Great reporting on Iraqi refugees arrested in Kentucky

Update June 2nd:   Refugee officials: Terror arrests shouldn’t jeopardize program, here.

Thanks to reporter, Andrew Wolfson, of the Louisville Courier-Journal, who did some serious digging and actually reported on the complaint filed against two Iraqi “nationals” in Bowling Green charged with terrorism related crimes, we now have confirmation that the two were refugees.

See my previous post where I speculated that they had been resettled as refugees in Bowling Green based on an AP story and a press release from the US Justice Department that NEVER ONCE MENTIONED THE SACROSANCT ‘R-WORD!’

Here are some pertinent points in Mr. Wolfson’s story, but please read the whole article there is much more (emphasis mine).

Two Iraqi refugees living in Bowling Green, Ky., have been arrested and charged with violating federal terrorism laws — allegedly plotting to send missiles and other weapons to insurgents to kill American soldiers abroad.

Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, are accused of conspiring to send Stinger missiles, cash, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the United States to al Qaeda and other jihadists in Iraq.

[.....]

Both entered the United States after applying for and receiving refugee status, according to criminal complaints. Under the law, they will be deported if they are convicted.

Used IEDs against Americans hundreds of times!  Investigation began only 5 months after one of the refugees arrived.

According to court records, the FBI began investigating Alwan in September 2009, five months after he entered the United States.

The records say a confidential source for the FBI secretly tape recorded him as he bragged about used IEDs hundreds of times against Americans in Iraq from 2003 until he was arrested by Iraqi authorities in 2006.

He also allegedly told the informant that he was very good with a sniper rifle, saying that his “lunch and dinner would be an American.”

Asked whether he’d achieved results from the various devices in Iraq, Alwan allegedly told the informant, “Oh, yes,” adding that his attacks had “f— up” Hummers and Bradley fighting vehicles, according to court records.

[.....]

The indictment says Alwan recruited Hammadi in Bowling Green to help export weapons and cash to Iraqi insurgents, and that Hammadi also claimed to have experience deploying IEDs.

Hammadi had been arrested in Iraq, so why wasn’t there a police record for him when he had his supposed security check?

Alwan brought his family with him (for the American Dream?).  And then note there is that old meatpacking plant connection too (refugee resettlement agencies are well-known for finding immigrant labor for meatpackers!)

Alwan is married and his family also lived in Bowling Green; both men worked there, one of them in a chicken processing factory, officials said.

Nah, not for the American Dream!

Alwan told the informant that he had come to America so he could get a passport to return to “Turkey, Saudi (Arabia) or wherever I want to. [Incidentally Iraqi refugees are not allowed in Muslim Saudi Arabia or Turkey---ed].

“I didn’t come here for America,” he allegedly told the informant, according to the criminal complaint.

We’ve got gaps in the screening process!  No kidding!

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to talk on the record about how the defendants got into the United States, citing a department policy against commenting on pending cases.

However, in an email, he said that as applicants for refugee status, their names were vetted against a limited number of databases available at the time for potential derogatory information.

“This case demonstrates specific gaps that were present in the screening process that was in place in the beginning of the (Obama) administration,” he said. “Once the administration became aware of these gaps, it took immediate steps to fill them. Today our vetting process considers a far broader range of information than it did in past years.”

He said refugee applicants worldwide are now subjected to “expanded rigorous background vetting, including biographic and biometric checks.”

He said the latest enhancement to the refugee security check regime involves a new “pre-departure” check shortly before refugees are scheduled to travel to the United States.

It is intended to identify whether any new derogatory information exists since the initial checks were conducted. He said these pre-departure checks went into effect late last year.

Please read the whole article from the Courier-Journal and visit or re-visit my previous post where I reported on how the resettlement agencies/contractors are squawking because stepped-up security measures are slowing the flow of their income (oops, refugees).

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