It is confirmed! Idaho Uzbek arrested on terror charges is a refugee

This is an update of my post this morning where I only surmised that Boise’s Uzbek terror suspect is a refugee.

In the case of Boston’s Tsarnaevs, they came here seeking political asylum and in Fazliddin Kurbanov’s case we actually brought him to America.  The refugee resettlement program and our asylum program are basically two sides of the same coin.  We “welcomed” both to America.   But, one thing the resettlement contractors can’t seem to grasp is that with most Muslims their Jihad imperative trumps the American ‘good life’ and it’s just a matter of time before Allah calls.

Are we seeing the beginning of a trend?  I suspect we will see other young bucks seeking fame and martyrdom having been emboldened by the Tsarnaev’s ‘success.’

Fazliddin Kurbanov, your friendly refugee next door!

AP confirms Kurbanov’s  immigration status here at USA Today:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho in 2009 to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country.

But federal officials say in an indictment that Fazliddin Kurbanov also was teaching people to build bombs that would target public transportation.

It’s unclear whether those alleged targets were domestic or abroad — or how far Kurbanov would have gone. Prosecutors said Friday only that they believe he is no longer a threat.

[....]

Kurbanov is among about 650 Uzbeks living in Idaho. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in August 2009, the same month he moved to Boise, said Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, citing immigration records. Kurbanov was here legally, federal officials said.

He didn’t just move to Boise!  A federal refugee contractor, possibly Boise’s office of the International Rescue Committee, was paid by the US State Department (paid by you!) to get him hooked up with social services, find him an apartment and get him a job.

Uzbeks began coming to Idaho’s two refugee settlement centers, in Boise and Twin Falls, in 2003, Reeves said. The centers connect refugees with services such as language classes and help finding work.

The flow of Uzbeks to the state escalated around 2005, when a violent clash between protesters and the government left hundreds dead.  [We took in the troublemakers in a special airlift! Now we are reuniting families in sanctuary cities like Boise---ed]

[....]

About 90 percent of Uzbeks in their home country are Muslim. Representatives of the Islamic Center of Boise, a meeting area for the region’s Muslim community, didn’t immediately return a phone call Friday.

Radical Uzbeks have a broader mission now!  Don’t they all!

Although the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan started in the 1990s with the stated aim of overthrowing the Uzbek regime and establishing an Islamic government, its goals have expanded to create a broader Islamic influence in Central Asia.

There is more, read it all.

Uzbek arrested in Idaho on terror charges; was he airlifted here by Bush State Dept?

In 2005 the Bush Administration secretly airlifted Uzbek’s to the the US claiming they were “refugees.”  Most went to Western states. 

Update!  He didn’t arrive on the airlift but he is definitely a refugee!

One of them -stans! Uzbekistan, sandwiched between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan shares a border with Afghanistan.

We have many posts on the subject. One theory is that the Bush Administration wanted to curry favor with the Muslim government of Uzbekistan to gain access through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, so we did them a ‘favor’ and took ‘troublemakers’ involved in the Andijan Uprising off their hands.

Another of those “refugee” Uzbeks was arrested on terrorism charges here in January 2012.  And, this isn’t the first time Uzbeks resettled  in Idaho made the news.  Here in 2008 two Uzbek men died from mysterious causes in Boise.

By the way, we’ve spoken to one American, whose name I won’t reveal, who actually sued the CIA a few years back trying to get information on how the h*** we mysteriously turned Uzbek Muslim extremists into refugees.

We don’t know yet if the man arrested yesterday in Boise is a “refugee.”  We are told he is here legally, but I will betcha he is living among us through the beneficence of the US State Department.

For enterprising reporters, go to the Idaho Office of Refugees here and ask them how Kurbanov came to live in Boise’s Uzbek “community.” 

From the Huffington Post (hat tip: Blazing Cat Fur via twitter):

BOISE, Idaho — Federal authorities in Idaho said Thursday they have arrested an Uzbekistan national accused of conspiring with a designated terrorist organization in his home country and helping scheme to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested at an apartment complex in south Boise on Thursday morning after a grand jury issued a three-count indictment as part of an investigation into his activities in Idaho and Utah.

