Immigrant food stamp scammer helps Obama stimulate the economy!

Here is one more case* of a Middle Easterner running a convenience store and ripping off the US taxpayer, but to hear Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture say food stamp transactions stimulate the economy, maybe we should be thanking this guy for helping pour more cash into the economy!

From AP:

Providence (AP) – A former 7-Eleven franchisee in Rhode Island has been accused of taking food stamp benefits for cash at his Providence convenience store.

A complaint unsealed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence says 43-year-old Syed Shah [not named Mohammed this time!] charged an undercover investigator $60 in food stamps for $40 in cash. The complaint does not disclose how much investigators believe Shah fraudulently pocketed in food stamp benefits. Investigators say food stamp redemptions at his store skyrocketed from $228,000 in 2008 to nearly $1 million last year.

[....]

Authorities say the average monthly food stamp redemption at Shah’s store was $69,025, compared with a combined monthly redemption average of $8,770 at the other five 7-Eleven franchises in the area.

Now here is Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture telling us how Food Stamps stimulate the economy through the redistribution of wealth—your wealth!

I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the foot stamp program, you have to recognize that it’s also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It’s the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times.”

Of course it’s entirely possible that Shah was redistributing your wealth and stimulating the economy of some Middle Eastern country.

* For new readers, we have written dozens of stories about ‘food stamp fraud’—simply type those three words into our search function for our archive on the subject.  I continue to wait for a real live investigative reporter to pull all this fraud together into a comprehensive investigation.

Denver Post tries really really hard to convince us that everything is peachy in Ft. Morgan

Somali boy in Ft. Morgan, CO:

“This is the United States….. Everyone can come.”

I haven’t written about the “welcoming” city of Ft. Morgan in a long time.   In 2005 a large number of Somalis got the word that Cargill meatpacking was the place to work and have been flooding into the city ever since.  Just search RRW for ‘Ft. Morgan’ and you will see what I mean.

However, now comes a HUGE article in the Denver Post spinning so hard to prove it’s all just going great with the Somali “community” in Ft. Morgan.  I have to laugh because for every ‘problem’ the reporter tells us about it’s followed by a big BUT—but, everything is working out just fine, problem solved!  Everyone is happy!  Move along!

Below are bits from this feature story entitled, ‘Somali Muslims finding a place in Ft. Morgan.’  (for all the ‘buts’ below, return to the Denver Post).

An estimated 1,000 to 1,200 Somalis — most of them refugees — now live here, drawn by employment at Cargill in the last six years.

Their arrival has provided a test for both them and the town in an era of economic uncertainty and raised tensions after 9/11.

The police chief, school superintendent and other community leaders have smoothed the waters by attempting to counter fears with facts and build bridges with a Somali community that is fragmented.

Still, difficulties have arisen over the accommodation of Muslim prayer at school and in the workplace, the support they get from the government, their loitering and poor driving — and a murder.

BUT, everything is getting better….

[You see that mention of the murder---the reporter references me!  You will see further in the story.]

The spread of Islam in the U.S. is very much a story of immigration. College students, doctors and engineers came decades ago. The latest migration from poorer African nations is different, creating a new Muslim underclass of plant workers and cabdrivers.

BUT, it’s o.k., this is America everything will be fine—a Muslim underclass, nothing to worry about!

Word had been spreading in the Somali expatriate community about work at the Cargill plant in Fort Morgan, where wages that start at $13.25 an hour, plus benefits, beckoned — and no English or experience was required.

[....]

“It was like, all of a sudden, boom, here they are,” said Steve Dunn, the owner of a downtown shoe store.

Police Chief Keith Kuretich started to field complaints: Groups of 30 Somali men were loitering and littering outside a store. Somalis were haggling over price at Walmart and holding up checkout lines. Their driving was dangerously bad.

BUT, everything will be o.k. because the Police Chief “cares” and he has assured the citizens that he will take care of all the problems.

Real problems, however, do exist, including two or three domestic violence cases. Abdinasser Ahmed, a college-educated Somali who works at the middle school, said beating one’s wife is accepted in Somalia and the community here must discourage it.

That might be part of our culture, BUT, it’s o.k. we are going to stop beating our wives in America!

Then this is infuriating!  What a lazy sack of a reporter!

On Nov. 3, 2009, a Somali man from Greeley fatally stabbed his 27-year-old Somali ex-girlfriend in a Fort Morgan apartment hallway — the eighth homicide in the city since 2000 at that time.

