Chechen Asylee connected to the Tsarnaevs killed (in self defense) by FBI in Florida

Another one of the “few” Chechens in the US is now dead after attacking an FBI agent with a knife.  For new readers, we have been told that the US Chechen asylum ‘community’ is small, but they sure are busy pleasing Allah.

Muslim mugshot: Another charming Chechen.

To get some key details of the breaking news, one has to read a couple of reports on what happened in Florida earlier today when a friend of the Tsarnaevs, Ibragim Todashev, was killed in the process of being questioned in the gruesome deaths of three Boston Jewish young men on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  We reported on the ritualistic murder here just a few days ago.  The men had their throats slit.

The New York Times confirms he was being investigated for the murder of the Jewish men.

“The investigators were working on the theory that he and Tamerlan,” had played a role in the murder, said the official, referring to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased marathon bombing suspect. One of the victims was a friend of Mr. Tsarnaev.

But, of course the NYT cannot bring itself to utter the ‘R’ word or the ‘A’ word, so we learn from CNN that Todashev was a political refugee—we gave him asylum just as we had given the Tsarnaevs protection and their friend in Manchester, NH as well!

CNN confirms here that Ibragim Todashev was granted asylum in the US in 2008 AFTER BEING HERE FOR SOME TIME ALREADY!

Todashev was from the Chechnya region, as were the Tsarnaev brothers, the source said.

Todashev was granted political asylum in 2008 but that he came to the US some time before that, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. Todashev has living in the US as a legal resident because of that aslyum claim, the official said.

Readers, Todashev, like most other “asylum seekers” was first an ILLEGAL ALIEN.  Under present law he had one year to apply for asylum after getting his feet on American soil, but if S. 744, as passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, becomes law he will have two years to hang around before applying for asylum, while living off the good will of the American people!

Hey, here is an idea!  Maybe Mark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society should invite these Chechens to his neighborhood!

And, one more thing!  Everyone is focused on the three other major scandals facing the Obama Administration but the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to identify Muslim terrorists in our midst, is to me the most damning of the FOUR scandals (or five if you count Fast & Furious).  Here is one more bit from the NYT:

The F.B.I. has also focused on Chechens who may have ties to extremists in Russia. Before the attacks, the bureau had not thought that they were a significant threat in the United States.

About the photo, both CNN and the NYT used this mugshot of the now dead Muslim, but the NYT only uses his name as the caption while CNN tells us this: “Ibragim Todashev, shown in a mug shot after his arrest on an aggravated battery charge this month.”

Addendum: No time to say more now, but please visit Blue Ridge Forum today about the mega-mosque being built in Maryland with Turkish government money (and the approval of Gov. Martin O’Malley).

Palestinian alleged terror-funders arrested in Maryland

Editors note:  This is cross-posted from my other blog, Potomac Tea Party Report.  We don’t know how these Palestinians got into the US (the mainstream media is rarely curious about that), but readers here at RRW should know that we (US State Department and refugee contractors) are now taking some Palestinian “refugees” to your towns and cities (101 so far this fiscal year).  And, sheesh, I thought that this morning I could get back to my posting backlog of more mundane issues such as the State Department hearing this past week, but these Muslim terrorist stories keep breaking like the waves on Ocean City beaches!

Thanks to Jeff, here is a mind-blowing story in the Baltimore Sun on Friday about the arrest of a pair of Palestinians who have been running a multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling scam for years.  Because they lived a modest lifestyle and no one knows where all the money went, it’s a good bet it was leaving the country to fund Islamic terrorists around the world (or maybe funding them right here at home!).

We need to thank the NYPD and Commissioner Ray Kelly who unraveled the scheme from the New York end.  In Maryland our police are way too busy swatting benign conservative Americans like Terry Porter in rural towns.

And, as is the usual case, there is no mention of the brothers’ immigration status—how did they come to be living legally in America in the first place (assuming they were legal immigrants)?*

From the Baltimore Sun:

The Palestinian immigrant and his brother lived next door to each other in homes in West Ocean City, over the years opening a number of businesses throughout the area — three pizza shops, a Mexican restaurant, a liquor store, gas stations, and development companies, court records show.

This week, however, authorities in New York alleged that Basel, 42, and Samir Ramadan, 39, were also at the top of a multimillion-dollar cigarette-smuggling ring and said they believe members of the organization may have funneled some of their proceeds to terrorist groups. [Update: Photos of the Palestinian alleged terror funders are here---ed]

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the Ramadan brothers had deposited more than $55 million from their untaxed cigarette sales into small banks in and around Ocean City, making a profit of $10 million along the way.

[.....]

Only a fraction of the money has been recovered, and the brothers’ lifestyles were described by authorities as modest. That, along with alleged links among some of the members of the ring to known terrorists such as Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind cleric serving a life sentence for a conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks, raised concerns that the money might be funding militant groups.

There is a lot more!  Read it all!

LOL! Someone should check to see if they were political donors to O’Malley and the boys!

Just for your information, we write often about food stamp fraud (trafficking) busts here at Refugee Resettlement Watch (archive here).  The majority of the scams are coming from immigrant-run convenience stores.