The Idaho grand jury’s indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. The indictment also alleges he possessed an unregistered explosive device.

A separate federal grand jury in Utah also returned an indictment charging Kurbanov with distributing information about explosives, bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

No details on immigration status (other than he is legal)!  Are they are trying to protect someone or some program?

Olson declined to share any other specifics of Kurbanov’s alleged activities, including whether any potential terrorist threat or targets were domestic or abroad.

A news release from the U.S. attorney’s office said Kurbanov is in the United States legally, but Olson declined to give details about his immigration status.

[.....]

The Idaho indictment alleges that between August 2012 and May 2013, Kurbanov knowingly conspired with others to provide support and resources, including computer software and money, to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a designated terrorist organization. The group’s purpose is to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan, said David B. Barlow, U.S. attorney in Utah.  [See Andijan again!---ed]

Incidentally, I know I still haven’t posted my testimony to the State Department (only because so many other things have taken my attention—I call it News ADD), but below is what I said to the State Department last year and this year as one of my ten reasons for a moratorium on refugee resettlement (#7):

Congress needs to specifically disallow the use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government, especially using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come to mind.

Minneapolis: Sentencing began yesterday for Somali terrorists; are they still lying?

I told you yesterday that sentencing was about to commence for the refugees who went back to Somalia to join al-Shabab, the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa.   I hadn’t planned to write anymore about it, partly because I am sick of it!  We gave these people the ‘good life’ at great expense to the US taxpayer and they threw it back in our faces.  But, this part of a long story on the sentencing from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press (hat tip: Cliff) was worth mentioning.

Kamal Said Hassan

The Judge wonders whether this Somali, Kamal Said Hassan, might still be lying:

Each man told Davis his story, and the judge seemed to react differently to each. In the case of Hassan, the judge acknowledged that while the defendant had been an “extraordinary” help to investigators since his arrest, he didn’t know if the words he was hearing were a performance.

“I can’t take back what I did, but I can show you, the government, the Somali community, that I can do better,” Hassan told the judge.

“I know what I did was wrong and illegal and I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said. “I’m sorry to the ones I hurt.”

He apologized to his family, his adopted homeland and his fellow Somali immigrants.

“I want the American people to know I am very sorry for what I did,” he said.

When he finished speaking, Davis paused for several moments.

Finally, he spoke. “I heard a lot of sorrys,” the judge said. “And as you well know, I grilled you on the witness stand when you testified (against Omar). Your talk here has reared that ugly head, in my mind … where we have people who are very, very bright and can be very, very dangerous.”

The judge noted Hassan had been deceitful to his own family and had even not been fully truthful with the FBI when they questioned him; prosecutors even added a charge of making false statements to his two counts of providing material support to al-Shabaab.

The judge said he had to ask himself, “Why aren’t you lying today? I have no indicia that you’re not.”

About the photo:  I found it here with a brief background on Hassan.  I had not seen this website, Global Jihad, before but it looks like it might be useful going forward.

Former refugee resettlement worker blows the whistle on refugee program failures; calls for moratorium

In a must-read letter to the US State Department a 25-year veteran of the International Rescue Committee (one of the largest of the top nine federal contractors) calls for a moratorium on refugee resettlement until the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) and the volags (contractors) get their act together.

Boston on our minds. The IRC closed its Boston office in 2009. But, several other refugee contractors are still doing business there.

Consider this long-time Boston resident’s comments about fraud and lax security screening in the light of two posts we have written in the last two days, here and here.  It all rings true.

Editor:  This is one more, but, by far the most damning, of the testimony we have been publishing in advance of this Wednesday’s hearing at the US State Department.  All other testimonies we have received are archived here.

