2016-09-23

We Are Importing Middle East Terrorism to the United States



Sept 21 , 2016 by Warren Mass

On September 17, our nation saw violent attacks by natives of two countries where terrorism has a strong presence — the bombings in New York and New Jersey by Ahmad Khan Rahami, a native of Afghanistan, and a knife attack on nine shoppers in a St. Cloud, Minnesota, mall by Dahir Adan, a Somali immigrant.

Following the latter incident, Amaq Agency, the news agency for ISIS, released a statement that read:

The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition.

Following the Minnesota attack, FBI spokesman Richard Thornton said in a news conference on September 18: “We are currently investigating this as a potential act of terrorism.”

ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the bombings in New York and New Jersey. However, ISIS is less prominent in Rahami’s homeland of Afghanistan and his wife’s native country, Pakistan, than other terrorist groups such as Pakistan’s Tehreek-i Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, and al-Qaeda.

In his notebook, recovered at the scene of his arrest, the suspected bomber referred to previous terrorists, such as the Boston Marathon bombers, and Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a spokesman for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula before a CIA drone strike killed him in 2011.

As was noted by writer Bob Adelmann in an article posted by The New American recently, Rahami’s father, Mohammad Rahami, told the FBI back in 2014 that his son was a terrorist. The elder Rahami recently told the New York Times:

Two years ago I go to the FBI because my was doing really bad, O.K.? But they check almost two months [and] they say: “He’s O.K., he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.”

This account infuriated Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, who said on September 20 on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:

I give law enforcement a lot of credit for less than 24 hours, apprehending Mr. Rahami.

But to find out his father had reported him to the FBI several years ago that he thought his son was a terrorist, and his son was apparently not put on a terrorist watch list and not given more additional attention — is really frustrating.

Adelmann observed in his reporting of Rahami’s terrorist inclinations that if “lone-wolf” jihadists are to be stopped, at least two things must happen:

Non-jihadist Muslims must not remain silent when terrorists exist in their midst, plotting, planning, and carrying out their acts of terror. If they don’t, then every Muslim in the country will be painted with the same brush: You’re all terrorists!

And investigations such as the [FBI] “assessment” that revealed nothing must go deeper and reach further in order to identify those who would harm U.S. citizens. Without at least these two changes, more lone-wolf attacks by disaffected Muslim terrorists posing as Americans can be expected to maim and kill innocents.

Of course, the “lone wolf” is but one type of potential terrorist, but whether operating as individuals or as part of an organized terrorist organization, most of these terrorists have come into the United States from areas where terrorism has a strong presence, especially the Middle East and parts of North Africa. A sampling of major terrorist attacks in the United States since 1993 shows that this pattern holds true:

• The 1993 World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993, which failed to bring down the towers but killed six people and injured more than a thousand others, was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj. They received financing from Yousef’s uncle, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, a native of Pakistan who was a member of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization. Yousef was born in Kuwait and spent time at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. He escaped to Pakistan several hours after the bombing.

• The 1993 attacks were, of course, overshadowed by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which succeed where the 1993 bombings had failed, in bringing down the World Trade Center towers, as well as inflicting severe damage on the Pentagon and killing all aboard the fourth hijacked airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania. Those attacks killed 2,507 civilians, 343 firefighters, 72 law-enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and the 19 terrorist hijackers. Of the 19 hijackers, who were affiliated with al-Qaeda, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, and one each were from Egypt and Lebanon.

• On December 2, 2015, a mass shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, resulting in 14 people killed and 22 injured. Two suspects, Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, fled in an SUV, but were later killed. Malik was born in Pakistan and Farook was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents. FBI Director James B. Comey said the bureau’s investigation revealed that the perpetrators were “homegrown violent extremists” inspired by foreign terrorist groups.

