No one seems to know. That raises even more questions.
“‘How was he allowed into the US to begin with?’ House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy demands answers from the Biden administration about how British synagogue gunman with criminal convictions was let into America,” by Elizabeth Elkind and Jennifer Smith, DailyMail.com, January 18, 2022:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is demanding President Joe Biden’s White House answer how a UK national with a criminal history was allowed to fly to the United States where he held four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas over the weekend.
In addition to condemning the attack, he and other national Republican figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been grilling the administration over its handling of the incident.
Many accused the president of directing more federal law enforcement resources toward American parents protesting Critical Race Theory and mask mandates in public schools.
There is growing outrage and demand for answers as to how the British terrorist gunman who took four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville on Saturday was even able to enter the US on a tourist visa when he was known to intelligence agencies in the UK.
The FBI has declined to comment on the matter.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, flew to New York City from the UK on January 22, despite being known to MI5 and having a criminal record.
‘Over the past 48 hours, President Biden’s Justice Department has gone from denying the clear and religious, anti-Semitic implications of this attack to now backtracking to what we all already knew to be true. Now as more information becomes available, it only raises more questions,’ McCarthy said in a statement first sent to DailyMail.com.
The top GOP lawmaker in the House of Representatives accused Biden officials of ‘downplaying’ the attack and demanded to know why the FBI ‘initially disregard[ed] the role anti-Semitism played in this hostage situation.’
‘How was it that someone with an apparent criminal record and suspicious travel history was allowed into the United States to begin with?’ he also questioned. ‘What national security concerns remain?’…
Akram’s family say he had a criminal history but somehow, he was able to get an ESTA tourist visa – which are supposed to be off-limits to foreigners who have broken the law.
Akram spent two weeks at a homeless shelter in Dallas, during which time he was able to buy a gun on the street….
‘How long did the FBI know a radical Islamist foreign national with a criminal record was in the country? Were they working with him or his associates?
‘How did this person get a visa? Did he slip through the cracks because they were too busy surveilling your conservative grandma?’ Donald Trump Jr. tweeted.
‘They don’t want us to talk about how a known jihadist got past the FBI and into the country, obtained an illegal firearm, and took hostages at a synagogue,’ Jasec Posobiec said.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s former adviser, tweeted that ‘every journalist’ should be asking whether Biden changing vetting laws for tourists contributed to the incident.
The Independent reports that Akram was known to MI5 but that they didn’t consider him a severe threat.
It’s unclear what he said in his application for an ESTA tourist visa, which asks whether or not applicants have a criminal record.
The ESTA website claims checks will be carried out to see if an applicant has any undisclosed criminal convictions on file.
But according to social justice charity Nacro, the US authorities do not have access to criminal records held on the UK’s Police National Computer.
There was equal outrage in the UK, where lawmakers demanded to know how he was able to by-pass America’s immigration rules, which are known to be some of the strictest in the world.
Tory MP Bob Seely told MailOnline there seemed to have been a ‘dreadful’ error at the UK and US borders caused by an ‘intelligence failure’ and it needed to be looked at.
‘This is clearly a failure of intelligence sharing. It is absolutely dreadful that he has been allowed to go to the States and hurt people.
‘Clearly something has gone wrong somewhere,’ he said.
Another senior MP with knowledge of the security services voiced surprise that the background had not been picked up. ‘How did he get into the US?’ they said. ‘You get picked up for walking on the cracks in the pavement.’
Yesterday, his brother, Gulbar, demanded how he was allowed into America despite a long criminal record.
He said Malik was mentally ill and was mourning the death of his brother three months ago, reportedly from Covid.
The extent of his criminal record is not yet clear, but it may be that some of his offences may have been too petty or too old to stop him being turned away from the United States’ border.
somehistory says
Well, biden, as everyone with two brain cells communicating knows, is not in charge. “bo” allowed mb and other terrorists inside the WH.
The State Dept is awash with mozlums and their supporters from the days of “bo.” That dept issues the VISA’s for people to come for whatever reason.
British *intelligence* determined that he was no longer a threat.
and my personal theory: the bigwigs at c.a.i.rats org found a way….perhaps by bribery and or threats… to get him on a plane.
gravenimage says
Somehistory, I am *no* fan of the egregious CAIR–but I have not seen any indication that they knew that Malik Faisal Akram was plotting Jihad and wanted to aid him in the endeavor. Do you have more information?
somehistory says
No member of c.a.i.rats org has admitted anything and I have not read that they knew this murderous creep.
However, they have a *record* of being behind other things. As I said, it is my opinion that they had a hand in getting the guy here, but it is only my opinion. And, I’m not naming any individual that might be responsible in some way.