An out-of-town website [he means me!---ed] that is critical of refugee resettlement spun tales of an honor killing. Kuretich dismissed that characterization, describing it as a domestic incident unrelated to religion or ethnicity.

BUT, only a little domestic violence, nothing to see here, move along!

The Ft. Morgan Times reported at the time that the murder victim was the step sister of the murderer—NOT his girlfriend!  The link is no longer available because the whole story was buried and the murderer took a plea bargain and was quietly slipped away to prison (or at least I hope that is where he is!).

This is precisely what the Ft. Morgan Times said in February of 2010 (glad I posted it here):

Ahmed Abdi of Greeley entered a not guilty plea in Morgan County District Court on Monday in the Nov. 3, 2009 stabbing death of Warsen Aden Abdi, 27, in an apartment hallway in Fort Morgan.

He is accused of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault in the stabbing death of his stepsister.

You see this politically-correct police chief can explain a boyfriend killing a former girlfriend but it gets a lot harder to explain a brother killing a sister.  By the way, since those first few news accounts in early 2010 the whole story disappeared from Colorado news pages.

Now here comes the real villain of this story!  And, she watches FOX News!  Ahhhh!

If there is a go-to voice for anti-refugee sentiment in Fort Morgan, it is Candice Loomis.

She owns Frankie’s Coffee House, where Christmas lights dangle from the ceiling and Fox News is always on. [She is probably a Tea Partier too!---ed]

In 2009, Loomis crafted a petition that chided the government for giving refugees financial support and portrayed Somali refugees as lazy freeloaders who refuse to learn English and talk rudely on cellphones.

She said about 630 people signed it. It was a symbolic gesture.  [Perhaps I missed it, but I never did see any news in the PC Ft. Morgan Times about this petition, did anyone else?]

“It scares me that it only took a few radical Muslims to bring down two buildings, and we’ve brought hundreds of thousands of them here (to the United States),” Loomis said in a recent interview.

BUT, it’s O.K. because Candice, the FOX News fan, is mellowing.

Problems in the schools

When the new faces started arriving at Fort Morgan High School, Karen Liston found herself teaching kids how to hold pencils, form letters and raise their hands.

The simple task of opening a locker turned into a 20-minute tutorial on numbers, the sequence of turning left and right, and combinations.

The sudden influx of Somali families — and, later, other East Africans — tested a rural public school system with limited resources. Some students had been schooled in Kenyan refugee camps. Others, especially older ones, were illiterate in their own language and had little formal school background.

[....]

Morgan County schools Superintendent Greg Wagers said the district has sought “a proactive and reasoned approach” to an African-refugee population that continues to grow.

By the end of the 2010-11 school year, the district counted 62 students who spoke Somali, 13 who spoke Swahili, six who spoke Tigrigna (an Eritrean language), two who spoke Amharic (predominantly Ethiopian) and one who spoke Kinyarwanda (Rwandan).

This year, the district shifted around resources to start a “newcomers center” with accelerated English courses and remediation for “over-age and under-credited” middle and high school students.

BUT, everything will work out because the local school system is now pouring tons of money into programs to help the kids.

Don’t you just wonder if maybe Cargill which benefits from the refugee labor might just pay for some of this?  But, I digress.

Back to the Denver Post and demands for religious accommodation in the schools:

Like other school districts with large numbers of Muslim students, Morgan County also sought to strike a balance accommodating midday prayer.

The high school set aside auditorium balcony space, segregated by gender, during lunch to ensure the school schedule was not disrupted, Wagers said.

Some citizens complained that the district was endorsing Muslim practice or giving Muslims special treatment. That prompted Wagers to write a three-page memo to the board of education and the community that included a primer on Islam and the legal framework for the district’s approach.

The scrutiny revealed that some teachers were wrongly letting students out of class to pray, Wagers said. Since then, he said, “it’s been quiet. We just had to find the middle ground.”

But, everything is fine now!  We have accommodated “middle ground” Shariah Law in our school system!

And, as one kid who had been bullied by “Mexican and white guys” who told him to go back to his **** country said:

“This is the United States,” he said when asked how that felt. “Everyone can come.”

Finally we have the story of Amina Barkhadel (who is living with three men not related to her—-I guess she is Americanized now!).

Poor Somali mama had $8,500 just kicking around to buy her daughter an illegal trip to America!