(Emphasis below is mine)

Ms. Anne Richard
Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration
US State Department
Washington, DC. 20520

April 27, 2013

Re: Federal Register Public Notice 8241 Comment Request

Dear Ms Richard:

I worked for the IRC in several capacities from 1980 until 2004 (caseworker, deputy director of the Boston office). In 2004, amid increasing budget constraints, I volunteered for a lay off. At the time, my heart was still into the work I loved and I continued to volunteer for two additional years, spending 3 days a week working on the family reunification program, in which I was considered an “expert.”

Early on, I grew familiar with the fraud that was rampant throughout the program, from the refugees themselves (sometimes forgivable), the overseas OPE’s (not forgivable) and on up to the UN (most unforgivable). Most of my colleagues were also aware of it, and while they often joked about it, almost no one did anything to change or challenge it.

In our work, it was all about “getting the numbers,” often at the expense of legitimate screening for “real“ refugees.

To be honest, I never turned a blind eye to obvious fraud, but had been instructed to give all refugee applicants “the benefit of the doubt.” Yet there were many applications about which I had serious reservations. Some of them were classically laughable ( “I don’t remember my mother’s name… let me make a phone call..”). There were more than a few applicants that I rejected (or referred to another Volag that might not have had the same concerns).

Being directly “in the field,” it’s often difficult to objectively see outside the perimeters of our day to day work.

My major concern was helping people re-unite with close and legitimate family members whose relationship I believed to exist in fact. I can’t tell you how many times, after resettlement that those relationships were revealed to be fraudulent. Sometimes the reasons were understandable from a human kindness point of view ( claiming an orphaned niece as a sister), but often those “relationships” were simple financial transactions.

In my long years at the IRC, I assisted many ethnic groups. I can say without reservation that the Somalis were among the most duplicitous. There was a time when I suggested that they swear on the Quran before signing the affidavit of relationship. Most of the time they would flee and not return. That practice was discontinued, being deemed politically incorrect.

All of us in the field know just how weak the “security screening” was. It’s mostly a very poor and ineffective system of simple name checks from countries that for the most part keep no records.

I personally had some concerns about some Iraqi refugees admitted in the mid 90’s.

One of them went on to become implicated in the Oklahoma City bombings. Being a volag worker, I was very protective of him but, having spent hours with him in the emergency room of a mental hospital.  I still have not been able to say to myself that he was not involved.

It is time for a moratorium on refugee resettlement until ORR and the volags get their act together.

Refugee resettlement affects every community it touches, from Lewiston ME, Minneapolis MN,  to Kansas City KS.

The Volags hide behind their time frame responsibility fences. While I agree that they do not have funding to do much beyond initial basic placement, this is hardly adequate for a successful program, when most refugees end up being on long term public assistance.

The present program is really a “resettle and dump on the community” thing. This is not fair to the communities, the refugees or the volags.

ORR has yet to release long overdue federally mandated reports that show welfare dependency rates or employment figures. Some people say that ORR may have something to hide. I tend to agree.

Refugees are not assimilating for the most part. (some argue that refugees should not “assimilate” but “integrate” but , to me, it‘s all the same, since the majority do neither.). The State Dept continues to fund MAA’s (ethnic based organizations) which only keep immigrant and refugee communities separate and ghettoized.

As someone who spent most of my adult lifetime working in this field, I ask for a serious second look at the current program.

After 9/11, I was, as always, very vocal in defense of refugees and the US refugee program , convinced that no one admitted under the program could possibly be or become a terrorist. Regrettably, my mind has changed.

I now believe that we need a moratorium on continued resettlement until such time as ORR can get its house in order and present a restructured program that can provide safe haven for those truly in need and at the same time guarantee that this currently flawed program does not admit persons unworthy of our kind-heartedness or who are unwilling to become a positive part of our national fabric.

I do think the US should continue to receive some refugees, but it needs to be a much smaller and very carefully monitored program. The current one is a huge mess and a danger to our security and a detriment to our economy and society.

Respectfully,

Michael Sirois

No need for me to say anything further, except maybe to remind readers that S.744 (the Gang of Eight bill in the Senate) provides more funding for resettlement contractors and makes it easier for a greater number and variety of refugees/asylum seekers to gain admission to the US.

