Our combatant

Ameen case shows holes in U.S. refugee program

The arrest of an Iraqi man who was accepted as a refugee in the United States in 2014 and then went back to fight in Iraq for the Islamic State shows that there are serious breaches in the U.S. refugee program.

And it shows that President Donald Trump was right to insist on a higher level of precaution when it comes to opening America’s doors to refugees from a part of the world that is the world’s top exporter of terrorism.

Omar Abdulsattar Ameen wasn’t just a soldier in ISIS; he was a leader, with a history of violent activity. He allegedly shot an Iraqi police officer after the officer was already on the ground—- a cold-blooded execution.

The FBI says it has eight witnesses who identify the Ameen family, including Ameen himself, his father, brothers and paternal cousins, as affiliated with al-Qaida and ISIS. Court records say Ameen helped plant improvised bombs, transported militants, solicited funds, robbed supply trucks and kidnapped drivers on behalf of al-Qaida. A witness quoted by the FBI says Ameen’s vehicle in 2005 was a Kia Sportage flying a black alQaida flag with a cut-out roof and a machine gun mounted on the rear.

And yet all this escaped the notice of Ameen’s vetters at the U.S. refugee resettlement agency.

The failure illustrated in the Ameen case doesn’t mean that America should stop accepting refugees. It DOES remind us that the U.S. is vulnerable to enemy combatants trying to mix with peaceful and sincere seekers of valid refugee status.

Ameen, 45, who was arrested in California, left Iraq and fled in 2012 to Turkey, where he applied to be accepted as a refugee to the U.S., according to court documents.

He was granted that status in June 2014. That same month, prosecutors say, he returned to Iraq, where he killed a police officer in the town of Rawah after it fell to the Islamic State. Five months later, Ameen traveled to the United States to be resettled as a refugee.

Most people spend at least three years being interviewed, undergoing biometric checks and medical exams, and filling out paperwork before being approved for refugee status. Cases are screened by the Department of Defense, FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.

Despite all that, Ameen got in. The question is whether he is a rare aberration in the system or a typical representation of its flaws.