Back in Somalia, she worked in a little shop. In 2008, men in masks with guns came in and killed her 25-year-old brother and hit her.

Her grieving mother gave her $8,500 to pay an English-speaking man to pose as her husband and get her out of the country — to Dubai, Guatemala and Mexico.

She ultimately made her way to the U.S. border. After spending time in Mexican and U.S. immigration jails, she won asylum status in a court hearing.

She worked as a hotel maid in Southern California until friends told her about work at Cargill in Fort Morgan.

Readers, you can be sure this is not the end of the “welcoming” Ft. Morgan story!

Canada seriously hunting down its criminal alien refugees and immigrants

Of course all the media in the US is filled with the news that Obama is going to deport fewer people while Canada goes on a serious hunt for criminal aliens.

From the CBC:

The federal government is seeking the public’s help again in its hunt for people wanted on immigration warrants, focusing on 32 foreign-born fugitives.

“They abused a valued privilege and are no longer welcome in our country,” said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, launching the Canada Border Services Agency’s new website to identify non-Canadians convicted of crimes in Canada and subject to removal orders who have since disappeared.

Toews announced the latest list Thursday in Toronto, accompanied by his parliamentary secretary Candice Hoeppner, the parliamentary secretary to the defence minister, Chris Alexander, and the president of the Canada Border Services Agency, Luc Portelance.

The 32 people on Toews’s new list are in addition to 30 suspected of war crimes that he named on July 21, when the Canada Border Services Agency launched a website identifying the suspects and calling for any information that could lead to their whereabouts.

[.....]

This list targets only a few of the estimated 1,400 individuals in the Toronto area, and approximately 2,700 individuals nationally who are currently wanted for removal from Canada.

Nine of the individuals on the new list were born in Jamaica. Four are from China and another four are from Guyana. Four were born in other Caribbean or Central American countries, and three are from Africa. The list also includes two born in India, two born in Sri Lanka, three born in European countries and one born in the United States. Two are women.

“They will find no haven on our shores,” Toews vowed.

Canadian readers may say this is just for media consumption and it’s not enough, but at least the ‘talk’ is headed in the right direction.

Majority of Europeans think there is too much immigration to most countries

Here is an article with links to several studies all confirming Europeans, for the most part, are unhappy with immigration, especially immigration from Muslim countries to Europe.

From Hudson New York:

A new opinion survey shows that more than half of all Europeans believe there are too many immigrants in their countries and that immigration is having a negative impact on their lives.

The findings – which come as Europeans are waking up to the consequences of decades of mass immigration from Muslim countries – point to a growing disconnect between European voters and their political masters regarding multicultural policies that encourage Muslim immigrants to remain segregated rather than become integrated into their host nations.

The survey results mirror the findings of dozens of other recent polls. Taken together, they provide ample empirical evidence that scepticism about Muslim immigration is not limited to a “right-wing” political fringe, as proponents of multiculturalism often assert. Mainstream voters across the entire political spectrum are now expressing concerns about the role of Islam in Europe.

The “Global Views on Immigration” survey was conducted by the London-based Ipsos global research firm and published on August 4. It polled citizens in nine European countries: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

The poll shows a close correlation between the views the natives of a given country have about immigration and the number of, and level of, integration of Muslim immigrants in their countries.

For example, the poll finds that Belgians and Britons hold the most negative views on immigration; these countries also have some of the least integrated Muslim populations in Europe. The poll also shows that among Europeans, Poles have the most positive views on immigration and immigrants; Poland happens to have Europe’s smallest Muslim community, which comprises less than 0.1% of that country’s total population.

The Ipsos poll shows that as a whole, more than 56% of Europeans believe “there are too many immigrants” in their countries: Belgium (72%), Britain (71%), Italy (67%), Spain (67%), Germany (53%), France (52%), Hungary (50%), Sweden (46%) and Poland (29%).

I see they didn’t poll Norwegians, but I would guess the number is close to Sweden’s.   Here is an idea—how about if those countries who do have a problem just flex their sovereign muscles and say NO! to more.   If Sweden, Poland and Norway are happy with their Muslim populations, let them do what they want (until their own citizens wake up).

There is a lot more (with links to more studies) at that Hudson New York report.  Read it all.

By the way, for new readers, we have a category entitled ‘where to find information’ where many reports, studies, statistics are archived.  You might want to have a look there from time to time.

