Some thing for you guys to start a converstaion on, My question is...Why is
Miller lying ? Why is he spewing out false facts ? And why does Chump refuse
to acknowledge that Miller ought be fired on the spot ?
First of all, 72 individuals, according to the Center for Immigration Studies,
have been implicated in terroristic activity in the United States who hail from
those seven nations, point one.”
— White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, interview on NBC’s “Meet
the Press,” Feb. 12, 2017
“We know there’s at least several dozen, perhaps many more than that, cases of
terrorism from these countries that have happened in the United States in terms
of terroristic plots, terroristic activity, material support for terrorism,
supporting terrorism overseas, all different kinds of terroristic activity
that’s been interdicted in the United States tracing back to these seven
countries.”
— Miller, ABC’s “This Week,” Feb. 12
Miller earned Four Pinocchios for repeating debunked claims about voter fraud
on the Sunday shows. But he made other problematic claims as well. In defending
President Trump’s executive order on immigration, he said on the Sunday shows
that dozens of people “have been implicated in terroristic activity,” including
providing material support for terrorism.
Miller claimed this, despite the 9th Circuit Court panel’s ruling that “the
Government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries
named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.”
What is Miller talking about?
The Facts
Miller is citing research by the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports
lower levels of legal and illegal immigration. According to the center’s study,
released Feb. 11, 72 people from the seven countries identified through the
executive order have been “convicted in terror cases since the 9/11 attacks.”
The seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
As we have documented before, the Trump administration compiled the list from
countries previously identified by Congress and the Obama administration as
potentially problematic if someone had traveled to them since 2011, but Trump
then used the list to try to ban citizens of those countries from traveling to
the United States.
The center found that 33 of the 72 people “were convicted of very serious
terror-related crimes,” including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act,
material support of a terrorist or terrorist group, and international
money-laundering conspiracy.
On the list were the two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green, Ky., who in 2011 were
arrested and faced federal terrorism charges after it was discovered that,
before becoming refugees, they had potentially targeted U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The revelation prompted the Obama administration to impose new, more extensive
background checks on Iraqi refugees.
Other examples included:
• Nima Yusuf, a native of Somalia, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to
conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabab. In her plea agreement, she
said she had worked to provide money and personnel for al-Shabab, knowing the
group was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
• Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a native of Somalia, who in 2011
pleaded guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with providing material
support to al-Shabab and al-Qaeda. The FBI’s announcement of Warsame’s guilty
plea labeled him as “al Shabaab’s emissary to AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula] and arranged for al Shabaab to purchase weapons directly from AQAP.”
• Mohamad Mustapha Ali Masfaka, a native of Syria, who in 2010
was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to making false statements under
oath in naturalization proceedings. Masfaka, a singer, was indicted on a charge
of lying to federal officials about his involvement with the Holy Land
Foundation for Relief and Development, a designated terrorist organization.
• Manssor Arbabsiar, a native of Iran, who in 2013 was sentenced
to prison after pleading guilty to one count of murder for hire, one count of
conspiracy to commit murder for hire and one count of conspiracy to commit an
act of terrorism. Arbabsiar participated in a plot to murder the Saudi Arabian
ambassador to the United States, along with members of Iran’s Quds Force,
designated “as a terrorist supporter for providing material support to the
Taliban and other terrorist organizations.”
But it’s important to note that being convicted of material support is not
always evidence that the person was planning a terrorist attack or
terrorism-related activities.
Some cases involved individuals who were convicted of charges unrelated to
terrorism activities, but whom prosecutors charged were related to terrorist
groups abroad. For example, three Rochester businessmen (Mohamed Al Huraibi,
Yehia Ali Ahmed Alomari and Saleh Mohamed Taher Saeed) were convicted of
money-laundering charges in 2009. Federal prosecutors charged that the men sent
$200,000 overseas knowing the money could benefit Hezbollah.
But according to the Associated Press, “authorities stressed that the men had
no links to any terrorist groups and have not been charged with any terrorism
crimes.” A federal prosecutor said at the time: “This is simply a money
laundering case. There are no charges claiming that they were giving money or
aiding any terrorist organizations.”