Starting in 2014 and 2015, what has been described as a European migrant crisis or European refugee crisis began as large numbers of people fled political and economic turmoil and violent conditions resulting from the civil war in Syria and the growing power of ISIS terrorists in that part of the world. The migrants traveled first to Turkey and then on to EU nations. More refugees came across the Mediterranean Sea from North African nations such as Tunisia and Libya. On September 9, 2015, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission (the executive branch of the European Union), asked EU members to each accept 160,000 migrants. But some EU leaders balked at this request. The most outspoken leader objecting to this large-scale resettlement was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who criticized efforts by European Union leaders to impose immigration quotas before the continent’s borders were made secure.

Just days after Juncker asked EU members to accept 160,000 migrants, the November 13 terrorist attacks took place in Paris, causing many Europeans to become more wary than ever of resettling in their midst refugees from areas where terrorist activity was rampant.

These fears became even more justified after more terrorist attacks linked to Islamic jihadists (either connected to or sympathetic to ISIS) occurred. These included the March 2016 bombings in Brussels and the July 2016 stabbing of a priest at a church in Normandy, France.

When the Obama administration announced plans to begin admitting large number of Syria refugees to the United States, many Americans also objected on the grounds that it would be impossible to vet all of these refugees to identify potential terrorists among them. The history of persons of Middle Eastern origin among those responsible for terrorist attacks in the United States confirms that such fears are justified.

As we noted in an article last November, as a result of the then-recent violent terrorist attacks in Paris, more and more U.S. governors had openly opposed allowing refugees from Syria to settle in their states. Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan made a statement in which he made note of Michigan’s “rich history of immigration,” before saying: “But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.”

“It’s also important to remember that these [Paris] attacks are the efforts of extremists and do not reflect the peaceful ways of people of Middle Eastern descent here and around the world,” Snyder continued.

On November 16, five more governors (all Republicans) joined Snyder and Bentley in issuing similar policy statements. These included Greg Abbott of Texas (shown above), Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Mike Pence of Indiana, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Phil Bryant of Mississippi. Abbott, the governor of the nation’s second largest state in both area and population, sent an open letter to President Obama that stated, in part:

As governor of Texas, I write to inform you that the State of Texas will not accept any refugees from Syria in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Paris.

Further, I — and millions of Americans — implore you to halt your plans to accept more Syrian refugees in the United States. A Syrian “refugee” appears to have been part of the Paris terror attack. American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger. The reasons for such concerns are plentiful.

The FBI director testified to Congress that the federal government does not have the background information that is necessary to effectively conduct proper security checks on Syrian nationals, Director Comey explained: “We can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record of them.”

However, the Obama administration had already begun to put a plan into place to dramatically increase the number of refugees from Syria. During a joint press appearance in Berlin with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on September 20, 2015 Secretary of State John Kerry revealed the Obama administration’s plan to drastically increase the flow of refugees into the United States, citing specifically refugees from Syria. “We are now going to go up to 85,000 with at least, and I underscore the ‘at least’ — it is not a ceiling, it’s a floor — of 10,000 over the next year from Syria specifically even as we also receive more refugees from other areas,” said Kerry

“And in the next fiscal year, we’ll target 100,000, and if it’s possible to do more, we’ll do [more].”

The number of terrorist attacks in both Europe and the United States where migrants from the Middle East have taken responsibility has not dissuaded the Obama administration from its plans. An article posted by the White House press office on September 20 made it clear that the increase in refugees being admitted was still in effect, terrorist attacks or not:

President Obama announced that the United States will welcome more refugees from around the world, increasing the number of people we receive by 40 percent over the next two years, to 100,000 in 2017.

No one would claim that most of these 100,000 refugees are terrorists. But realistically speaking, how many terrorists does it take to inflict tragic results? On 9/11, a small handful of terrorists, 19, were responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans.

And so, to answer the question presented in our headline, yes, the Obama administration’s policies do amount to importing Middle East terrorism to the United States.