Read this article and see what you think. I had my opinion before reading it, but it only made me more sure of my opinion being correct.
https://www.newsweek.com/dont-let-cair-off-hook-its-role-colleyville-hostage-crisis-opinion-1670123
gravenimage says
There is no doubt that CAIR is hiseously antisemitic. Thanks for that link.
Mount Zion says
The worst thing in this case is that there will be no consequences whatsoever for the ones not doing their job by letting him into the country .
The Biden administration , the FBI or the immigration agency may face unconfortable questions , but in the end nothing will come out of it because there is always a way to talk yourself out of an uncomfortable situation .
:”He slipped trough the cracks “
joan_of_ark2005 says
Exactly right! It’ll be dropped like a hot potato, in a day or two. But what got me shaking my head, and saying to myself, “that’s rich”, is this!
“There was equal outrage in the UK, where lawmakers demanded to know how he was able to by-pass America’s immigration rules, which are known to be some of the strictest in the world.”
Whoever believes that we have “the strictest immigration rules”, is living in a fantasy world, of their own making!
gravenimage says
Here’s this absurd claim:
“Psaki claims Texas synagogue jihadi was checked ‘multiple times’ before being admitted to the U.S”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/01/psaki-claims-texas-synagogue-jihadi-was-checked-multiple-times-before-being-admitted-to-the-u-s
gregbeetham says
Unfortunately I think there is now a blind spot in most arms of government in the USA and the UK when it concerns Islam and Muslims, they’ve already disassociated Jihad from Islam and Muslims so they are no longer capable of dealing with potential Jihad issues in a straightforward manner.
It seems that they now have some convoluted tortuous system to avoid coupling terrorism to Islam and have no means of fitting Jihad into a category and wouldn’t know what to do with it even if they knew what it was.
They also don’t know what Sharia is, therefore they don’t realize that Islam is a political force aimed at converting the world into Islam and the dhimmi West needs to be subservient to Islam and Muslims think they are entitled to do what they like in our countries in pursuit of that goal.
All of which means they are floundering around like the blind leading the blind and because of the naivety are putting both of their national populations at high risk.
John T R Gorman says
Biden No doubt swallowed an awful lot of Islamic Kool-Aid from his old boss Obama. So Clueless Joe truly believes in the common fallacy that, “Islam means peace“, just as George W. Bush did. Islam means “submission”, particularly submission to the false god, “Allah”.
More than anything, however, Democrats see muslim refugees as the new Hispanic illegal immigrants. In other words, a new group they can exploit and turn into lifelong Democrat voters via endless Federal freebies.
May they fail miserably.
I want the next president, who will obviously be GOP, to find every illegal Afghan and every illegal Hispanic from this administration and DEPORT them all.
Hugo says
Firstly he isn’t British, he is a person who lived in the UK, and entered almost certainly illegally.
The interesting question is how did MI5 investigate him, and decide he wasn’t a threat?
Eva says
Because British intelligence apparently knows who all the jihadists are, and decides that none of them are a threat, until AFTER they’ve detonated a nail bomb in an auditorium full of children, or stabbed a bunch of people on a London Bridge, or at restaurants in the Borough, or beheaded a soldier (Lee Rigby, returning to his barracks) on the street, or any of their other atrocities.
You could get the idea they don’t care, or that they’re covering for them…
joan_of_ark2005 says
Sadly, there’s a reason and a purpose for all that. First, thousands of these people were put into all of those MANY NON-muslim countries, and some of them can’t wait for their time to come. Why else be slapped on the wrist, and labeled with “mental illness”, and sent back out on the streets?
Because there’s a word in Rev 20:4, that is also in the koran, and that is the reason satan put all those people in those countries. When Christians, Jews, and others refuse to take satan’s mark, during the coming soon Tribulation, that word in that verse, is what happens to them.
Who else would do what it says in that verse? The citizens of that country? No, because they don’t have the anger and hate for these “God people”, that the followers of satan do.
gordon says
There are at least 25,000 of these people considered highly potentially dangerous on the watch lists of each of the following countries,UK & France. We know from past Court cases & incidents that, due to budget restraints, training etc that each country does not have sufficient resources to perform 24/7 surveillance or even monitoring of these folk.
CogitoErgoSum says
This article says that America’s immigration rules are known to be some of the strictest in the world. Yeah, it’s a real joke, isn’t it? What does it matter what the rules say? Entry into the U.S. is wide open to everyone along the Mexican border. Anyone can walk right in. If this British man (I love calling him British) had not come in by direct flight to the U.S. he could just have instead flown to Mexico and then walked into the U.S. … and that’s the way Joe Biden wants it to be. Let’s go, Brandon.
