Brother: Synagogue shooter had a criminal history, mental health issues – how did he get a visa and a gun?

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COLLEYVILLE, TX- According to law enforcement officials, a 10-hour-long hostage situation at a synagogue came to a conclusion late on Saturday, January 15th, with all of the hostages safe and the suspect dead. 

Breitbart News reported that the brother of Malik Faisal Akram, the UK citizen who took four hostages at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue and was killed after a 10-hour-long hostage standoff, has claimed that his brother had a previous criminal record. 

In comments to UK media, Gulbar Akram, the brother of Malik Akram, revealed that his brother had a criminal record, raising questions about how he was allowed into the United States. 

According to Inzaman Rashid, North of England correspondent or Sky News, Gulbar Akram said of his brother:

“He’s known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?”

Malik Faisal Akram, formerly of the Blackburn area of Lancashire, is reported to have traveled to the U.S. around the end of December 2021 early January into New York’s JKF International Airport before reportedly traveling to Texas. 

In a previous statement, Gulbar claimed that his brother suffered from “mental health issues.” In a statement shortly after learning news of his brother’s death, Gulbar expressed deep sorrow over the events that transpired at the synagogue. He said:

“It is with great sadness I will confirm my brother Faisal passed away in Texas, USA, this morning. We are absolutely devastated as a family. We can’t say much now as there is an ongoing FBI investigation.”

He added:

“We would like to say that we as a family do not condone any of his actions and would like to sincerely apologize wholeheartedly to all the victims involved in the unfortunate incident.”

Gulbar then added that his brother “was suffering from mental health issues” and did not believe he would have harmed the hostages. He added:

“Sitting in the incident room all last night at Greenbank until the early hours liaising with Faisal, the negotiators, FBI, etc. And although my brother was suffering from mental health issues, we were confident that he would not harm the hostages.”

Brother: Synagogue shooter had a criminal history, mental health issues - how did he get a visa and a gun?

Akram was fatally shot after an 11-hour standoff following the release of four hostages taken in the Texas synagogue.

During the hostage situation, he was heard calling for the release of al Qaeda linked Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted of attempting to kill American military officers while being detained in Afghanistan. 

The Greater Manchester Police announced that the Counter Terror Policing division in North West England is currently assisting in the investigation being led by the U.S. authorities.

The police force announced that they detained two teenagers in South Manchester in connection to the Texas synagogue attack. 

As of this writing, the two teens remain in custody and their identities have not yet been made public. According to local media, following the revealing of Malik Faisal Akram as the attacker, his once-local “Blackburn Muslim Community” group page wrote on Facebook in a now-deleted post:

“Faisal Akram has sadly departed from this temporary world and returned to his creator. May the almighty forgive all his sins and bless him with the highest ranks of Paradise. May Allah give strength and patience to his loved ones in dealing with their loss.”

The page followed up a day later, on Monday January 17th, writing:

“We posted about the death of a local individual yesterday and utilized a standard template with generic wording that is used on all of our death announcements. After learning about the full circumstances surrounding his death, the post was removed.”

The Muslim Council of Britain also condemned the attack, saying the actions were “completely unacceptable and we condemn the action in the strongest possible terms.” The Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Zara Mohammed added:

“The act is all the more reprehensible since it was instigated at a place of worship where Jews were targeted. This was quite simply, a hate crime and an act of antisemitism.

We are thankful that the hostages are unharmed, Though some may seek to exploit such incidents for divisive ends, we must double our resolve to remain united against such hatred.”

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Report: Biden administration financially supporting Palestinian program that pays families of terrorists

January 11th, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C.- A report by Maurice Hirsch at the Palestinian Media Watch charges that Biden is funding the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program, which is allegedly funding for terrorists or their families when they kill innocent people and are caught or killed, by a back door that circumvents federal law.

According to the report:

“While the U.S. administration is prevented from providing direct aid to the PA, according to PA Minister of Finance Shukri Bishar’s adviser Stephan Salameh, for 2022 the U.S. has promised at least $225 million worth of financial aid to the Palestinians.”