About the photo caption:  We wrote about the closure of the IRC Boston office here in 2009.  Visit it!

Nine Somali refugees to be sentenced in Minnesota terror case this week

It appears we are reaching the end of the story (this particular story!) of the twenty plus Somali youths who left the good life we gave them in America to join an al-Qaida affiliate, al-Shabab, in East Africa where they underwent jihad training.

Former “refugees” on the march in East Africa. At taxpayers’ expense we fed, housed and educated the “youths” so they would be strong and healthy to join the jihad! Think about it! Without your help they may never have grown up!

Below is a fairly brief summary of the story that we have followed extensively since 2008 here at RRW.  In fact, when you type into our search function the words ‘Somali missing youths‘ you will see an archive that probably runs to at least 50 previous posts.

The only glaring error I see here is that, perhaps recruiters appealed to the youths to help rid Somalia of Ethiopians, but that is not what this was all about.  I noticed when I went to the Senate hearing, here in March 2009, Senators Lieberman and Collins were obviously hoping it was all about “patriotism” for the homeland (a “homeland” that most had never set foot in previously!) but we learned in trial testimony later that al-Shabab was busy violently building an Islamic caliphate.

Here is the summary at the Lacrosse Tribune.   Don’t you think it’s interesting that this news will likely not appear on Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS etc. etc.

Must be a local crime story!

Nine people convicted in a government investigation of terror recruitment and financing for an al-Qaida-linked group in Somalia are to be sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Authorities say more than 20 young men have left Minnesota to join al-Shabab since 2007. Some have died, several remain at large, and others have been prosecuted in what the FBI has said is one of the largest efforts to recruit U.S. fighters to a foreign terrorist organization.

Some of the issues in the case, based on court testimony, court documents and AP interviews:

HOW IT BEGAN

In 2007, small groups of young Somali men began holding secret meetings at a Minneapolis mosque, in cars, and at restaurants to talk about returning to their homeland to wage jihad against Ethiopians. The Ethiopians had been brought into Somalia in 2006 by its weak U.N.-backed government, but were viewed by many Somalis as invaders.

Al-Shabab recruiters in Minneapolis appealed to patriotic ideals and told young men _ some in their teens _ that it was their “duty” to return to Somalia and fight. Recruiters also quoted from the Quran, appealing to religious beliefs to deepen the fighters’ resolve.

The men began leaving Minnesota in small groups to avoid detection, with the first departing Minneapolis on Oct. 30, 2007. Additional groups left in waves over the next months and years, with some raising money for their trips under false pretenses.

The FBI began investigating in 2008. The U.S. declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization in early 2008.

Read it all.  Everything discussed in this summary was reported at some point on the pages of RRW.

How bad is the fraud involved with asylum claims?

‘Asylumist’ blogger Jason Dzubow

Really bad! reports immigration lawyer and blogger Jason Dzubow (resume’ below)*.

After Boston we all became more concerned with how easy it is to defraud the US government with a phoney asylum claim.  The Tsarnaev family, with their travels back and forth to the country of their persecution, have become the poster family for asylum fraud.  Someone asked me just yesterday if I thought Mom and Dad were having welfare checks deposited in a Boston bank and transmitted to Russia.  That could be happening, I said!

Although this blog post by Dzubow is from last December, I hadn’t seen it until recently.  By the way, Dzubow seems like a fairly level-headed lawyer who works on behalf of immigrants.

LOL! And, here he had some advice for us!  Why does he join others in expressing frustration about RRW NOT being “neutral”?  Heck, the mainstream media is never neutral, rarely balanced, with its glowing gooey stories about refugees seeing their first snow; so, as I see it, I need to balance them!  That is my job!  Indeed, if the mainstream media wasn’t so biased and did some serious investigative work, there would be no need for bloggers.

I’ve digressed.