Wellington says
America’s immigration rules are indeed some of the strictest in the world—for legal immigrants.
For illegal immigrants America has arguably the easiest immigration rules anywhere on Earth. All dispositive of how the American federal government is now run by ignoramuses or worse—usually worse.
Joe Biden, that POS, could serve as the poster boy, dementia and all, of just how far immigration matters have fallen in America. But, for that matter, Joe Biden could serve as the dementia poster boy of how much America has fallen in general.
CogitoErgoSum says
Sometimes I find myself actually feeling sorry for the man because he’s getting senile but then I watch videos of him from the past and my sympathy for him passes because the man has always been a piece of shit. Lord forgive me for saying that – but am I not supposed to tell the truth?
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
Unfortunately, Biden is a piece of sh*t that cannot be easily flushed away…
CogitoErgoSum says
I just hope the stench he leaves behind isn’t permanent.
Wellington says
He has been a disaster, James. And the disaster continues.
I am no fan of abortion, but I wouldn’t have minded exceptions in the case of Anthony Fauci in 1940 and Joe Biden in 1942. Ditto for Mohammed, Marx and Hitler.
All in the same “league?” I’ll let others make that call.
PRCS says
Better yet, and painless: an early withdrawal.
somehistory says
If their parents had never met, no need for any killing.
Infidel says
I fully agree, Wellington. Getting Green Cards in the 90s was tricky, but I finally got mine. Real issues then was transferring H1B visas when moving from employer to employer
It’s disgusting how some cities like New York are looking at letting non-citizens vote in their elections: mocking those of us who stood in line and did it the right way
gordon says
Sadly think he was born in UK and has two sons born there who were later interviewed by counter terrorism Police. It seems the exchange of criminal and other intelligence records between UK/US, UK/EU have almost fallen by the wayside or are not operating timely. In addition, as mentioned herein, there is a policy in these countries to down play Islamic terrorism and almost to pander & accommodate to their” needs & desires” whatever the costs.. This first showed itself in France some years ago when Islamic terrorist car ramming of Christmas markets were invariably listed as the culprit have “mental problems” and were never heard again to have any due process or referred to in the media.
Walter Sieruk says
The reason that jihadist was allowed to enter America was because Joe Biden halted terror vetting procedures . Biden is ,truly ,an un- American treacherous villain . As in the worst of the worst of all of them who ever sat in the Oval Office of the White House.
In addition, that jihadist Muslim, Malik Faisal Akram , with his demand for the release of a female jihadist from prison by this hostage taking at the synagogue in Texas . About this incident , of all the different places he could have entered to take hostages he deliberately chose a synagogue.
The reason for this is because Islam is very anti – Jewish.
Therefore the tragic reality is that such an anti –Jewish spirit is sanctioned in the “holy book” of Islam the Koran. Which instructs in violence and killing for the cause of Islam. As found in, for example, 4: 89. 5:33. 9:5,111,123. 47:4. In other words the Koran inspires and causes such hideous violence. Furthermore, another role the Koran has in such deadly Islamic terror attacks in the Jewish nation of Israel is that the Koran contains many negative about the Jewish people. The reason that the Koran reads as it does have much to do with the history of the founder and prophet of Islam, who is Muhammad. This is for a specific time period of his life Muhammad lived among many Jewish people and he liked them at first.
Later when they would not accept his claim of being of prophet, Muhammad then took is dislike to them that then turned into bitterness and even hate for them. So in the hate and bitterness he spoke many derogatory things about the as even referring to them as “apes and swine.” Such word of bitterness and hate, along with other thing he said, where written down on things and then later after his death those words were together together and then eventually, in time went in the composition of the Koran. Therefore, that why the Koran reads and in does about the Jewish people, as in calling them descendants of “apes and swine.” As seen in the Koran in 2:65; 7:166.; 5:60.
Furthermore, as a Christian I can keyboard that there is a chance the Muhammad actually might had been a prophet but the important thing to understand is that Muhammad was NOT a prophet send by God. Instead, Muhammad was a deceptive, lying false prophet send by Satan to lead many people astray and even and straight into hell. Jesus, in fact, had predicted and warned of the coming of such men as Muhammad. For Jesus taught “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matthew 7:15. In addition, the Bible further warns that “many false prophets are gone out into the world.” First John 4:1. [K.J.V.]
joan_of_ark2005 says
Good comment. So have you seen a certain word in the verse Rev 20:4? That word is also in the koran.
And so, if you know something of bible prophecy, you’ll know that in the middle of the Tribulation, satan demands everyone on earth receive his mark.