The Center for Immigration Studies noted there were charges of terror links
that prosecutors decided not to pursue in court.
In one 2013 case, Siavosh Henareh, was sentenced to prison for conspiring to
import heroin into the United States. Henareh was one of three defendants
charged in connection to trafficking of drugs and weapons on behalf of
Hezbollah. Henareh faced a narcotics charge, but his two co-defendants were
convicted of conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah.
Some of the people on this list had entered the United States decades before
they were charged with any of the crimes — as early as 1972. This list included
people who were naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, refugees,
people whose citizenship statuses were unknown, and a Canadian citizen and a
Dutch citizen born in Iraq.
Moreover, the list also includes about two dozen cases that are related to
charges of fraudulent visas, passport forgery or making false statements. In
some cases, the people were specifically found not to have any known ties to
terrorism operations. Some were a part of investigations following the attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, of people suspected of being connected to the hijackers.
Some were found not to have such ties, or were convicted of making false
statements to federal investigators about how much they knew about the 9/11
hijackers.
For example:
• Mohamed Albanna, native of Yemen and a U.S. citizen for 27
years at the time of his 2002 indictment, was convicted of money laundering. At
the time of his indictment in Buffalo, the special agent in charge of the U.S.
Customs Service there said authorities “had no evidence to link the money
transfer to any terror-related activity.”
• Numan Maflahi, a native of Yemen, was convicted in 2004 of
lying during a terrorism investigation. Maflahi “denied helping a Yemeni cleric
who prosecutors said made a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn mosques in 1999,” and
the cleric was thought to have connections to al-Qaeda.
• About 10 people who were among 20 men of Middle Eastern origin
arrested after the 9/11 attacks under suspicion of fraudulently obtaining a
license to transport hazardous materials. None of them were linked to terrorist
groups.
• Nageeb Abdul Jabar Al-Hadi, a native of Yemen, was found guilty
of visa and passport fraud. He had used the documents to get on a flight hours
after the 9/11 attacks. His attorney said he was a “victim of bad advice from
his friends in his home country.”
• Hadir Awad, native of Syria, was accused of borrowing a
passport from a friend and using it to enter the United States illegally in
1999. He was convicted of a charge of visa fraud.
The White House did not provide an explanation when we asked for one.
As we noted before, of about 400 people charged with or credibly involved in
jihad-inspired activity in the United States since 9/11, just under half (197)
were U.S.-born citizens, according to research by the nonpartisan think tank
New America Foundation. An additional 82 were naturalized citizens, and 44 were
permanent residents.
Trump’s executive order applies to migrants, refugees and potentially even U.S.
green-card holders from these seven countries. But the order would not have
prevented some of the most high-profile terrorist attacks by people from
countries excluded from that list, including the 9/11 hijackers, the attackers
in San Bernardino, Calif., and the Boston Marathon bombers.
The Pinocchio Test
Miller cited this research to say that several dozen people from the seven
countries identified in the executive order were involved in “all different
kinds of terroristic activity.” But upon closer examination of the cases on the
list, it becomes clear that his statement went too far. In fact, this is pretty
thin gruel on which to make sweeping claims about the alleged threat posed to
the United States by these seven countries, especially because the allegations
often did not concern alleged terrorist acts in the United States.
The list does include some people who were convicted of providing material
support, such as money or personnel, to groups that are designated as terrorist
organizations, such as al-Shabab and al-Qaeda. But it also includes people who
were convicted of passport fraud, visa fraud and making fraudulent claims to
federal investigators. About two dozen people on this list were not charged
with any crimes relating to providing material support to known or suspected
terrorist activities or organizations.
Others were believed to be tangentially related to terrorism groups abroad, but
did not face terrorism charges. Regardless of the direct or tangential ties
that investigators believe each individual may have to terrorist activities,
these charges need to be proven in a court of law. Suspected or potential
terror links involving these 72 individuals do not confirm Miller’s claim that
they were “implicated in terrorist activity.”
Moreover, some people on this list entered the United States — many of them
naturalized — decades before they were charged with any of the crimes. That
makes Miller’s use of this list to defend Trump’s executive order quite
questionable. We award Three Pinocchios.
Three Pinocchios
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