Six Middle Eastern men who were arrested in Arizona after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2015 and were cited by right-wing blogs and news outlets to stoke terrorism fears and promote the need for tougher border control were actually victims, not terrorists.
By all indication, these men turned out to be victims, but there was and is nevertheless ample reason for caution and even alarm regarding jihadis infiltrating the refugee stream; the rhetoric in the article below accusing Fox News and “right wing” media of victimizing immigrants and stoking “fear” does nothing to serve the interests of homeland security.
Every immigrant should be properly and thoroughly checked out, given the reality of jihad attacks globally and the fact that America is at war with Islamic terrorism.
It takes but a glance at Europe to see the catastrophic infiltration of their once-peaceful societies: Sweden is on the verge of civil war, with violent no-go-zones in which people are terrified to leave their homes; police are also fearful on the job. The Muslim migrant-induced rise in crime, jihad attacks and ongoing threats by the Islamic State have Europe in general in a state of siege.
The article below protects a handful of immigrants at the expense of society as a whole society. It matters little to Newsweek, apparently, that scores of infidels and apostates are murdered and/or assaulted daily by jihadis and Islamic supremacists. The ongoing tactic of the far left and those who continue to undermine the social order in the West is to pressure Fox News and other media outlets — which they refer to as “alt-right” — to “shut up for the good of diversity” at any cost.
Diversity is not recognized among Islamic supremacists. In their world, it is the House of Islam versus the House of War, period. Meanwhile, social justice warriors continuously ignore the fact that everyone should be concerned about jihad and sharia, not just white people, who are routinely and unfairly targeted by smear campaigns and false charges of racism and “Islamophobia.”
“Fox News and Right-Wing Media Wrongly Used Six Middle Eastern Immigrants to Stoke Terrorism Fears,” by Ryan Sit, Newsweek, November 27, 2017:
Six Middle Eastern men who were arrested in Arizona after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2015 and were cited by right-wing blogs and news outlets to stoke terrorism fears and promote the need for tougher border control were actually victims, not terrorists.
Records obtained recently by the Associated Press show that the FBI had quickly cleared the men, five Pakistanis and one Afghan, of any terror-related suspicion after their November, 2015 arrest 15 miles north of the border. But that didn’t stop Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey or right-wing news outlets from exploiting the incident to raise the specter of terror, a fear made fresh by the Paris attacks that occurred just days earlier.
Three days after the men were taken into custody, Ducey issued a statement calling the incident “very troubling, especially in light of new threats on the United States from ISIS in a video released in just the last 24 hours.” But federal authorities were not saying the same thing because, indeed, the men had been cleared.
Not only that, the Associated Press discovered, the men were victims themselves of brutal human traffickers. The Afghan told Border Patrol agents that he had traveled for seven months to reach U.S. soil. He trekked through at least 10 countries before making it into Arizona before tripping a sensor and being arrested.
“He was detained for weeks in Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico and paid nearly $15,000 in smuggling fees along the way,” the AP reported.
The men told authorities the smugglers threw rocks at them if they walked too slowly and threatened to leave on man who injured his ankle. Another man paid the smugglers to walk slower. They spent days walking through a desert after running out of water in the first day, then navigated snowy mountainous regions without jackets.
The six men all cooperated with authorities and became witnesses in the cases against their two Mexican smugglers. When interviewed independently, they all gave similar accounts of verbal physical abuse by the smugglers.
Those men, Ernesto Dorame-Gonzalez and Martin Lopez-Alvarado, later pleaded guilty to smuggling charges, thanks to help from the undocumented immigrants.
Still, the arrest of the six Middle Eastern men made its rounds through right-wing blogs like Breitbart.com before major outlets picked it up.
Fox News acknowledged that the men posed no threat of terrorism, though that didn’t stop the network from raising a general concern about border security. Under the headline, “Testing the gates? Syrians nabbed south of the border, Arizona arrests stoke terror fears,” Fox combined its coverage of the Arizona border crossing with an unrelated incident later that week of two Syrian refugee families who arrived at the U.S. border seeking asylum. The article said the incidents raised “concerns that Islamic State militants could be probing security.”…
Bev says
First of all, they are not ‘undocumented immigrants’, they are according to the law classified as illegal aliens. The fact that they come from the Middle East should be a wake up call for everyone. There’s no telling who we have in our country because there’s little to no control of our border. We need to stop incentivizing illegals to come here. No jobs, no welfare, no medical care, children are not citizens if parents are not citizens, no education, nothing, nada, zilch, nichts. They,will get a bus ride home and that’s it. It will not be worth their time or money to come here.
bonnie louise loranger says
exactly. But will it be done”That is the question”
dwight hogg says
Terrible to be concerned about the kind of people who cross your border – the fact that they are crossing illegally means nothing to the spineless. That they came from Afghanistan and Pakistan must mean that they are enshrined in auroras of peace and kindness and should be allowed entry without question. If this happened in Canada the govt would give them each $10.5 million to assuage their hurt feelings
Norger says
???
