorism charges

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 6, 2012

Last summer three Eritrean refugees were arrested after they tried to board an airplane, at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport going to Des Moines, with a carry-on bag that contained a broken cellphone taped to a tin of helva (a sesame-paste-based food flavored with vanilla). The charges? Having a “hoax device” and “conspiracy” to obtain a hoax device. The three tried to explain that they were just trying to take candy and the old phone to friends. Authorities claimed, however – via questionable reasoning – that the three were attempting to do a trial run to see if they could get a “real bomb” through security, since this was assuredly not a real bomb (helva is not explosive, nor were there any fake wires or a fake detonation device attached). The authorities also deemed suspicious the three traveling in the month of August, being so close to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you see – and besides, everyone knows that cell phones are used to detonate bombs. Surely the refugees must have carried aboard a broken cell phone during this “dry run” to fool authorities into thinking that it could not be used to trigger a detonator. But what about that tin of helva, that was suspicious wasn’t it? Well, helva it turns out is an Eritrean ethnic food. Maybe they were trying to trick authorities into thinking the helva was not suspicious since Eritreans are known to eat helva. Plus, some might say it would be nitpicking to point out that federal agents, in first contacts with the Eritrean refugees, used an interpreter that did not speak their Kunama language, thus leading to faulty linguistic interpretations.

Now the three are trying to overcome the false “terrorist” label affixed to them in public opinion. This smear is now an obstacle to employment, nine months later, and months after all charges were suddenly dropped. An article in The Arizona Republic looks at the aftermath of the false charges:

Civil war drove Shullu Gorado from his home in Eritrea, a small country on the Horn of Africa, and landed him — like most Kunama — in a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was no kinder to the refugees than their war-torn homeland, but the United States welcomed the Kunama people, promising safety and the opportunity for a new life to the former farmers and shepherds. In four years,Gorado rose steadily through the ranks at a local supermarket, stashing away savings and taking general-education and English-language classes as he worked toward a new future in a new country.

But after being arrested on suspicion of plotting to sneak a hoax explosive device through airport security, serving two months in a federal detention facility, then having the charges against him dropped in December, Gorado and Asa Shani are branded as terrorists in the eyes of many. Among those viewing them with suspicion, they say, are prospective employers who need only perform a perfunctory Internet search to find coverage of their arrests… Read more here

Posted in Eritrean, FBI, Phoenix, police, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Under current US immigration law even anti-Nazi resistance fighters would have been labeled as “terrorists”

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 25, 2012

Memorial plaque to resistance members and wreath at the Bendlerblock, Berlin

Under Section 212(a)(3)(b) of current federal immigration law even the partisans who supported those who fought Nazis in Germany would have been designated as members of Tier III terrorist groups. How could that be? Well, according to an article in City Pages, “under the law, any group of ‘two or more individuals, whether organized or not, which engages in’ terrorist activity can be labeled a Tier III terrorist group, with ‘terrorist activity’ defined as any use of violence for purposes other than personal enrichment”. Not only that, but there is no publicly available list of Tier III terrorist groups. The article explains that groups are labeled Tier III on a case-by-case basis:

…Under Section 212(a)(3)(b) of federal immigration law, immigrants involved with terrorist groups are not admissable to the United States. But in the wake of 9/11, lawmakers broadly expanded the definition of “terrorist.” That transformed thousands of refugees and asylees already granted protection by the federal government into newly minted “terrorists,” delaying thousands of immigrants’ cases for months and years…

The USA PATRIOT Act created new definitions of “terrorist organizations” and providing “material support” to terrorism. It created two categories of terrorist organizations, labeled Tier I and Tier II. Maintained by the State Department, the list includes organizations like Al-Qaeda, Peru’s Shining Path, Colombia’s FARC, Al-Shabaab, and many others.

But the PATRIOT Act also created a third tier: “undesignated” terrorist organizations. Under the law, any group of “two or more individuals, whether organized or not, which engages in” terrorist activity can be labeled a Tier III terrorist group, with “terrorist activity” defined as any use of violence for purposes other than personal enrichment.