Back to Dzubow’s amazing admission in a post entitled, ‘Lawyers gone wild’ (emphasis mine):

The New York Times reports a major bust involving lawyers, paralegals, and even a church official who were allegedly helping Chinese nationals file fraudulent asylum cases. [There have been many news accounts recently about the large number of Chinese illegally coming across our borders. If caught, they ask for asylum.--ed]

The Times reports that 26 people, including six attorneys, were arrested in Chinatown and Flushing, Queens. They are accused of an elaborate scheme to help Chinese immigrants invent stories about persecution and dupe immigration officials into granting asylum. Some false stories describe persecution based on China’s one-child policy, including forced abortion. Others set forth claims based on religious persecution. Apparently, the asylum seekers aroused suspicion when Asylum Officers noticed that many of the stories were very similar.

In all, the conspiracy involves 10 law firms and as many as 1,900 asylum seekers. The conspiracy also allegedly involved at least one church official, Liying (pronounced “Lying”?) Lin. According to the Times, Ms. Lin, 29, trained asylum seekers in the basic tenets of Christianity. According to the indictment against her, Ms. Lin also helped her “clients” trick the immigration authorities and “trained asylum applicants on what questions about religious belief would be asked during an asylum interview and coached the clients on how to answer.”

This is not the first time that I’ve written about Lawyers and paralegals helping to create false cases, but it is the largest such bust that I’ve heard about.  One question is, how pervasive is this type of fraud?

A professor of Asian-American studies and urban affairs at Hunter College in New York, Peter Kwong, told the Times that he believes most Chinese asylum cases in New York City were fraudulent. “This is an industry,” said Prof. Kwong, who has written widely on Chinese immigration. “Everybody knows about it, and these violations go on all the time.” While I would not be surprised if Prof. Kwong is correct, I would also not be surprised if he is over-estimating the number of fraudulent asylum claims.

The reason for the difficulty is that there is no data on false asylum claims.

[....]

Although it is difficult to know the magnitude of the problem, it’s pretty clear that many asylum cases are fraudulent. The situation in New York is only the most recent illustration of the problem. So what’s the solution? I strongly believe that the government can do more to stop these fraudsters. I have seen enough of their work to know that they are not so smart and often not very careful (witness the Chinese case in NY where Asylum Officers detected the fraud when they noticed that many of the applications were suspiciously similar–in other words, the lawyers were too lazy and too cocky to bother making up unique stories for each asylum seeker).

Dzubow goes on to suggest that the feds send in “undercover clients” to smoke out these crooked lawyers.  Great idea! Start with whoever did the legal work for the Tsarnaevs.

There is more, visit the whole post.  And, keep this story in mind when you read an incredible first hand account of refugee fraud which I will post later today, or in the morning.

*Jason Dzubow’s practice focuses on immigration law, asylum, and appellate litigation. Mr. Dzubow is admitted to practice law in the federal and state courts of Washington, DC and Maryland, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Eleventh, and DC Circuits, all Immigration Courts in the United States, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Capital Area Immigrant Rights (CAIR) Coalition. In June 2009, CAIR Coalition honored Mr. Dzubow for his Outstanding Commitment to Defending the Rights and Dignity of Detained Immigrants.In December 2011, Washingtonian magazine recognized Dr. Dzubow as one of the best immigration lawyers in the Washington, DC area; in March 2011, he was listed as one of the top 25 legal minds in the country in the area of immigration law. Mr. Dzubow is also an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University in Virginia.

More on the Lewiston Maine arson fires, one boy named, Somali boy not named

Update May 11th:  Two white thugs arrested in third fire, thanks to a reader, here.

I didn’t read all the stories involving the arson fires in Lewiston, the Little Mogadishu of the Northeast, and to complicate matters there has been a third fire earlier this week in another apartment building that has the city rattled, here.  So, perhaps one of the other stories gives more details on the boys arrested.

Firefighters battle third blaze in a week in Lewiston, ME. AP Photo / The Lewiston Sun-Journal

Here is one report that says it was an error to have named the first 12-year-old boy arrested, so they don’t name the second.  This is an update of my previous post on the fires.

