Heads 'Senate Jihad Caucus'
What are those “highest level of security checks” refugees are subject to?
We don’t know and we have never been told!
But, don’t you think it’s about time that the US Department of Homeland Security and the US State Department let the public know!
We are expected to have faith that the State Department (with the enthusiastic approval of the 14 members of the Senate Jihad Caucus) can bring in 65,000 Syrians and we’ll be just fine—no wannabe jihadists among them now? No children will grow up to be jihadists (like the Somalis)?
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, one of 14 Senators (Senate Jihad Caucus!) who sent a letter to Obama recently asking for the Administration to admit 65,000 Syrian refugees to the US ASAP! Can Senator Kaine guarantee our security?https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/14-us-senators-tell-obama-bring-more-syrians-to-america-65000-is-a-good-number/
That is the issue that jumped out at me when Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) got his second communication from the US State Department to his second inquiry about what was going on in his district.
Once again Leo Hohmann of World Net Daily is on top of the story. He begins here with some background. Emphasis is mine:
Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy’s efforts to shed light on the government’s secretive refugee resettlement program continues to play out in letters between himself and the federal agency responsible for resettling thousands of foreign refugees in U.S. cities and towns every year.
Since his letters haven’t produced many answers, he’s now calling for a meeting with State Department officials.
Gowdy, R-S.C., started asking questions in April about how refugees are distributed to various cities, the impact on local job markets and public services, and who makes the key decisions, among other points of interest. His questions came after it was revealed that Spartanburg, a city in his home district, was selected to receive 60 to 65 refugees over the next year, mostly from Syria. Unable to answer all of the questions posed by some nervous constituents, Gowdy fired off letters to Secretary of State John Kerry.
After getting a response from Kerry that he said was “wholly inadequate” and “vague,” he demanded more specifics on May 4. On Wednesday, he received a second response, which he called a “non-response.”
The State Department secretly selected Spartanburg sometime last year to be one of its designated “receiving communities” for Syrian refugees, 92 percent of whom to date have been Muslim people that the FBI has said will be virtually impossible to safely screen for terrorist connections.
South Carolina’s Gov. Nikki Haley’s refugee coordinator then quietly approved the Spartanburg resettlement in December – again with no public input or notice.
Details of “security checks” are “classified!” And, we are supposed to take it as an article of faith from Obama’s State Department that we will be kept safe!
It is time for us to be told the details of how the security screening is accomplished and not just with the Syrians, but also with the Somalis!
The truth is that some Somali young man shows up in a boat on Malta or in Malaysia and we accept who he says he is and bring him to the US as a refugee. There cannot possibly be any high level security check! If there is, then tell us how it is done!
Hohmann continues:
“As noted in our previous correspondence, all refugees … are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the United States,” states the latest letter to Gowdy, dated June 1. “The specific details of these checks are classified.”
FBI terrorism expert Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the agency’s counter-terrorism unit, has said that screening refugees from a “failed state” like Syria is beyond the capability of U.S. intelligence because the U.S. has no military presence in Syria and does not have access to reliable police or intelligence records. Steinbach testified publicly to this fact at a Feb. 11 hearing before the House Homeland Security committee.
Yet, the State Department continues to tell congressmen and the public that refugees are rigorously screened. The contradicting statements from the FBI and the State Department continue to trouble those in Spartanburg and elsewhere who have been pushing back against arefugee program they see as secretive and unaccountable to anyone, and the government hides details by working through a maze of private nonprofit “contractors.”
There is much more, read on here!
LOL! And, on this accountability issue, notice (in the latest State Department letter) that the US State Department is shifting responsibility to World ReliefSpartanburg leader Jason Lee.
For new readers wishing to catch up on the Spartanburg/Rep Trey Gowdy issue, go to our first post on the controversy, here, in March. We have been updating it regularly.
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