A 2005 bill, the REAL ID Act, broadened the PATRIOT Act’s definition of a “Tier III terrorist organization” to include any organization with a subgroup that engages in “terrorist activity.”

Unlike Tier I and Tier II organizations, there is no publicly available list of Tier III terrorist groups. Groups are labeled Tier III on a case-by-case basis, which is a problem for advocates.

“It’s so broadly written and written with such ambiguous language that it essentially allows the government at any time to assert that a group is a terrorist organization based on some very limited connection to violent activity,” says Ashley Huebner, a supervising attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “And that’s where the majority of people are getting caught up.”…

…Critics of the terrorism bar contend that it transforms vulnerable asylees and refugees into terrorists and puts genuine heroes’ applications on hold. Under the current statute, even the partisans who supported those who fought Nazis in Germany would have been flagged… Read more here

Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, security/terrorism, State Department | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Overall decrease in number of refugee arrivals to the U.S.

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 23, 2012

An article in the Salt Lake Tribune refers to the overall reduction in refugees being resettled to the US. Although the government set a goal of resettling 80,000 refugees for fiscal year 2011, only 56,424 refugees resettled. The goal again was 80,000 refugees for fiscal year 2012 but as of the end of March, halfway through that fiscal year, the federal government has resettled only 21,836 refugees. The slowdown is apparently due to the backlog in the security clearances done for each refugee by the Department of Homeland Security .

…The number of refugees coming to America has sharply declined in the past two years, as security measures have increased for newcomers coming from some of the most turbulent parts of the world.

“As credible threat information emerged, we had to enhance our screening process for the refugee program in order to make sure we were keeping our country safe,” said Deborah Sisbarro, public affairs adviser for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, which is part of the U.S. State Department.

The decrease in arrivals — nearly 17,000 fewer refugees in 2011 than in 2010 — follows the high-profile arrest of two Iraqi refugees in 2011 on terrorism charges after they were resettled in Kentucky…

In 2011, 56,424 refugees arrived in the U.S., compared with 73,311 the year before.

Halfway into this federal fiscal year, the U.S. has welcomed 21,836 refugees, though federal officials continue to assure resettlement workers that numbers will climb.

Utah welcomed 836 refugees in 2011 versus 1,100 in 2010…

The decline has forced the IRC, one of a handful of resettlement agencies in Utah, to shrink its staff. Each refugee comes with about $700 from the federal government… Read more here

My first suspicion is that this large reduction of incoming refugees mainly includes Iraqi refugees, due to the security clearance backlog. Looking at the numbers at the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center website, however, it turns out that reductions are from each area of the world, although with refugees from Africa and the Near East losing the largest share. Only 26,000 refugees from the Near East/South Asia arrived in FY2011, compared to the 35,000 that the US federal government approved for resettlement. In addition, only 6000 refugees from Africa were let in compared to the 15,000 approved (whether this reduction is from across Africa or concentrated in one area, e.g. Somalia, I don’t know). Nevertheless, the security clearances backlog is affecting refugee rivals from all regions, including the 3000 unallocated lots — none of which were used in FY2011. (Also, a complicating factor related to the security clearances is that many Iraqis and Somalis have similar names, which can present a problem if US authorities consider someone else by the same name as a security threat).

Note: Regarding the $700 figure given for the federal government’s contribution per refugee – local refugee resettlement agencies get $700 per capita from the State Department for their overhead costs. As to what the State Department actually gives, that would be $1800 per capita just for initial refugee resettlement needs (refugees’ first 90 days). The federal government supplies other contributions via the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Posted in ceiling limit, refugee annual, Dept of Homeland Security, R&P, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Our bloated security bureaucracy – do overlapping layers, redundancies prevent us from helping our friends around the world?