From The Morning Sentinel:

LEWISTON — The parents of a 12-year-old Lewiston boy accused of setting fire on April 29 to the Blake Street apartment building where they lived were nearly $6,700 behind in rent and were about to be evicted, according to Lewiston District Court records.

Jessica Reilly, the mother of Brody Covey, who is accused of starting the April 29 fire intentionally, had been served papers on April 26 on behalf of her boyfriend, Charles Epps, seeking to evict them from 109 Blake St., Apartment 1, the Portland attorney who filed the complaint against, David Sherman Jr., said on Monday.

The boy’s aunt, Ami Reilly, of Lewiston, said Monday at the courthouse that Brody is “not a bad kid” and would not start a fire for no reason, and that she believes “he was put up to it.”

[....]

Covey was identified last week by the District Court criminal clerks office. Authorities have declined to name the second boy after apparently releasing Covey’s name in error. Family members of the second boy also appeared in court Monday. They declined to comment, speaking through a Somali translator assigned to them by the court.

Read it all.

Interpreters—a hidden cost to refugee resettlement cities.

This reminds me, it’s something I haven’t written about in years.  Federal law requires that “welcoming” (not welcoming as well!) cities/counties must provide translation services for refugees for health department matters and legal issues among others.  You can imagine the cost to some areas of the country which have hosted a potpourri of refugees from diverse countries, many with obscure languages.  I remember reading that the court system in Montgomery County, Maryland spent a $million a year on interpreters.

BTW, Is this one of those “micro-aggressions” that we were told about here in January that could pop up in Lewiston as a result of community destabilization?  We have an extensive archive on Lewiston, visit it here.

Big fish, another Muhammed, arrested in NJ for $5 million food stamp fraud!

Update May 15th:  I see ICE was involved in this investigation, that means there was some immigration violation involved too because normally ICE isn’t in on these busts.

Wow!  This is a huge catch, maybe the biggest I’ve seen!  Arrested is Muhammed Farooq and, of course, no mention in this news account about his nationality or immigration status.

Muhammed busted in NJ!
Essex County Prosecutor’s Office

New readers, following food stamp fraud is a side hobby of mine (until some enterprising blogger wannabe takes on exposing food stamp fraud as their primary mission!).

From the Star-Ledger:

The owner of four dollar stores in Essex and Union counties has been charged with money laundering and other crimes after investigators determined more than $5 million in fraudulent food stamp transactions took place at his stores, authorities said today.

Muhammed Farooq, 49, of Somerset, was charged with money laundering, theft by deception and food stamp fraud when he was arrested today, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said.

Farooq was arrested at around 9 a.m. as police executed search warrants at his four stores and his home, completing an eight-month investigation by the prosecutor’s office, the federal Division of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General, Murray said.

“The Food Stamp program is designed to help people in need,” said Essex County Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Walter Dirkin, director of the county’s financial crimes unit. Any allegation of an abuse of the program will be investigated by this office.”

According to Murray, Farooq was allowing patrons to buy non-food items, such as electronics, with food stamps. He owns two stores in Newark, and one each in East Orange and Elizabeth, Murray said.

The purchases totaled roughly $5.2 million and went on for nearly 2 1/2 years, Murray said.

A search of Farooq’s Somerset home turned up $150,000 in cash, six computers, electronic food stamp machines and detailed business records, Dirkin said.

How did he get here—is he on an investor visa?  Did he send money out of the country?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Did you even know you could use food stamps in Dollar Stores?

For dozens more stories like this one from across the Nation, type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function.

Somewhat related:  Food stamp use by refugees jumped dramatically with the arrival of the Obama Administration, here.  The more people on food stamps, the richer the scammers become!

Somali man convicted in Nashville for refusing to testify in sex trafficking case

This is a story, one of the many, I missed in the days after the Boston marathon bombing when I was busy getting more information on the “refugee” bombers.

Couldn’t find a mugshot of ‘Grey Goose’ but here are some of the others originally standing trial in the multi-state prostitution case. Photo US District Court in Tennessee

And, I had been wondering whatever happened in that case involving 30 Somalis charged with using underage girls in a multi-state sex trafficking ring.  Some of them have gotten off.  More could be tried except an important witness refuses to testify (dead man if he does, I’m assuming).

