Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial: Are there holes
in US refugee vetting process? by Ann Corcoran, 8/22/18.
Despite all that, Ameen got in. The question is whether he is a rare aberration in the system or a typical representation of its flaws. More here. More cases coming?
I’ve marveled from time to time lately about the changes I’m seeing
with media coverage of the US Refugee Admissions Program.
Granted
they are tiny changes so far, but at least some media outlets are looking more
carefully at a program that NO ONE questioned eleven years ago when I first
began writing RRW.
In
2007 any story about refugees was one that evoked warm feelings about the poor,
downtrodden and grateful people that nice church folks were welcoming to
America.
I
called those stories “refugees see first snow stories.”
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen - Imagine my surprise today when I
saw this
editorial at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Iraqi refugee (alleged ISIS killer) being
arrested in California. See
my previous post on Ameen’s arrest, here.
The times they are a-changin’….Our combatant: Ameen case shows holes in
U.S. refugee program
The arrest of an Iraqi man who was accepted as a refugee in the United
States in 2014 and then went back to fight in Iraq for the Islamic State shows
that there are serious breaches in the U.S. refugee program. And
it shows that President Donald Trump was right to insist on a higher level of
precaution when it comes to opening America’s doors to refugees from a part of
the world that is the world’s top exporter of terrorism.
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen wasn’t just a soldier in ISIS; he was a leader,
with a history of violent activity. He allegedly shot an Iraqi police officer
after the officer was already on the ground—- a cold-blooded execution.
The
FBI says it has eight witnesses who identify the Ameen family, including Ameen
himself, his father, brothers and paternal cousins, as affiliated with al-Qaida
and ISIS. Court records say Ameen helped plant improvised bombs, transported
militants, solicited funds, robbed supply trucks and kidnapped drivers on
behalf of al-Qaida. A witness quoted by the FBI says Ameen’s vehicle in 2005
was a Kia Sportage flying a black al-Qaida flag with a cut-out roof and a
machine gun mounted on the rear.
To answer the Post-Gazette: In 2017,
then FBI director Comey said they were investigating 300 cases of possible
terrorists in the refugee flow to the US. And yet all this escaped the notice of Ameen’s
vetters at the U.S. refugee resettlement agency.
Supposedly….Most
people spend at least three years being interviewed, undergoing biometric
checks and medical exams, and filling out paperwork before being approved for
refugee status. Cases are screened by the Department of Defense, FBI, the
Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.
By
the way, Pittsburgh is a refugee ‘welcoming’ city. See my Pittsburgh
archive by clicking
here. Don’t
miss the 2015 post about Pittsburgh’s present mayor wanting Syrian
refugees to be placed there.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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