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 22, 2012

Is the reason that we’re not meeting our moral obligation to resettle Iraqis who risked their lives to help us that our security bureaucracy has so many overlapping layers and redundancies that it’s almost impossible to navigate the system? In the post-9/11 era, under the Department of Homeland Security, one government agency doesn’t necessarily recognize another’s security checks. One refugee security check will often expire before the next is completed. Trudy Rubin, an Opinion Columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, gives her take on what is going on:

…Consider this: In 2008, Congress mandated 25,000 special immigrant visas (known as SIVs) for Iraqis who helped us over a period of five years; fewer than 4,500 have been issued. According to State Department figures, 719 were granted in fiscal 2011 and 569 during the first six months of fiscal 2012…

…Many Iraqis who helped Americans have chosen to apply for U.S. visas through another…refugee program. As of last July, there were 39,000 Iraqis on that waiting list. In the first six months of fiscal 2012, only 2,500 were admitted.

And most applicants have been waiting one to three years.

So what’s gone wrong? Why can’t we meet our moral obligation to Iraqis who risked their lives to help us?

My answer: We have a security bureaucracy that’s gone bonkers. In the post-9/11 era, under the Department of Homeland Security, we’ve set up so many overlapping layers and redundancies that it’s almost impossible to navigate the system. “One agency doesn’t necessarily recognize another’s security checks,” says Carey. “Often one check will expire before the next is completed.”

Take the case of A.M., who worked for the U.S. Army from 2009-11. He’s been waiting more than a year for his security clearance. Because of the wait, his U.S. Embassy-required medical exam “expired” and he had to take it again, paying another $400. Meanwhile, he is living in hiding, under death threat, afraid even to visit his wife and year-old daughter…

Or take A.L., who has been waiting for more than three years, took his medical exam three times, and fingerprints twice. The embassy gave him a date of a year ago, on which he was supposed to travel, but on that day he was told more security checks were needed. He had sold his business and his car, and is running out of money.

“We are threatened with death every moment,” he wrote me. “Is this what we deserve because we worked with U.S. forces. Please. Please. Help us.”

That will require the White House to tame the Kafkaesque Homeland Security bureaucracy, something that still hasn’t happened and probably needs presidential intervention. In the meantime, thousands of Iraqis suffer in limbo and America’s credibility takes a further beating.

“If we don’t [move on this], it will have a chilling effect on the willingness of people around the world to work with our missions,” Blinken admitted… Read more here

Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Iraqi, IRC, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

All charges dropped against 3 Eritrean refugees accused of carrying food paste and cell phone

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 30, 2012

All charges have been dropped against three Eritrean refugees who were accused of putting two mundane items — a cell phone taped to container of a paste-like food similar to tahini (reported elsewhere as halva) — through security at Phoenix’s airport last August. The items were apparently a gift from one refugee to another. In a case of apparent racial and ethnic profiling paired with trumped-up assumptions, sketchy logic, and a language barrier, authorities accused the three of deliberately transporting the food and cell phone to make it appear as an explosive device — albeit, strangely, without any wires, detonation-like device or any other suspicious component. An Assistant U.S. Attorney said that further prosecution would not be “in the interest of justice” — apparently a nice way of saying they put these people through hell based on false charges. And no, no compensation will be offered. The AP has the story:

All charges have been dropped against three African refugees who were accused of putting a fake bomb through security at Phoenix’s airport in a possible “dry run” for a terror attack.

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dropped the charges against Luwiza Daman, Asa Shani and Shullu Gorado on March 13 at the request of a federal prosecutor who cited new information in the case, according to court documents obtained Thursday.

“Based on the new information, further prosecution is not in the interest of justice,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Koehler in his motion to dismiss the charges…

…Daman’s attorney, Philip Seplow, told the AP that he thinks the government simply realized the refugees were not guilty and the whole thing was a big misunderstanding, partially because of a significant language barrier.

Daman, Shani and Gorado are from war-torn Eritrea on the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa and spent years in refugee camps before getting asylum in the U.S. Gorado speaks some English, while Daman and Shani speak only their native language, a dialect known as Kunama.

“I had a pretty sympathetic and for most part factually innocent client,” Seplow said…

…Daman, Shani and Gorado had been charged with a felony count of causing what appeared to be an explosive device to go through a security checkpoint at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport on Aug. 5.

Authorities had said that Daman had a suspicious item in her bag as she went through airport security intending to board a plane to Des Moines, Iowa. They said Shani had taped the items together and gave the package to Gorado, who gave it to Daman to take on the flight.