All of our previous coverage of the case is archived here.

This is the short news story from The City Paper:

A man who repeatedly refused to testify in a sex trafficking case involving alleged Somali gang members has been convicted by a federal jury of contempt and obstruction charges.

The jury in Nashville on Wednesday convicted Abdullahi Farah of misbehaving before the court, contempt of court and attempt to obstruct the enforcement of sex trafficking laws.

“He agreed that he had material information on the ongoing sex trafficking case, but he still refused to testify against the other defendants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent said.

Farah, who is also known as Grey Goose, will be sentenced later. He is faces a maximum of life in prison, Vincent said.

Read on, the article has a short report about what happened with some of the others accused in the case.

Background for new readers:

We have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years.  See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW.  Large numbers went to Minneapolis, and now they are spreading out throughout the state.  In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000 per year.  Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all.  The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis.  It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.

In the first six months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1 to March 31) we have resettled 3,674 new Somalis which means we are on target to make FY2013 a year to rival the largest Somali influx years during the Bush Administration.

Boston bomber pal gets out on bail with help from “refugee” mom’s elite friends

Robel Phillipos is charged with lying to federal investigators after he and others went to Dzhokar Tsarnaev’s room after Phillipos recognized his friend on the videos released by the FBI in the days following the marathon terrorist attack.  He did not call the police to report that he recognized the bombing suspect as his buddy.  A shouted question from a reporter yesterday as to why he didn’t alert authorities is heard at the end of this interview with his lawyers (as they walked away).

Mom outside court house. Phillipos lawyer is on the right. Photo Boston Globe

From the Daily Caller:

Robel Phillipos, the 19-year old classmate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev who was charged with lying to federal investigators, gained release from custody with the help of a number of supportive affidavits from Boston-area academics and humanitarians close to his mother, according to a copy of his bond request obtained by the Daily Caller.

Mom is Ethiopian refugee who has important Boston “humanitarian” friends:

Phillipos’ mother Genet Bekele — an Ethiopian refugee who holds a master’s degree in social work from Boston University and worked for a refugee resettlement agency and as the director of the emergency shelter at the nonprofit battered women’s shelter Transition House — provided an affidavit in support of her son.

Transition House executive director Risa Mednick also provided an affidavit supporting Phillipos, claiming that she knew Phillipos’ mother when they both worked at Transition House and on the Cambridge Domestic Violence Task Force. Mednick claimed that Phillipos had a “surprisingly nuanced understanding of how social issues impact families and youth.”

Wellesley College art professor Salem Mekuria also provided an affidavit defending Phillipos.

“Robel’s mother is one of the most humanitarian and generous beings I know. Having experienced hardship as a refugee after escaping from an oppressive military regime, she has been working tirelessly to help others with similar experiences,” Mekuria said in an affidavit.

Martha Goldberg, a sponsored programs administrator at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, also defended Phillipos and stated that many employees of the International Institute of Boston knew the young man.

“I met Genet fifteen years ago as a coworker at the International Institute of Boston. I knew all about Robel as she would talk about him and many of the other staff members knew him. We were all proud of him because he was a really sweet, smart kid,” Goldberg testified in her affidavit.  [Smart?---ed]

For my critics!  I do have sympathy for Mom!

Readers, if you are having trouble finding the International Institute of Boston that’s because it is now “doing business as” the International Institute of New England.  It is another of the 300 plus subcontractors resettling refugees and providing services to “new Americans.”  I believe they are still a subcontractor of USCRI (remember them here yesterday).

Some of these contractors (top nine who have a monopoly) and subcontractors have changed their names over the years, why?  I assume it’s because somehow they got in trouble with federal grant money, but who knows, it could be innocent name changes.  Here in 2009, I reported that USCRI itself changed its name.  In any case it makes it harder for the average taxpaying citizen to keep up with them!

All of our posts on the Boston Marathon Bombing are archived here.