Related articles:

East Coast Bomber’s Father Warned Police About His Son in 2014

Afghani Native, Suspect in New York and New Jersey Bombings, Taken Into Custody

Minnesota Knife-wielding Attacker Killed by Off-duty Officer

UN Refugee Summit Supports U.S. Plan to Admit More Refugees

Obama-UN Refugee Summit: Huge Push for More Refugees

UN “Human Rights” Boss Equates Trump, Farage With ISIS

Obama/UN Refugee “Surge”: Where’s the Republican Opposition?

Here Comes the Obama/UN Refugee “Surge” — Rebranded as “Safe Alternative Pathways”

The Real Refugee Problem – and How to Solve It

U.S. to Open Facilities in Middle East to Speed Up Processing of Syrian Refugees

Most Governors Now Openly Oppose Obama’s Syrian Refugee Plan

State Department Sets New Record for Approving the Admission of Syrian Refugees

Texas Suing Federal Government to Block Syrian Refugee Settlement

Sen. Sessions Wants to Defund Refugee Admissions Program

U.S. to Open Facilities in Middle East to Speed Up Processing of Syrian Refugees

UN, Socialist International, Obama Design U.S. Refugee Resettlement

ISIS Has Trained 400 Fighters to Attack Europe

European Commission President Asks EU to Accept 160,000 Migrants

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/24108-are-we-importing-middle-east-terrorism-to-the-united-states

Refugee funding could be major budget battle this year between Republican Congress and Obama

Sept 21, 2016 Ann Corcoran

Update: Just hold on! S.O.S. Looks like the Rs are going to try the same old scam they pulled last year. See my post from September 9th.  I  think we are headed down the same path. They must think that we are really really stupid. More tomorrow.

It is not just Rep. Brian Babin’s brave 36 members of Congress talking about amending the Continuing Budget Resolution in the House, but other Republican members are stepping up to question the wisdom of spending millions to bring in more migrants like Dahir Adan in Minnesota and Ahmad Khan Rahami in New Jersey.



As usual Mitch McConnell does not want to have a fight with Obama!

Here is what the Daily Signal is reporting.  I will admit this budget process is confusing to me so I’m not presenting this as an expert. But, when you get to the end of the lengthy discussion, one thing I am taking away is that the House could attach something to withhold funding, but some Republicans in the House are pointing a finger at Senate Dems who they say have no will to protect us.

However!

What about Senate Republicans, does MAJORITY LEADER Mitch McConnell have the will to protect us or is it his BIG business interests (cheap labor/Chamber types) he is protecting?

I know you are probably sick of hearing it, but this refugee program is more about cheap migrant labor than about humanitarianism!

Here is the Daily Signal (hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum).  This first part we know, but to recap:

As President Barack Obama used his final address before the United Nations General Assembly to urge world leaders to help protect refugees, Republicans in Congress threatened to use their budget powers to restrict who is admitted into the U.S.

While refugee resettlement has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress historically, some Republicans want confirmation from U.S. intelligence leaders that screening procedures are strong enough to warrant a major American commitment to accepting more refugees during a time of heightened terrorism fears.

Thirty-seven Republican House members wrote a letter to House leadership this week asking them to use a must-pass spending bill as a vehicle for language that would block federal funding to refugees from Syria, the Middle East, and North Africa until national security officials can guarantee that terrorists cannot infiltrate the screening process.

“This is a clear and present danger to the U.S.,” said Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, who has sponsored legislation pausing refugee resettlement from “terrorism hot-spots” to the U.S., and who signed onto the letter.

Setting the stage (Daily Signal continues):



Rep Mark Meadows takes a stand to protect you!

With Congress in control of the funding for refugee resettlement, Republicans say their concerns over vetting procedures for admitting refugees to the U.S. outweigh other concerns, and that they need more assurances the program cannot be infiltrated by Islamic extremists.

In calling for stronger vetting, these critics have pointed to testimony last year to Congress from FBI Director James Comey, in which he said there are challenges to how the U.S. screens refugees, specifically with the limitations in gathering intelligence in war-torn Syria.