The package turned out to be a container of a paste-like food similar to tahini, with a cell phone taped to it. But authorities say it looked just like an improvised explosive device when it went through an X-ray machine, and pointed out that cell phones can be used to trigger bombs… Read more here

Posted in Des Moines, Eritrean, Phoenix, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FBI ‘community outreach’ to foster trust and generate goodwill?

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 29, 2012

Documents uncovered by The Associated Press revealed that the New York Police Department conducted an extensive surveillance campaign of the Muslim population in the northeast. Now it turns out that the FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program announced as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California. The claimed intention of the FBI outreach programs was to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they could work together to fight crime and avert terrorism. We learn now, however, that the FBI was operating the community outreach in Northern California as part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program, and conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing. The legacy of this deception will, no doubt, be to undermine trust for genuine outreach programs. An article at Msnbc.com has the story:

The FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program billed as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California and then shared the intelligence with other government agencies, according to FBI documents obtained by civil rights groups.

The heavily redacted documents, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, raise “grave constitutional concerns,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In San Francisco, we have found that community outreach was being run out of the FBI’s intelligence division and was part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program,” conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing,” said Shamsi. “The bureau’s documentation of religious leaders’ and congregants’ beliefs and practices violates the Privacy Act, which Congress passed to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.”…

…The documents indicate that FBI was keeping records of conversations and activities within mosques and other Muslim organizations from 2004 through 2008, information that was provided by employees engaged in the outreach programs.

The announced intention of the FBI outreach programs is to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they can work together to fight crime and avert terrorism…

…documents still under analysis by the ACLU indicate FBI San Francisco continued to mingle outreach and intelligence gathering through 2011, according to Shimsa.

The documents undermine trust for genuine outreach programs, said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that makes policy recommendations to lawmakers and leaders.

“I think the recent documents further underscore how well-intentioned community leaders who talk with the FBI are instead the targets of this broad, intelligence-gathering effort,” she said. “It’s easy to see then how that community leader who had a conversation with an FBI agent finds himself being harassed when traveling or crossing borders.”

“These documents are illustrating the actual experiences of American Muslims that we have been hearing for a number of years now,” she added…

…Rules governing FBI surveillance were relaxed in 2008 to give more leeway to FBI “assessments” — a stage of surveillance that takes place before the opening of a formal investigation. These more lenient standards, critics say, allow information gathering on individuals without probable cause.

Rights groups are asking the Department of Justice to restore stricter rules on surveillance and to prohibit racial and religious profiling in all cases.

“What we need is for the FBI to go back to the standards set after the Hoover-era abuses.… guidelines put in place that required the FBI to engage in surveillance only if there’s evidence of wrongdoing,” said Khera of Muslim Advocates. Read more here

Posted in California, FBI, Islamic, NYC, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Stoppage In Security Clearances For Iraqi Refugees & SIVs Caused By New Homeland Security Software

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 23, 2012

It turns out that the year-long near stoppage in security clearances for Special Immigrant Visa applicants  (now beginning to wane) and Iraqi refugees was due in part to a software snafu at the US Department of Homeland Security. The other part of the problem that we knew about was the huge backlog of security clearance reviews caused when new requirements mandated older security clearances being redone, including those for the 58,000 Iraqi refugees already in the US. A newspaper column in the Greensboro News-Record by the founding director of the Center for New North Carolinians mentions the software issue:

“Freedom.” “Security.” “Education.”

The first three volunteers wrote on the board. Our interpreter explained that they were listing the advantages of living in America. The list grew.

Then they listed the disadvantages. “Separated from family members,” “loss of culture,” “learning the language,” “loss of job skills certifications.” Then these Iraqi refugees who fled to Jordan discussed their answers.

The lesson was taught by a teacher working for the International Organization for Migration. IOM contracts with the U.S. State Department to provide cultural orientation for Iraqi refugees accepted for resettlement in America. The objective was to develop realistic expectations about America and develop analytical and networking skills in decision-making. The class was conducted in Arabic because the U.S. no longer pays for English language training.

