Tucson, AZ: Somalis lied at every turn to obtain
refugee status (update) by Ann Corcoran 8/20/18.
The Arizona Daily Star has posted a very detailed report on
what happened in court in Tucson with the government’s case against a husband
and wife team who allegedly had some relationship with Islamic terror group
al-Shabab in Africa. See my previous post here.
Fraud, fraud and
more fraud! So
much for Obama’s extreme vetting…..
How many more Somalis welcomed to the US
are using more than one name? I’ve snipped just a bit of the story below, but
please read the whole thing. A few of the many things that interested me
were:
The
pair (28 and 25 years old) it now seems have used various names and have
FIVE children with one still in Africa. Is it a young boy they left for the
terrorists to raise?
They
came to the US via China and they supposedly got to Beijing, China on $500
(5,725 mile 14 hour flight on $500?). And, why were we picking up random Somalis in
Beijing?
He
(whatever his name is) lost his hands in a blast in a market, he says. Was he
delivering a bomb that exploded prematurely? Or, perhaps making the bomb?
The
couple was getting ready to move to Minneapolis. What! to hide in the huge
Somali community there?
I’m
sure you will have even more questions when you read the whole story: Tucson man accused of Somali terror ties lied
at every turn, government says
Whether
Mohamed Abdirahman Osman is a refugee who lied about terrorist links to get
immigration benefits or if he’s been wrongly targeted by a flawed government
investigation that matches the Trump administration’s rejection of certain
refugees is being played out in a Tucson courtroom.
Hearings here last week illustrated the difficulty in finding facts in
the case, including whether Mohamed Abdirahman Osman is even his real name.
Osman,
28, is charged with eight counts of making false statements when he applied for
refugee status and legal permanent residency. For the sake of consistency, the
Star is using the name listed on court documents.
The government alleges
Osman lied about his ties to the terrorist group al-Shabab, his name, his
nationality, his father’s name, a brother whom the government identifies as an
al-Shabab associate, and that he presented a fraudulent Somali passport to
obtain immigration benefits.
Osman
remains detained pending trial after a magistrate judge ruled last week that
although the government did not “prove by clear and convincing evidence” that
he is a danger to the community, it showed he’s a flight risk.
“Given the nature and seriousness of the offense charged, the weight of
the evidence against the defendant and the defendant’s family and community
ties, the court finds that no combination of conditions exist that would
reasonable assure defendant’s appearance at future court proceedings,”
Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Rateau said.
His
wife, Zeinab Abdirahman Mohamed, 25, was released on Aug. 10 on her own
recognizance after the judge determined she was not a flight risk or a
danger. She faces three
counts of providing false information in support of Osman.
Mohamed attended Osman’s arraignment hearing with their four children —
they have a fifth child who lives in Somalia along with members of the local
Somali community. Osman,
wearing a prison jumpsuit and thick-rimmed glasses, listened through an
interpreter and briefly smiled when he saw his family.
Osman,
together with his wife, fled Somalia after he lost both of his hands and vision
in one eye during a 2010 bomb attack. Then, the couple was kidnapped by
Al-Shabab and held hostage in an abandoned milk factory.
Osman paid $500 to be smuggled to Beijing via Kenya, where he was given
a Somali passport with a visa for China, FBI special agent Benjamin Trentlage, part of the Joint
Terrorism Task Force, testified. The couple lived in Beijing for three years
before applying and getting refugee status to resettle in Tucson in 2014 with
their daughter.
Osman
has told different stories about what happened, including how he lost his
hands, to different people. And he
seems to have issues telling the truth, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Beverly Anderson told the judge.
But she [Anderson] said the couple had given notice on their Tucson
apartment and bought tickets to Minneapolis, where there’s a large East African
population, and that he had the means and capability to obtain fake documents
to leave the country.
He
will therefore stay behind bars for now. Good decision judge! You will
see that his defense is built around Donald Trump and how he is out to get
Somalis…Gheesh!!!
Just
for your information there are four federal refugee resettlement contractors
working in Tucson. I wonder which one was taking care of this pair?
World
Relief, International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops all had offices there during
the Obama Administration.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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