Should be focused on those who want our help. The Post headline says it all: Stalwart Service for U.S. in Iraqi is Not Enough to Gain Green Card. Saman Kareem Ahmad was widely lauded by the U.S. military but has been turned down by the U.S. government. The reason:
Ahmad had once been part of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which U.S. immigration officials deemed an "undesignated terrorist organization" for having sought to overthrow former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
After doing a bit of searching I only found one reference to the KDP and terrorism. Apparently they were associated with an explosion at a NGO that killed two. They are not designated as a terrorist group by most governments and aren’t even on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, at least according to this site. That said, at least one Assyrian site does have a beef against them but doesn’t seem to back it up with independent news accounts.
Anyways, this sort of thing is why many counter-terrorism efforts worry me. Militant non-state groups are routinely conflated with those that purposefully attack civilians. Why? Because it’s in the interest of governments in general to demonize any competitors. So when there’s no real push in the administration for helping Iraqi refugees, innocent allies get hurt.
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