Mary Poole omits facts revealing refugee dangers in her rosy opinion supporting Soft Landing‘s refugee resettlement [guest column, Feb. 25 (http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/facts-show-missoula-can-safely-welcome-refugees/article_bbf09fe1-4d7b-585a-8cd7-e15d95dcb54c.html) ].
Poole states, “America has resettled over 3 million refugees... not one has committed an act of terrorism on U.S. soil.” First, she omits that refugees are arrested here planning U.S. acts of terror, thanks to the FBI, not United Nations vetting. Second, she omits that young adult children of refugees have committed U.S. terror acts.
First omission: The FBI has arrested vetted refugees, stopped in planning U.S. terror acts. Twelve refugee U.S. jihadis were terror charged in 2015, listed by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama [Neil Munro, Feb. 26 (http://breitbart.com/) ], from Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia and other countries. In 2015 an Idaho Uzbekistan refugee was charged with planning a suicide bombing. Others were charged in previous years.
Also, two Iraqi, UN-vetted refugees were arrested in February 2016 in Texas and California. [Caroline May, “...Terrorists Can Infiltrate Obama’s Resettlement Effort,” Feb. 26 (http://breitbart.com/) ]. Charges, including planning attacks on two Houston malls, lying on the application to be naturalized U.S. citizen, providing assistance to a foreign terrorist organization and more, are filed. ISIS states it will use U.S. programs to bring jihadis here.
Second: Two major U.S. terror acts, by grown children of refugees and immigrants returning to anti-western roots, have occurred. The Boston bombers, U.S.-raised, young adult children of Chechen refugees, killed and maimed Americans. The San Bernardino terrorist, U.S.-raised, adult child of Pakistani immigrants, with visa-wife, slaughtered co-workers.
Children of refugees rooted in cultures where “civilizational jihad” is common are susceptible to radicalization and put Americans at long-term risk. The FBI told ABC the U.S. may already have admitted dozens of terrorists as refugees. [Kerry Pickett, Nov. 17, 2015 (http://breitbart.com/) ]. For safety, help refugees near their own countries.
L. Childress,
Missoula