I was leading a dozen U.S. refugee professionals and researchers from half a dozen states for the Association of Refugee Service Professionals. We were studying refugee issues. My daughter, who works with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, had arranged meetings for us. The refugees were stuck. Though approved for resettlement, they can’t get security clearances because new software designed for the Department of Homeland Security has problems… Read more here

Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Greensboro, IOM, Iraqi, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NYPD Apparently Targeting Buffalo-Area Citizens and Refugee Population Based On Ethnicity and Religion, Not Criminal Activity

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 18, 2012

It seems that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has focused on Buffalo-area Muslims and Somalis (including people and citizens resettled as refugees), not based upon on known criminal activity, but instead based upon these people’s ethnicity and religion. Although the NYPD, unlike the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department need not predicate domestic surveillance on information that their target is engaged or about to engage in criminal activity, the NYPD did not fully consult with local police and other federal security agencies about its activities in Buffalo. There is no sign that the Strategic Intelligence Unit announced its activities to the Buffalo area’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cooperative effort that includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. There is also the concern that actions by the NYPD could be jeopardizing the good relationship that local law enforcement authorities have with the local Somali and Muslim populations, including US citizens. An article at the Buffalo News explains:

The New York City Police Department’s focus on Buffalo-area Muslims continues to this day. Further, an internal document indicates the surveillance began even before NYPD detectives met with the Erie County undersheriff in December 2008 to describe their “Somalia Project.”…

…At the same time, there is no sign that the Strategic Intelligence Unit announced its activities to the Buffalo area’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cooperative effort that includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The Associated Press in recent months revealed the NYPD’s covert efforts to examine Muslim businesses, infiltrate mosques and keep an eye on Muslim students on college campuses, not just in New York City but in locations around the Northeast. The Muslim Student Association website at the University of Buffalo was among those monitored, a separate NYPD document shows.

The NYPD calls its surveillance and intelligence-gathering legal and necessary and does not apologize for the program. The department after 9/11 determined it “could not rely solely on the federal government” for its defense. Says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly: “Our primary mission, our primary goal, is to keep this city safe.”

Yet ethnicity and religion, not criminal activity, seem to have sparked the NYPD’s interest around the Northeast, including Buffalo…

…Unlike the NYPD, the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department must predicate domestic surveillance on information that their target is engaged or about to engage in criminal activity.

“I can tell you that we don’t predicate any investigation based on somebody’s race, or color, or national origin, or on the exercise of their First Amendment rights,” said William J. Hochul, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York. “In terms of the bigger picture, why was the NYPD doing what it was? I don’t have all the details.”…

…If the NYPD did not provide a heads-up on its activities to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, it should have, said a former agent-in-charge here for the FBI.

“If I had still been up there that would have bothered me a lot,” said Peter J. Ahearn, who headed the FBI office in Buffalo from 2001 to 2006 and now works as a consultant helping businesses deal with government. “With the reputation the NYPD does have, and I know this factually, they will do different things in cities around the country and not even let law enforcement know they are there.

“There are reasons to be concerned,” he said. “If you are not talking to law enforcement, and the local police department rolls up on you, it creates an officer-safety issue. Also it can prove detrimental to the efforts that the local law enforcement community is making in the Muslim community. We had some very good community outreach up there.”

Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, agrees.

“This is all related to the security of the homeland, I don’t have any doubt about that,” he said of the NYPD’s foray into Buffalo. “The only question in my mind is, when we are working very cooperatively, and in a very proactive fashion for the security of the homeland, whether these types of actions are counterproductive.

“And I guess the issue always will be, where do we stop so we don’t compromise the civil rights and civil liberties of innocent Americans?”…

…Yahye Y. Omar, chairman of the Imams Council of Western New York, also is active on the West Side, especially as executive director of HEAL — Help Everyone Achieve Livelihood — a nonprofit that helps immigrants and refugees.

He is engaged in a long-standing effort to make the Islamic way of life less mysterious to outsiders, and to encourage Somali youth to consider how they can enrich their community.

