Terrorism-Related Arrests Made in California and Texas Two refugees from Iraq charged with lying about terror affiliations By Devlin Barrett and Miriam Jordan
http://www.wsj.com/articles/terrorism-related-arrests-made-in-california-and-texas-1452227330
Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, 23, of Sacramento, Calif., was charged with making a false statement involving terrorism. He is due in court Friday, officials said.
“While he represented a potential safety threat, there is no indication that he planned any acts of terrorism in this country,’’ said Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. Attorney in Sacramento.
According to court filings, Mr. Al-Jayab is a Palestinian born in Iraq who came to the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee in 2012. Between October 2012 and November 2013, while living in Arizona and Wisconsin, he allegedly told others in online discussions that he planned to travel to Syria to fight for terror groups.
Then, in November 2013, he allegedly traveled to Syria and, according to his social media posts, said he was fighting in that country alongside terror organizations, including Ansar al-Islam. Authorities say he returned to the U.S. in early 2014 and has been living in Sacramento.
Authorities say he lied on Oct. 6, 2014, when he was interviewed by a federal immigration agent and denied being a member of any rebel group or militia, as well as denying providing material support to a group engaged in terrorist activity. He also claimed that he had traveled to Turkey in the past year to visit his grandmother, which authorities said was a lie.
A lawyer for Mr. Al-Jayab couldn’t immediately be identified.
Separately, another Iraqi refugee was indicted by a Houston grand jury on three charges: attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State terror group, procuring citizenship or naturalization unlawfully, and making false statements.
Federal prosecutors said Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, of Houston, lied when he claimed he wasn’t associated with a terrorist organization. Authorities charge he had relationships with members of Islamic State. In October, he allegedly falsely told authorities he had never received any weapons training. Officials say he had received automatic machine gun training.
A lawyer for Mr. Al Hardan couldn’t immediately be identified.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charge against him.
More than 150,000 Iraqi refugees and Iraqis with special visas, designated for those who worked for U.S. contractors or troops, have arrived in the U.S. since the Iraq war in 2003. Thousands more are awaiting security clearance, according to advocacy groups. Since 2008, Iraq has been among the top three countries of origin for refugees to the U.S. Nearly 13,000 arrived in 2015, and nearly 20,000 arrived in each of the previous two years, according to State Department data.
About two dozen state governors have clashed with President Barack Obama over the entry of refugees into the U.S. in the wake of the recent Islamic State attacks on Paris, with Mr. Obama arguing that allowing a limited number of refugees, especially from Syria, is a humanitarian gesture, and the governors expressing security concerns.
“The arrest in Houston of an Iraqi refugee for suspicion of terrorist activities is a troubling revelation—especially in light of the president’s insistence on placing further refugees in Texas,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Thursday.
Alabama on Thursday became the second state to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement. It accused the Obama administration of failing to consult with states before sending people there.
Texas last month used a similar argument to try to stop six Syrian refugees from being resettled in Dallas.
Controversy over the refugee program erupted after it emerged that one of the suspects in the Paris attacks had posed as a Syrian refugee when he entered Europe.
The U.S. has received about 70,000 refugees from all over the world in each of the past few years. Mr. Obama has committed to accepting 85,000 refugees in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, including 10,000 Syrians fleeing Islamic State and the brutal civil war in their home country.
Comments are closed.
