The Obama Administration Stopped Processing Iraq Refugee Requests For 6 Months In 2011

The Federalist ^ | Sean Davis

[imardmd1]

Although the Obama administration currently refuses to temporarily pause its Syrian
refugee resettlement program in the United States, the State Department in 2011 stopped
processing Iraq refugee requests for six months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation
uncovered evidence that several dozen terrorists from Iraq had infiltrated the United
States via the refugee program.

After two terrorists were discovered in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2009, the FBI began
reviewing reams of evidence taken from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that had been
used against American troops in Iraq. Federal investigators then tried to match
fingerprints from those bombs to the fingerprints of individuals who had recently entered
the United States as refugees:

(quote) "An intelligence tip initially led the FBI to Waad Ramadan Alwan, 32, in 2009. The
Iraqi had claimed to be a refugee who faced persecution back home -- a story that shattered
when the FBI found his fingerprints on a cordless phone base that U.S. soldiers dug up in
a gravel pile south of Bayji, Iraq on Sept. 1, 2005. The phone base had been wired to
unexploded bombs buried in a nearby road.

An ABC News investigation of the flawed U.S. refugee screening system, which was
overhauled two years ago, showed that Alwan was mistakenly allowed into the U.S. and
resettled in the leafy southern town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city of 60,000 which is
home to Western Kentucky University and near the Army's Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. Alwan
and another Iraqi refugee, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 26, were resettled in Bowling Green
even though both had been detained during the war by Iraqi authorities, according to
federal prosecutors." (end quote)

The terrorists were not taken into custody until 2011. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. State
Department stopped processing refugee requests from Iraqis for six months in order to
review and revamp security screening procedures:

(quote) "As a result of the Kentucky case, the State Department stopped processing Iraq
refugees for six months in 2011, federal officials told ABC News -- even for many who had
heroically helped U.S. forces as interpreters and intelligence assets. One Iraqi who had
aided American troops was assassinated before his refugee application could be processed,
because of the immigration delays, two U.S. officials said. In 2011, fewer than 10,000
Iraqis were resettled as refugees in the U.S., half the number from the year before, State
Department statistics show." (end quote)

According to a 2013 report from ABC News, at least one of the Kentucky terrorists passed
background and fingerprint checks conducted by the Department of Homeland Security prior
to being allowed to enter the United States. Without the fingerprint evidence taken from
roadside bombs, which one federal forensic scientist referred to as “a needle in the
haystack,” it is unlikely that the two terrorists would ever have been identified and apprehended.

"How did a person who we detained in Iraq -- linked to an IED attack, we had his
fingerprints in our government system -- how did he walk into America in 2009?" asked one
former Army general who previously oversaw the U.S. military's anti-IED efforts.

President Barack Obama has thus far refused bipartisan calls to pause his administration's
Syrian refugee program, which many believe is likely to be exploited by terrorists seeking
entry into the United States. The president has not explained how his administration can
guarantee that no terrorists will be able to slip into the country by pretending to be
refugees, as the Iraqi terrorists captured in Kentucky did in 2009. One of those
terrorists, Waad Ramadan Alwan, even came into the United States by way of Syria, where
his fingerprints were taken and given to U.S. military intelligence officials.

Obama has also refused to explain how his administration's security-related pause on
processing Iraq refugee requests in 2011 did not "betray our deepest values."

==========

Sean Davis is the co-founder of The Federalist.

[imardmd1]

"The president has not explained how his administration can guarantee that no terrorists will be able to slip into the country by pretending to be refugees, as the Iraqi terrorists captured in Kentucky did in 2009."

So who was it that asked him to explain? Anybody close to him? Anybody at all?

[Steely Tom]

It was “American” then, but it’s “not American” now.

Obviously, anything Obama wants is “American,” and anything Obama doesn’t want is “not American.”

[Eddie01]

That’s who we are.

[KittyKares]

This is frightening. They are already here, I am sure. And they are still coming. A friend of mine was changing planes in Dallas today, but the flight was delayed because they arrested a Middle Eastern man with a fake passport!

[imardmd1]

This is frightening. They are already here, I am sure. And they are still coming.

You're looking at your children's future, full on. Thank the Obama family.

[Bon mots]

Jihadi Lives Matter!