Norway’s Muslim girls not protected by the government

That is according to a recent report from CBN News:

OSLO, Norway — It’s been almost a month since innocent Norwegians were killed by a lunatic obsessed with the threat of Islam.

But the terrible tragedy has not stopped civil debate in Norway over the impact of Muslim immigration.

Several weeks before the massacre in Norway, CBN News travelled to Oslo to investigate reports that that nation’s experiment with Muslim immigration and multiculturalism had gone terribly wrong, that Muslim radicalism was growing along with violence and intimidation against non-Muslims.

Islamists Target Women

In the wake of the killings, some on Norway’s political left call the fear of Islamization a “conspiracy theory.”

However, there are real victims – and they are mostly Norway’s women. Norway has never faced such problems before.

Even though Norway is a democracy, some Norwegian women do not have full rights. They are denied them by their families, and they live in fear for their lives.

At the Red Cross office in Oslo, Monica Berge-Tukh and Anne Marte Stifjeld take calls from Norwegian girls who face honor violence, forced marriage or genital mutilation.

Read it all.  One of the most shocking cases described involves little girls returned to Gambia for female genital mutilation.

Lebanon: Nah, we don’t want any permanent Palestinian “refugees” either

All Middle Eastern (Muslim) countries know they need to go along with the plan—no permanent home for any Palestinian so-called “refugees” because then they won’t be able to harass and pressure Israel or get the western bucks for Gaza.

From the Palestinian News Agency:

BEIRUT, August 16, 2011 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas and his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman Tuesday asserted their total rejection to permanent resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

In a meeting in the Lebanese Presidential Palace, Abbas said, “The Palestinian refugees’ existence in Lebanon is temporary, which is under the Lebanese law.”

He added, “Palestinian refugees are temporary guests, who abide by the Lebanese law and Sovereignty. We believe that there are no Palestinian weapons to protect Palestinians, but they are under the protection of Lebanon.”

Temporarily that is.

This reminds me that I haven’t watched “We Con the World” lately.  If you haven’t seen it (or even if you have!) watch it here.

Mexican-Iraqi drug operation busted in California

The Iraqis are Chaldean Christians!

From AP at My San Antonio (Hat tip: Gary):

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal officials said Thursday they’ve taken down a drug and weapons trafficking ring involving members of a U.S. Iraqi community and a major Mexican drug cartel that was caught selling large amounts of drugs, guns and grenades.

Police in El Cajon said they’ve arrested more than 60 people in the takedown of the ring, whose members are suspected of being affiliated with the Chaldean Organized Crime Syndicate based in Detroit.

Smugglers were shipping drugs from El Cajon to Iraqis in Detroit, authorities said.

El Cajon and federal police say they have seized 18 pounds (8 kilograms) of methamphetamine, narcotics, cocaine and other drugs; more than 3,500 pounds (1,600 kilograms) of marijuana; $630,000 in cash; four IEDs; and more than 30 guns, including assault rifles.

In April, a Drug Enforcement Agency undercover agent was shown a hand grenade by an immigrant and was told additional grenades were available from a Mexican military source.

The cartel, Sinaloa, is Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who has become one of the world’s richest and most-wanted men since he escaped from a Mexican prison 10 years ago.

Iraqis entered US illegally

Detroit and San Diego have the largest and second-largest populations of Chaldeans in the United States. Chaldeans are descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia — what is now Iraq — and many have fled to escape persecution for their Christianity.

Officials say the Chaldean syndicate has a longstanding relationship with the Sinaloa cartel. Many Chaldeans passed through Tijuana on their way to the United States, helped by Mexican migrant smugglers, authorities said.

The investigation focused on an Iraqi social club in El Cajon that authorities said is a hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime.

Iraqis have been busy lately, first the Kentucky terror bust, then the Tennessee man who wants to see mommy and daddy,  then the Jersey knife attack and now this!

Where is AP reporter Matthew Lee?  If anyone sees him, tell him his Iraqis are here!

50,000th resettled Bhutanese refugee arrives in South Dakota

LOL!  That does not mean 50,000 have gone to South Dakota!   It means that 50,000 people of Nepali descent have left camps in Nepal to resettle in the West over the last 4 years.  The US has taken 42,000 thus far and has promised to take 60,000 total.

To new readers:  In 2007 the Bush Administration Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, gave the green light for the US to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese (really Nepalese) to the US over 5 years.  Remember there is a Republican Open Borders faction whose members are convinced that we need a continuing stream of cheap immigrant labor.  (By the way, the Left’s latest bogeyman, Grover Norquist, is all for amnesty and open borders.  I think some of these Republicans also believe that they will get the immigrant voters for their party if they advocate for amnesty.)

