Frontpage, by Michael Cutler, Oct. 1, 2015:
As ISIS, the Nusra Front (an al Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria) and other terror organizations continue spreading death and violence in Syria, increasing numbers of Syrians are literally running for their lives.
Europe has witnessed a tsunami of refugees and Secretary of State John Kerry has promised to increase the number of refugees that the United States will admit.
Communities that have already been accepting refugees, and not just from Syria, are questioning the wisdom of this effort and the way that refugees are being vetted. One such community is to be found in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
It is important to note that the member of the House of Representatives who represents Spartanburg in Congress is none other than Representative Trey Gowdy who also chairs the House Subcommittee on Immigration. He has also voiced serious concerns about the way that the refugee program is being administered and has been unhappy with the lack of information being provided — even to him as the chairman of the subcommittee that is constitutionally mandated to provide oversight over our entire immigration system. He has been quoted as describing responses to his questions about the resettlement of refugees in Spartanburg as being “sorely inadequate.”
On June 4, 2015 the local newspaper, Spartanburg Herald Tribune (GoUpstate.com) published a report, “First refugees arrive in Spartanburg despite questions raised by Gowdy.”
As questions continued to go unanswered, I was invited to be the keynote speaker at a public forum in Spartanburg, South Carolina on the issue of the vetting process being used to screen refugees on September 20, 2015.
Among those in attendance at the town hall meeting were newspaper reporters, including one from the New York Times, Richard Fausset.
Fausset’s report appeared in the September 25, 2015 edition of the New York Times under the title, “Refugee Crisis in Syria Raises Fears in South Carolina.” Incredibly, Fausset omitted the fact that I was a participant in this town hall meeting. I am making this point, not because I want my name to appear in the New York Times (or anywhere else for that matter), but because Fausset clearly came to the meeting with an agenda — not to objectively report on the facts but to create misleading impressions.
There were other speakers who addressed the large audience, however, the flyer distributed before and during the meeting announced that I would be the keynote speaker and included a brief version of my bio. The flyer also noted the national security concerns that would be discussed during the town hall meeting that was billed as a “Refugee Resettlement Informational Summit.”
This made it clear that the primary reason for the meeting was to provide information about the vulnerabilities of the vetting process in the immigration system, which have on numerous occasions enabled terrorists to enter the United States and embed themselves. These concerns, in fact, were prominently discussed by the 9/11 Commission in the 9/11 Commission Report and in the report issued by the 9/11 Commission staff. I was one of many experts, in fact, who provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission — a fact that was noted in the flyer.
There was no mention of the 9/11 Commission Report in the New York Times article, either.
It is time that, in the interest of accuracy, that the New York Times finally change its slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print,” to something more fitting. I would suggest that their new slogan should be: “You’ll have a fit from what we print.”
In addition to the New York Times reporter, the local newspaper, the Spartanburg Herald Journal (GoUpstate.com) also covered the event. On September 20, 2015 that newspaper published the article “Speakers criticize refugee resettlement program.” It noted I was the keynote speaker but then quoted me as saying that the “immigration system is broken.” As I recall how I explained my concerns, I said that where the immigration system is concerned, the only thing “broken” was the lack of resources and political will to actually enforce our laws. The phrase, “broken immigration system” is generally used by advocates for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. I am adamantly opposed to such a massive amnesty program and have written many articles about my opposition to such an approach and have similarly voice my concerns at a number of congressional hearings.
It is disconcerting and disappointing that this reporter also neglected to report on my discussion about the nexus between immigration and national security and the numerous examples I provided during my lengthy talk about immigration. To make the point as clear as possible, I provided quotes from the 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel.
The residents of Spartanburg also arranged for me to address the County Council the following day, to provide the council with my perspectives and concerns about the shortcomings and inadequacy of the vetting process being used to screen refugees who are being resettled in the United States. This is a major area of concern for them, which was recently exacerbated by the disturbing news reports that many of the refugees who have been seeking asylum in Europe claiming to be from Syria were actually from other countries. It has been additionally reported terrorists affiliated with ISIS and other terrorist organization have been embedded within the huge numbers of refugees flooding into Europe.
A reporter from the local CBS-affiliated television station WSPA-TV interviewed me before the council meeting and reported on the issues in an article they posted on their website the following day: “Spartanburg CO Citizens Upset As Refugees Resettle in Upstate.”
In the interest of fairness, I have to point out that the folks at WSPA-TV did something unusual. While my segment on the video that was broadcast on that station only lasted a few seconds, the print version of the report included a link to my personal website so that anyone interested in my perspectives and concerns could easily find my articles and other materials. I have to commend the reporter Christine Scarpelli and her superiors for providing that link to my website in their report. Televised news reports don’t provide enough information, so providing the link to my website was certainly a pleasant surprise.
Prior to the County Council hearing members of the community reached out to the council and asked that, inasmuch as only 30 minutes are provided for an opportunity for members of the community to speak about issues and that each person is limited to three minutes, that anyone who had signed up to address the council should be able to yield their time to me so that I could provide some in-depth information about the vetting process and concerns about how this process is largely ineffective under the circumstances that currently exist in Syria.
It was believed that this was going to be permitted and I prepared my remarks for the meeting accordingly. However, once the council was called into session and the issue of the refugee resettlement program came up, the first member of the community who was called immediately said that he wanted to yield his time to me. The chairman of the council, Jeffrey Horton, glared at the member of the community and said curtly, “If you want to yield your time you may sit down, but your time will not go to Mr. Cutler.” He went on to say that I would only get three minutes. When other members of the community objected, saying that they had been told I would be given their time to speak, Horton became downright nasty, glared at his fellow citizens and said that he would end the proceedings if everyone did not sit down and keep quiet.
What a wonderful demonstration of representative government!
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Heads up from Ann Corcoran at Refugee Resettlement Watch:
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