In 2010, he helped establish a law enforcement education program for Somali high school and college students. It brought in representatives from the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and the State Police to speak about the role of law enforcement, and careers. On a wall of his office, Omar has proudly placed a photo of a local Somali now with the Baltimore Police Department…

…Omar expressed [his] sentiments about the NYPD surveillance…why does the New York police force need contacts in the Somali and Muslim community here after its members have cooperated so much with local authorities?… Read more here

Posted in Buffalo, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept. of Justice, FBI, Islamic, NYC, security/terrorism, Somali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Uzbek Refugee From Denver Will Probably Get Soviet-Style US Trial

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 16, 2012

Joshua Foust, a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net, writes that Jamshid Muhtorov, the Uzbek refugee from Denver who prosecutors accuse of aiding a terrorist organization, will probably not get a fair trial. Foust notes the prosecution won’t let Muhtorov’s defense know or discuss how the prosecution claims to know that Muhtorov “knew” he was going to go help an organization fight US forces. Prosecutors are holding Muhtorov on secret evidence, including witness statements, which by definition of being secret cannot be scrutinized or challenged. The prosecution also alleges, without presenting any evidence, that Muhtorov is too violent to release publicly, though they have not charged him with planning any violent attacks. Furthermore, the prosecution alleges that years of documentation showing that Muhtorov was indeed a human rights activist, including leaked State Department cables, are questionable at best because “some online articles” (a blogger’s rantings) accused Muhtorov of faking everything. (???) So, the prosecution has resorted to repeating rumors on the Internet to defame this man, rather than relying on real evidence.

Foust writes that it gives him pause when terrorism cases are built on hearsay, internet comments, crazed lunatics posting 6,000 word anger-rants, and secret evidence. He says that it should concern people that this leaves either a trial based on flimsy, circumstantial internet behavior for a pre-crime or thought-crime, or it leaves a secret, unchallengeable Soviet-style trial with secret evidence that no one can scrutinize. Foust’s analysis is found at the Registan:

The Denver Post has been following the saga of Uzbek refugee turned terror suspect Jamshid Muhtorov, since he settled in the U.S. in Aurora, a city next to Denver, Colorado (when I was doing my undergrad in Boulder, I would teach classes for the Princeton review in Aurora and Columbine, if you can believe it).

While the case itself remains under investigation — we have yet to see if the government is going to bring any non-circumstantial evidence forward — the coverage of said case, including the credulity given to the prosecution’s statements and publicly declared evidence in the press, is pretty surprising… Read more here

Posted in Denver, security/terrorism, Uzbek | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Senior Official Says Intelligence Indicates Security Threat Much Broader Than 2 Iraqi Refugees in KY

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 5, 2012

A senior Obama administration official says that intelligence indicates the security threat is much broader than the two Iraqi refugees arrested in May in Bowling Green, Ky., and accused of plotting to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Obama administration is still trying to come up with a solution that balances national security with its moral obligation to assist Iraqis who cannot safely live in their country. The UNHCR thinks the security net is set too wide. An article in USA Today discusses the issue:

…WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has dramatically slowed the resettlement of Iraqi refugees — including former U.S. military translators and embassy workers — in the midst of growing concerns about al-Qaeda’s potential ties with some asylum seekers, an administration official says.

Two Iraqi refugees who resettled in the United States in 2009 were arrested in May in Bowling Green, Ky., and are accused of plotting to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, says that intelligence indicates the threat is much broader than the two refugees…

…“That threat stream led us to re-examine our vetting process for this population and really all of the refugee population,” the official said…

…In September, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate panel that security checks have been expanded and that more than 57,000 who were already in the United States have been revetted…

…The details of what the enhanced security checks entail are not shared publicly, but refugee information is likely being checked against security, forensic and intelligence databases that were not among those covered by the other security checks, according to the UNHCR…

…”Of course we support the U.S. and all countries having security checks,” UNHCR spokeswoman Charity Tooze said. “It seems that in this instance the net is so wide a huge amount of people who we don’t see as a security threat are getting caught in it.”…

…The Obama administration has held several interagency meetings on the issue since last summer and is trying to come up with a solution that balances national security with its moral obligation to assist Iraqis who cannot safely live in their country, administration officials say…Read more here

Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Iraqi, Obama administration, security/terrorism, UNHCR | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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