The story with the Bhutanese is that they really aren’t Bhutanese but Nepalese who went to live in neighboring Bhutan, many at the beginning of the twentieth century, but then Bhutan had a resurgence of ethnic nationalism and wanted Bhutan for the Bhutanese and drove out the ‘foreigners.’   Nepal, a stable country, didn’t want to take its ethnic people back so they have lived in camps for upwards of 20 years.  It is those people we are now resettling into our miserable economy.

Here is the news from the UNHCR:

KATHMANDU, Nepal, August 17 (UNHCR) – Jai Prasad Sunuwar flew to South Dakota in the United States earlier this month, becoming the 50,000th refugee originating from Bhutan to be resettled from Nepal under a programme launched four years ago by UNHCR and its partners.

[....]

Under one of UNHCR’s largest resettlement programmes, more than 42,000 of the refugees have begun new lives in the United States. Others have left camps in eastern Nepal for resettlement in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They had come to Nepal during the early 1990s, fleeing ethnic tensions in Bhutan.

[....]

When the resettlement programme began in November 2007 there were almost 110,000 refugees from Bhutan residing in seven camps in eastern Nepal, three of which have since been closed. Of those remaining in the camps, some 47,000 have expressed an interest in resettlement.

By the way, when this wholesale redistribution of people and their culture to different parts of the world began there was a faction of the refugee population trying to stop the resettlement because they were holding out hope that continued pressure on Bhutan would result in that country relenting and letting them return.   Instead the US stepped in to help remove the pressure from Bhutan.   I’m not a big fan of  Presidential candidate Ron Paul, but he would probably recommend staying out of other countries’ domestic issues that have NOTHING to do with our national security!

What do you bet we are going to end up taking more than the 60,000 Ellen Sauerbrey promised?

We have written a lot on the Bhutanese, just type that word into our search function for our archives on the subject.

Looks like the Jersey knife-wielding attacker was an Iraqi; worked for military contractor

Remember the story about Abdulrahim Sulaiman which we first reported here in January 2010 when he was caught with a knife in a suburban New York school (said he was lost trying to find Ft. Dix).   Then he turned up again most recently here in South Jersey where he nearly killed a man in what authorities suggest was a purely random attack.   Well, this is the latest, not a Somali at all, but an Iraqi in the US legally (therefore a refugee!).

Funny we just learned how awful it is that we aren’t bringing Iraqis to the US fast enough according to a Tennessean report I just posted this morning.

From Phillyburbs.com  (Hat tip: wtd2):

MOUNT HOLLY — A Connecticut man struck on Interstate 295 after allegedly attacking two men at a Mansfield gas station admitted that he stabbed one of the victims, according to authorities, who asked that his $1 million bail remain during a court hearing Monday.

Abdulrahim Sulaiman, 25, of Bridgeport, had his first appearance in Superior Court since his arrest Aug. 5 after the serious crash on the highway in Bordentown Township.

After about a week’s stay in the hospital, Sulaiman, who was temporarily living in Pemberton Township, was sent to Burlington County Jail on two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert ordered that he be held on $1 million bail and have no contact with the victims if he makes bail.

Sulaiman admitted to authorities that he stabbed a fuel deliveryman at the Valero gas station on Route 206 in Mansfield, but his motive for what authorities described as a random attack was still unclear, Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor John Brennan said.

Sulaiman is not a United States citizen, but is in the country legally, Brennan said. He has ties to Iraq and a juvenile record, he said.   [LOL! "ties to Iraq"---they can't even tell the public that he must be an Iraqi refugee originally resettled in Bridgeport, CT by the US State Department.]

Worked for Defense Department contractor!

At the time of the alleged attacks, Sulaiman was working at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for defense subcontractor Akima Logistics, which is located on the base.

On Wednesday, Neal Cooksey, senior corporate counsel for Akima,  confirmed that Sulaiman has worked on the base at various times since November 2010 and was an employee at the time of the attack.  [So they didn't know about his arrest in New York in January 2010 when they hired him?]

Cooksey said Sulaiman was a role player in training exercises to help troops preparing to deploy overseas. Role players help simulate conditions the troops may encounter. Akima Logistics is “a major provider of role-player and foreign-language-speaking training support at U.S. Army installations,” according to its website.