Republicans also note recent terrorist attacks in Europe where some of the terrorists involved had posed as refugees.

“We have a new dimension on the national security front that we never faced before,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“Where in the past refugees have come to the U.S. as a place of rescue and safety, now we have credible evidence that suggests that ISIS and other terror groups are trying to take advantage of our generosity and compassion. So that does necessitate a change in not only our priorities, but also the funding we allocate to this particular issue.”

We didn’t know this, that the Freedom Caucus has a strategy as the refugee issue might be used as a negotiating chip in determining whether the budget resolution will be revisited in the lame duck session (between the election and the end of the year) or extended in to the new year.

By the way, if Trump is elected and the budget must be debated in December it could be one helluva battle over refugees at that point in time (and this is why we must keep pushing this now!).

Meadows is among members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who have said they would support a government spending bill that expires in December, rather than later in the new year, if the legislation contains language pausing refugee resettlement.

The Freedom Caucus prefers the spending bill to run past the lame-duck session of Congress, but Meadows and other members say they’d abandon that position if their concerns over refugee resettlement were addressed.

Then here is another Republican group with a concern about funding refugees from terrorist regions of the world and raising the specter of a government shutdown over refugee funding. (Again, the Daily Signal continues)

Maryland’s Andy Harris ‘gets it’ and deserves praise for his leadership on this issue!

A larger House conservative group, the Republican Study Committee, is also pushing congressional leadership to include a policy rider to the spending bill related to the refugee issue.

“A lot of us agree with the vast majority of Americans that we should be certain we can vet these refugees before we give them free access to the U.S.,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., a Freedom Caucus member who is running to become chairman of the Republican Study Committee. [Harris is also on the all-important Appropriations Committee—ed]

“I believe a CR [continuing resolution to fund the government] should have a refugee component as part of it,” Harris told The Daily Signal in an interview, adding:

If the president wants to threaten to shut down the government because he wants to take in refugees who are not vetted, especially given what happened in New York and New Jersey, I’d like to see that argument against it.

In the Senate, Senators Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz are expected to speak up about refugee funding, but there doesn’t seem to be the will there in the leadership to cut any funds!

The offices of House leadership—Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; and Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky.—would not confirm to The Daily Signal that they would attach a refugee-related measure to the spending bill, citing the privacy of ongoing negotiations.

The Senate is widely expected to release its version of the spending bill before the House does. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., are among senators to speak out against Obama’s plan to take in more refugees this year.

But here at the end, we see the usual Republican (RINO) ploy—blame it on the Dems! This Congressman, whoever he is!, is shilling for the elite Republican establishment.

He is letting not only Paul Ryan off the hook, but the Senate MAJORITY LEADER  as well by saying if there is no Democratic support there is no sense doing anything. This is BS! The Republicans control Congress, not the Dems!

If Charlie Dent is your Congressman, time to unload on him!

We know too much now, they can’t pull this c*** on us!

The Republicans are responsible for refugee funding! Maybe it is time for the Republicans to stand up for the principle (and the Constitution!) and if the Dems want to bring in potentially more terrorists let them be responsible!

The Daily Signal wraps up with this from an apparent establishment mouth piece!

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., who leads House Republicans’ more centrist Tuesday Group, said he is doubtful party leaders would attach language related to refugees unless they know more Senate Democrats would vote for it.

“I believe any proposals that should go into the CR are ones that can attract the votes to pass, and I don’t know if this refugee rider can get the votes in the Senate,” Dent told The Daily Signal in an interview, referring to the continuing resolution to fund the government.

So, Dent is one of those Republicans who aren’t willing to fight or stand on principle. He thinks we will just blame one more loss on the Democrats!  Won’t work anymore!

Keep calling! It is working!

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/refugee-funding-could-be-major-budget-battle-this-year-between-republican-congress-and-obama/

Related

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/as-of-this-writing-it-appears-that-house-republicans-are-only-going-to-try-the-same-old-show-vote-again/

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