So what happens, when all the Christians, Jews, and others refuse to take it? I can tell ya that it’s a lot harsher than being demanded to take the vaccine, or else!
Rev 20:4 is what happens. So who else will do to the Christians, Jews, and others, who will not take his mark? The citizens of all those NON muslim countries, won’t extermine those who will not take satan’s mark, because they don’t have the anger and hatred that another certain group of “people” do.
Now think about a HUGE immigration of a certain “type” of people, a few years back, being sent to all of those MANY NON muslim countries. Where anytime one of them, maims, or kills, their given a slap on the wrist, and call it “mental illness” (and satan laughs that he thought that up), and sent back out on the streets.
And so, some of them can’t be patient, before they strike. The “coming soon” Tribulation will be “their” time, because they hate those “Godly people” as much as Satan does!
livingengine says
CAIR and the Mentally Ill –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk8HwGlLx5Y
PRCS says
Saw your “collaborate” note.
gravenimage says
How did the Texas synagogue jihadi get a tourist visa to come to the U.S. despite having a criminal record?
……………
That’s the first thing I wondered when I found out he traveled here from the UK and has a criminal record. My guess is that we are not likely to get any answers–or, worse yet, an actual change of policy.
gordon says
apparently the answer is the very surprising fact that neither the US or UK authorities have quick direct access to their respective records. Only IF, for example, the US Immigration are suspicious of a visa applicant (eg name, religion, address etc) can they raise an inquiry with British Home Office/ Police, but this was reported to be very rare and time consuming.
The British post Brexit face the same grave problem seeking information from the EU and vice versa
gravenimage says
Either US officials or UK officials or both dropped the ball.
Infidel says
Actually, this illustrates why the Travel Ban that the US had on a few select countries was inadequate, and should have been based more on the people, regardless of their citizenship. I know that ‘muslim ban’ triggers Dems, but that was exactly what would have prevented this: automatically vet all muslims wanting to enter this country, and allow in only people who want to enter for business reasons. Things like spousal (Tafseen Malik), tourist (Faisal Akram) or anything else – just a big no!
Eva says
Agreed. All moslems should be banned from the civilised countries of the world.
If it triggers the dhimm’s, too bad. These are the creatures that are causing all the trouble.
James Lincoln says
Infidel,
ALL muslims should be banned from entering the United States, except for very brief and highly monitored / military guarded 24/7 visits in order to conduct official government business.
Infidel says
Fully agree!
gravenimage says
The “Muslim ban” *was* inadequate–it was a good first step, though.
Holger Kruger says
The good thing with all of it is.
He does not make more crime. He is dead.
libertyORdeath says
I wonder how many times we issue a tourist visa and the “tourist” ends up staying at a homeless shelter. He had money for an international plane ticket and a gun, but not a place to stay? Seems likely that this was funded by someone who has not been named yet, and probably never will.
gravenimage says
He posed as a homeless man to get the Rabbi to let him in to help him. This staying in a homeless shelter may have been to bolster this ruse.
niall joyce says
“How did the Texas synagogue jihadi get a tourist visa to come to the U.S. despite having a criminal record?”
UK passport holders are part of the Visa Waiver Program.
OLD GUY says
Let’s face facts here, corporations are afraid they will lose sales or cheap labor if we enforce rules at our border that might restrict the number of people entering our country. The lawyers right these rules and tweak them to suit their financial and political source and ideology. There is always a loop hole to look the other way or work around the law.
gravenimage says
Few Muslims work, so they are not even good as cheap labor. In fact, besides everything else, Muslims cost us a fortune.
JCA Reid says
Easy Peasy….. multiple identities. i can recall from 1986-7 this Somalian, (i.e. Muslim),petty career criminal in London, England, when his bedsit was eventually searched, he had NINE Authentic UK in his possession! His photograph in them all, but different names in the Passports.
Last Summer, (2021), the illegals crossing the English Channel, blatantly filmed themselves destroying & ditching their I/Ds into the Sea.
somehistory says
I thought about that too. i. elmi, alias i. omar rep for islam in the Congress, entered the country with her father and others after the criminal dad changed their last name to omar.
gravenimage says
It would be interesting to know if Malik Faisal Akram traveled under a false name. I haven’t heard that he did, though.
somehistory says
Did you see this story?
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/fbi-declines-to-comment-on-mystery-man-reportedly-seen-with-temple-hostage-taker/2861246/
“Someone dropped him off, and they hugged when he existed the car.”
Perhaps this unknown person helped him in other ways, also.
gravenimage says
Quite likely, Somehistory.