Sulaiman was off-duty when the alleged attacks occurred and is now suspended without pay while company officals investigate, Cooksey said. He said Akima has zero-tolerance for workplace violence or weapons on the base.

After the Kentucky Iraqi refugee alleged terrorists arrest we learned that the FBI was going to re-screen all the Iraqi refugees—note to the FBI, you can start here with Sulaiman.

Where is Matthew Lee?    It just ticks me off!  AP reporter Lee wrote a complaining article every month FOR MONTHS at the end of the Bush Administration and the refrain was always the same—bad Bush, bad US, not bringing Iraqis in fast enough.  Where is he now, why don’t we ever hear any mainstream media reports (besides local papers) on people like Sulaiman?  Where are the real investigative reporters?

Iraqi refugee: I need to see my mommy and daddy

Here is an article from The Tennessean this week (from the same reporter who did a hatchet job on Brigitte Gabriel and the American Congress for Truth recently) that will make your blood boil.

Seems we are supposed to have sympathy for the budget cuts (that means the flow of your money to the “church” federal contractors which resettle refugees in your towns and cities) and resultant lay-offs due to enhanced security checks for refugees.  For new readers, resettlement contractors are paid by the head—more refugees they resettle more tax dollars they receive.

And, remember it was only earlier this summer when two Iraqis were arrested in nearby Kentucky on terrorism charges, but reporter Smietana doesn’t mention that. (What! Smietana doesn’t know how to google?).

It’s all just boohoo, refugee agencies don’t have money and Iraqis like this guy (who looks to be at least in his 30s) is stamping his feet and wanting to know when mommy and daddy will get here from Iraq!

From The Tennessean:

When Ahmed Ahmed left his home in Iraq as a refugee in 2008, he hoped his parents and sister would follow him soon.

Three years later, Ahmed, former translator for Iraq’s ministry of defense, is living in Nashville, and they are still in Baghdad.

“The wait is killing me,” Ahmed said.

The number of refugees being resettled in Nashville has slowed dramatically because of federal regulations enacted this year. The regulations are designed to weed out refugees who might pose a security risk, but they’ve left refugees like Ahmed waiting to reunite with family. And they’ve left charities that resettle refugees with six-figure budget deficits.

The Nashville office of World Relief, a Christian nonprofit, had expected to resettle about 550 refugees from Iraq, Bhutan, Myanmar and other countries this year. The slowdown has reduced that figure to about 430.

Since the charity receives government funding for each refugee, that has meant about $105,000 in budget cuts, said Nathan Kinser, director of World Relief’s Nashville office.

The charity made the budget cuts by not replacing employees who resigned.

[.....]

Catholic Charities in Nashville has seen a similar slowdown. It had hoped to resettle about 600 refugees. But its numbers are off by about 30 percent this year, said Kellye Branson, director of Refugee Services for Catholic Charities of Tennessee Inc., prompting budget cuts of about $125,000 and some layoffs.

Readers, go have a look at Catholic Charities of Tennessee’s Form 990 for 2010.   They had an income of $13,245,078 (yes millions of dollars) and $10,300,875 (yes, over $10 million came from taxpayer funding).  That amounts to 78% of their annual budget is paid by you!   So they are whining about losing $125,000 dollars in funding this year—so if my math is correct that amounts to a lose of less than 1% of their government-funded support!

World Relief in Nashville must be funded through the national World Relief headquarters in Maryland where the organization gets $32,701,335 ($32 MILLION DOLLARS FROM TAXPAYERS) and its CEO, Sammy Mah, is paid $323,302 in annual salary and benefits (LOL! Doing well by doing good!)  By the way, its highest paid contractor (for services) is $772,543 to something called True Sense Marketing (must be a PR firm).   See their most recent Form 990 here.  And, they are whining about losing $105,000 in funding.  Maybe Sammy and other 6-figure employees could chip in a little of their money—you know redistribute the wealth to the poor and suffering refugees like Ahmed!

So we are told that Ahmed, who had been working as a translator for the Iraqi defense department (and has his daughter here with him) doesn’t “understand” why it’s taking so long?  Come on Smietana, who do you think you are talking to with this silly reporting?

Ahmed said he doesn’t understand why the refugee resettlement process is taking so long. He just wants to see the rest of his family.

“I need to see my mom and dad,” he said.

Want to learn more about Iraqi refugees, see our previous 503 posts on them here.