Max Publius says
Paid $15k?!? How do so many of these so-called refugees have thousands of dollars to pay for their journey? I’ve read this story over and over. Sometimes they pay over $100k in cash. These aren’t refugees, they are thieves taking the money and running, thereby leaving their countrymen poorer and even worse off than before. This is b.s.
Jim says
Looks like Newsweek is trying to make itself relevant again. Who cares what Newsweek thinks. I hope this was on the Opinion page, because this does not qualify as news; it’s just the author’s opinion.
Shmoovie says
Give poor old Newsweek two stars for its sad stab at renewed coolness with the ‘Madam President’ cover.
It will be a collector’s item eventually, like those celebrity death issues.
Charles says
It’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to determine that any person (especially any Muslim!) Poses “No Threat” of terrorism!
If that person is Muslum, they will likely be a potential Threat untill the day they die and are laid to rest in a “NO JEWS ALLOWED” cemetery!
I’m in my 7th decade of life. And I’ve been studying this “issue” since I was in my teens. There is no such thing as a “SAFE” muslim!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Sons of Liberty says
Exactly, Charles ! These poor Muslims are the real victims ? NO ,…they are ILLEGAL ALIENS , who suffered by the hands of the smugglers because they were committing an ILLEGAL ACT trying to enter our Country by illegal means ! Newsweek tell your SOB story to the TWO Utah women who were brutally RAPED by a SOMALI Muslim when he was 14 years old in 2011 , being allowed to come here by Obama and his treasonous administration. Yes, and yesterday a Judge allowed him to be released serving only time in a juvenile facility , when he should have been handed over to an ADULT PRISON. Mohammed Ali Mohammed is NOW FREE to go and rape some more infidel women . Great job Judge ! Why was he NOT DEPORTED immediately BACK TO SOMALIA ? One of his victims testified before the Judge , THAT THIS MAN should NOT BE WALKING AROUND FREE in our Country ! Can you say Sweden in America . All this talk in the news about sexual harassment and YET we have a Judge letting a 2 time RAPIST ….GO FREE ! …… INSANITY.
Sons of Liberty says
The Judge was a woman ,…so much for women defending women . I would not doubt that she would feel solidarity with the women at the Washington, DC march PROTESTING President Trump’s INAUGURATION walking around with ( We are ALL Muslim ) SIGNS and wearing their pink vagina hats !
LeftisruiningCanada says
“Fox News acknowledged that the men posed no threat of terrorism, ”
Agreed Charles, how is it possible to say they pose no threat of terrorism if they still claimed to be muslim? They just entered your country illegally, so how much respect do they have for the place to start with?
And that’s quite the price to pay the smugglers isn’t it.
Santa Voorhees says
“the rhetoric in the article below accusing Fox News and “right wing” media of victimizing immigrants and stoking “fear” does nothing to serve the interests of homeland security.”
Yeah, because the Left has done so much to serve the interests of homeland security, right?
boakai ngombu says
“…Records obtained recently by the Associated Press show that the FBI had quickly cleared the men, five Pakistanis and one Afghan, of any terror-related suspicion after their November, 2015 arrest 15 miles north of the border … The Afghan told Border Patrol agents that he had traveled for seven months to reach U.S. soil. He trekked through at least 10 countries before making it into Arizona before tripping a sensor and being arrested.
“He was detained for weeks in Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico and paid nearly $15,000 in smuggling fees along the way,” the AP reported.
did the Afgani pay off the FBI for the quick clearance?
Carolyne says
Ask Comey. No, wait a minute. Don’t ask Comey. He lies.
Shmoovie says
Who would the media/SJWs blame if a truckload of deceased muslim men, with provable terror ties/intentions and marks of abuse on their bodies, was discovered south of the border?
Never mind– the public wouldn’t hear of it.
But if it DID get out, media and protestors would use the identical ‘blame Trump and phobic fear-mongers who wouldn’t let them in the front door’ angle.
Tjhawk says
I’ve done quite a bit of travel, and every country I entered had a process of border control. There would definitely have been consequences had I been found in these countries without having gone through the process. Many of these countries are places where very few people would voluntarily change citizenship for. Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh come to mind here. There was usually a uniformed, armed presence at the point of entry. They meant business. Nobody came in if they didn’t know about it.
Here we have the USA., a place where multitudes would risk it all to gain citizenship, and we’re morally deficient for wanting border control?? Stefan Molyneux (check him on YouTube) says it’s like the prettiest girl at the dance putting on a blind fold, spinning around, pointing and then saying YOU, you’re the one I want to go make babies with.
LeftisruiningCanada says
Exactly. If any of those ‘less desirable’ countries found you there without a proper visa, or stamp, or in some cases a long trail of paperwork showing your every move whilst there, you’re detained, fined and expelled with warnings to not come back anytime soon.
But i guess our *most* desirable countries, with the whole world wishing they could come in, are so much more enlightened than needing to bother taking care of things like that……
The “prettiest girl’ idea is good. But might the situation be not more like that same girl stripping herself naked, laying back, with a sign hung around her neck saying “come on in, everyone welcome”?
Can’t see that kind of standard bringing in the kind of people you’d want, can you? The opposite, more likely.
