Iraqis who worked for Army denied U.S. entry

[JonLP24]

Source: SFGate home of the San Francisco Chronicle

Kareem Ali Hussein was stunned when he read the Department of Homeland Security letter that branded him ineligible for refugee status in the United States: "It has been determined that you ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of others," the letter stated.

Hussein, who had worked as a translator for the U.S. army in Iraq for 2 1/2 years, fled to Egypt with his wife and seven children in 2005 after their 13-year-old son was held hostage for 11 days because of his father's ties to the United States. A militant Shiite group released him after Hussein paid a ransom of $14,000.

Now, almost three years after leaving Baghdad, the Hussein family lives in a Cairo suburb with no means of support. They are among an estimated 150,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt, who are not allowed to work or send their children to public schools. They are also among the estimated 4.2 million Iraqis who have fled the country or moved to safer areas inside Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

For the time being, Hussein gets by on family savings, and manages to send his children to private schools. But he figures the funds will be exhausted by 2009.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/26/MN4711IPDE.DTL

[TomInTib]

1. Good ol' DHS

Yesterday, I met an 80 year-old woman from Switzerland who had been detained at SFO the day before for 2 1/2 hours with no explanation given.

TSA wouldn't even allow her to call her relatives, who were frantically searching for her. Nor would they tell her relatives that she was being detained.

Bastards.

[livingon]

7. gosh, incidents like that just tear at my heart. I think--what is that was my

grandmother!


damm

[Frisbee]

2. The letter continues...

"thanks for your service to the U.S. military, we wish you and your family the best in your attempts to keep yourself and your family from being killed for your service to us. And if you hear anything that might be useful to us, you know how to contact us."

[countmyvote4real]

3. P.S. Chocolates and flowers are always appreciated. BFF

This is disgusting. If we sent our entire country to rehab, we still couldn't diffuse the fallout from this arrogant foreign policy. HA. It's just pure arrogance any way you slice any issue with the * administration.

[leveymg]

4. "Pottery Barn Rule" applies - we broke Iraq now we have to pay for it, including the refugees.

No matter how you feel about the lies that drove us to invade that miserable country, it's still our obligation to try to fix things.

[jody]

5. I agree 100%. That simple moral fact apparently is overlooked by those who would withdraw our troops

without a strategy to protect the millions of innocent Iraqi citizens whose lives have been devastated by Bush.

IMO we must provide logistical support and air cover for a decade or more and let the Iraqis takeover combat and law enforcement operations as quickly as possible.

That's the moral thing to do.

[leveymg]

6. That's pretty much what Obama is talking about. But, the fact remains, Iraq is an

artificial construct drawn on a map in the Foreign Office in London 90 years ago. There is only one real, viable solution, and that is a regional settlement of which Iraq is only one important element. All parties with a stake in the outcome have to sit down for several years of sustained negotiations to settle this.

The U.S. can't impose the resolution, just delay it.