* We don’t resettle very many Palestinian refugees (a few in recent years) mostly because the militant Islamists in the Middle East want to leave them right there in their supposed “camps” funded largely by US taxpayers so as to remain a thorn in Israel’s side.  I don’t know how these Palestinians got into America legally.   I do think the food stamp scammers are using the Investor visas we give out like pez candy.

Chechen refugee friend of Tsarnaev interviewed by FBI in Manchester, of all places!

Update:  Jeannine reports that the story gets better, Musa was aide to a Chechen rebel leader, here.  What?  Are we doing favors for Russia by taking their troublemakers, just like we did with the Uzbeks?  Is that what we were doing with the Mesketians too?

Longtime readers know that Manchester, NH is one of the (few!) cities fighting back against the refugee resettlement industry for overloading their city with needy third-worlders.  We have dozens of posts at RRW on Manchester (here).

Musa Khadzhimuratov, Manchester NH resident and friend of Marathon bomber. VOA Photo

Now the residents have one more reason to be up in arms.  It seems that Tamerlan Tzarnaev was a regular visitor, and that he went shooting with a wheelchair-bound Chechen there who had clearly come as a refugee (although there is only an oblique reference to the UN bringing him to Manchester).   I’ll bet you a buck that, adding insult to injury, Musa Khadzhimuratov is living off the generosity of US and New Hampshire taxpayers in addition to “helping” Tsarnaev.

And, btw, do we give gun permits to former Chechen rebels? (just wondering)

Sheesh, I want to get back to more mundane topics like the State Department meeting this past week, but all of these refugee terrorist stories keep getting in my way (Uzbeks, Somalis, and now the Chechens again)!

Here is the story from the Union Leader, but do not skip the comments! (Hat tip: Jeannine)

MANCHESTER – Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went target shooting at a Manchester firing range and met up with an exiled former Chechen rebel living in the Queen City a month before the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, according to a Voice of America report.

FBI agents on Tuesday searched the Manchester home of Chechnya native Musa Khadzhimuratov, and examined the hard drives on his computers, VOA reported. Police in Manchester confirmed the FBI agents searched Khadzhimuratov’s home, according to the story, but Manchester Police Chief David J. Mara said police will not confirm anything because it is not their case.

The FBI, Mara said, also are not commenting on the matter.

[....]

The Khadzhimuratovs keep to themselves, the resident said, and do no socialize with other tenants. She thought his wife works but does not believe Khadzhimuratov is employed. He is paralyzed from being shot in the back in his native Chechnya.

Khadzhimuratov told a VOA reporter that FBI agents went to his home Tuesday with search warrants and took DNA sample and his fingerprints.

He said he repeatedly met with Tsarnaev over the past several years and that the FBI first questioned him on April 29, two weeks after the deadly attack. Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police while his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was wounded and later captured.

[....]

He said he came to the United States from Chechnya in 2004 through a United Nations program. He is paralyzed from the waist down from gunshot wounds suffered in Chechnya in 2001, according to the VOA article.

He said he first met Tsarnaev seven years ago at the annual meeting of the Chechen Society of Boston. Tsarnaev visited him three times in Manchester and once came with his wife and child.

Chechen Society of Boston?  We were told, in many articles (I wish I had saved them) that there are only a small handful of Chechens in the whole US, but obviously there are enough in the Northeast to have a ‘society.’

There are some great comments at the Union Leader, please read them.

Here is one I liked a lot! From Eric Boyle:

Well done everyone. Every ones comments are dead on. We need to be more vocal about all of this. The liberals get their way because they are loud. Let’s get vocal about what we believe in!

Right on! Right on! Right on!

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.

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!

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.

Lindsey Graham looking for more security screening for certain aliens in S.744

Here is an amendment to S.744 that is probably sending the refugee industry into conniption-fits.  They don’t want any more security screening that slows the flow of third-worlders into the US.  If it fails to pass it will send yet another signal that S.744 will endanger our security.

Graham, Kirk, McCain and Rubio yukking it up in Libya (we did good!) one year before the murder of Americans at Benghazi. Photo perhaps unrelated to this post, but it’s here because it infuriates me!
Photo credit: AP

And, you have to laugh because, should it pass, half the countries we are importing refugees from now would have to be on the list—Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Russia, former Soviet Union countries, even Burma (Rohingya Muslims).

Be sure to see our previous post here about Graham’s other amendment that is clearly in response to the Boston Marathon bomber brothers’ faux asylum claim.

Go here to see the list of all the amendments (hat tip: John).  The list now has a notation about which have passed/failed or been withdrawn.

Here is Graham’s amendment #3:

Purpose: To require additional security screening for certain aliens.

Additional Security Screening

The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall establish and maintain a list of countries or regions that, in the Secretary’s opinion based upon information related to national security, represents a threat, or contains groups or organizations that represent a threat, to the national security of the United States.

Upon determining that any alien or alien dependent  spouse or child is or was a citizen or long-term resident of any such country or region, the Secretary shall conduct an additional security screening to ensure that the alien or alien dependent spouse or child is not a member of or otherwise affiliated with any terrorist or similar group or otherwise presents a threat to the national security of the United States.

We will be watching!

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.