Tjhawk says
Yes, I think your pretty girl description is probably more apt. The very worst types will get there first.
How long can the pretty girl stay pretty? That lifestyle catches up with everybody.
LeftisruiningCanada says
Sadly true. We can probably all remember an example of a good looking party girl from our school days who acted like that. A few years later the poor thing looks haggard and on crack, body wasted but heavy in soul with too many problems, violent acquaintances, and unwanted children.
Somewhere along the line our countries got hijacked and started acting like her.
Walter Sieruk says
The sad and tragic reality of jihad-minded Muslims engaging in Islamic suicide/homicide bombings attacks is for a large part, the outcome the extreme brainwashing that is performed in Islamic mind programming centers which are mosques and madrasas. In those jihad mind control places students are thoroughly indoctrinated into the jihadist mindset of committing murderous bombing attacks in the jihad for the advancement of Islam. As Islam’s “holy book,” the Quran instructs in 9:111. , for example, “The believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain they kill and are killed.” Therefore, those who come out of those Quran based mind programming centers .mosque and madrasas, are so terribly harmed and damaged that they are literally, as it has be rightfully called, “dangerous to self and others.” This results in jihad suicide /homicide attack in which those jihadists who commit such murderous actions are so very deluded that they think of that jihad mass murders as “martyrdom operations.” This is Islamic delusion of the most heinous and malicious kind.
This may be, somewhat, explained by the narrative from the fable of Aesop which is entitled THE SCORPION AND THE FROG So “Once upon a time there was a scorpion who really wanted to get to the other side of the river, but he could not swim. Therefore, the scorpion begged a frog to carry him on his back across the river. The kind but foolish frog agreed and then half-way across the river the scorpion stung the frog. In shock and horror the dying frog asks the scorpion “Why did you sting me since this means that we both are going to die” The scorpion replied “The reason that I stung you even though we both will now die is because that just what a scorpion, by nature, does.”
In conclusion, just as that scorpion in the fable had proven himself by the dangerous and deadly, to self and others, because of his nature. The violent and murderous jihadists of Islam are as that scorpion, dangerous so self and other because they is their nature because they have been thought programmed in the ways of the violent and murdering jihad of Islam. As always stated above ,this is the sad and tragic reality of Islamic terrorism in today’s world.
Walter Sieruk says
Many Fox News watchers understand but few CNN watchers understand that it’s not the job of President Trump to have a PC policy of immigration that the left would like. It’s the job and duty of President Trump to ensure the safety and protection of the American citizens.
Quaker Lady says
Well, I have a few questions after reading this piece! So where did an impoverished, victimized, suffering Afghani or a Pakistani come up with $15,000 to buy the coyote’s services anyway? Does anyone reading this website have 15 grand just laying around, ready to pay a criminal for his services? Did the propagandist pretending to be a journalist even think to inquire where these “victims” got their money, or who in fact might have funded them? And are we really supposed to be reassured by the FBI’s judgement that they are no threat at this point? Omar Mateen, anyone? Mandalay Bay? Just sayin’!
LeftisruiningCanada says
” Does anyone reading this website have 15 grand just laying around, ready to pay a criminal for his services?”
Yes, it’s called my income tax, to be paid at the appropriate time under threat of fines or jail time.
Karen says
LOL, I feel your pain!
Karen says
““He was detained for weeks in Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico and paid nearly $15,000 in smuggling fees along the way,” the AP reported.
The men told authorities the smugglers threw rocks at them if they walked too slowly and threatened to leave on man who injured his ankle. ”
Boo hoo. That’s what happens when you make deals with criminals. Try applying for a visa and coming here legally.
gravenimage says
Newsweek accuses Fox News, “right-wing media” of using immigrants to stoke fears about terrorism
…………………….
Because you have to be “right wing” to object to supremacist Muslims flooding in to take over. Bad dhimmis!
John Forbes says
NEWSWEEK NOW A LEFT WING RAG? AMERICA HAD BETTER WAKE UP TO THE THREAT OF THE FOLLOWERS OF ISLAM & STOP APPEASING WHERE EVER POSSIBLE & STAND UP & APPLY US LAWS.
Dan King says
Calling them victims is like calling the person who walks past the “Stop thin ice” sign across a thinly frozen river, breaks thru, and blames the water.
Mindy Robinson says
The fbi doesn’t know who is or who will be a terrorist, this idea that they do know is foolish and dangerous. There are those within the fbi who are left wing terrorists using their positions to attack and oppress those who refuse to bow to their delusional ideology. As far as these invaders being victims, they aren’t. They chose to pay criminals to assist them in their criminal activity. Those who invade nations are enemies of the nation they enter, dangerous, they aren’t victims they are predators.
Carolyne says
If these five men crossed the border illegally, they are not victims, but criminals.
Karen says
Yes.
Lorensacho says
With respect, they are right. There are many people who hate to see people of a different color and language and would like to get rid of them. These are very ignorant people who fail to understand that America is great because of immigration.
gravenimage says
Not wanting to be taken over by Islam has nothing to do with language and race.
Cheer Bear Girl says
Anybody trying to get into this country illegally is a potential danger to us all.