Direct aid is prohibited by the Taylor Force Act.

Force was a West Point graduate and veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist while walking along the promenade in Tel Aviv.

The report stated that the terrorist was killed at the scene, before he could murder other innocent people.

The report added:

“To this day, the Palestinian Authority pays a monthly allowance for life to the family of Taylor’s murderer, simply because the terrorist was killed during his murderous terror attack.”

Allegedly, millions of dollars more, every month, are paid by the PA to “terrorist prisoners, released terrorists, wounded terrorists, and the families of dead terrorists,” and this is known as the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program.

In 2018, Congress adopted the Taylor Force Act, banning the Economic Support Fund help, which is the largest section of U.S. funding to the PA.

The law reportedly conditioned ESF help on the end of that.

However, the PA has continued spending hundreds of millions of dollars on “terror rewards,” including more than $32,000 to the family of the killer of Force.

Brother: Synagogue shooter had a criminal history, mental health issues - how did he get a visa and a gun?

According to the report, the U.S. cannot provide direct aid to the PA, however, Salameh confirmed that the U.S. has still promised $225 million in help.

Salameh explained that the money will be “allocated to development projects.”

The report said that this openly violates the spirit of the law because the PA is the recipient of the money and “development projects” is just a euphemism “for projects that the PA needs to fund from its own budget, but will now be funded by the U.S. administration, thereby freeing up the PA’s own funds to continued rewarding terrorists.”

The report added:

“The U.S. administration’s looking for loopholes in order to bypass the TFA desecrates Taylor’s memory.”

The report also stated:

“As Palestinian Media Watch has already reported, the U.S. aid to the Palestinians is limited not only due to TFA.

In addition to TFA, U.S. law from 2014 prevents providing the PA with ESF aid if it initiates ‘an International Criminal Court judicially authorized investigation or actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.'”

The report said:

“Since the PA did indeed initiate and is actively supporting such an investigation, the U.S. is clearly prohibited from providing any ESF aid to the Palestinians.”

Taylor Force loyally and proudly served the U.S. He was murdered simply because his murderer thought he was a Jew. Now, directly or indirectly, the U.S. is providing aid and enabling the PA to pay monthly terror rewards to the family of Taylor’s murderer. 

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Funding terrorists? Biden administration reportedly wants to release money to the Taliban

December 26th, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC – Recent news reports from Khaama Press, an Afghanistan News Agency, reported that the Biden Administration was considering unfreezing Afghanistan’s financial assets so that they could be accessed by the known terrorist group that overtook the country, the Taliban.

Afghanistan had its assets frozen by the United States when it became clear that the country would fall. The reason was to prevent the Taliban from ever getting access to those funds and potentially funding more terrorist activities.

However, that could all change if a report published by the Khaama Press is at all accurate.

On December 21st, the media group published a report that they had allegedly learned from the BBC that an unnamed United States official reported the Biden Administration is prepared to release at least a portion of the frozen assets.

According to the Khaama Press:

“The [BBC] source has said that the US administration has held a meeting in which easing sanctions on Afghanistan has been discussed in order to allow international aid organizations to deliver humanitarian aids to Afghanistan.”

They note that the news of this supposed release of financial aid comes at the heels of an OIC session on Afghanistan that had ended in Islamabad where it was decided that humanitarian aids would be sent to the country immediately to “prevent the economic collapse of the country.”

They note that the news came as the US Special Representative to Afghanistan, Thomas West, allegedly met in private with the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Motaq, a report that cannot be confirmed.

While this news cannot be independently verified in any manner, it is interesting to note that the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, spoke to reporters about the terrorist country on December 20th. Price said:

“When it comes to humanitarian assistance, the United States is the global leader…We have provided, since August, $208 million alone, we provided nearly $475 million over the course of this year.

We have taken other steps as a government to do what we can to facilitate the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

“We are working with various UN bodies, including the UNDP, to find creative ways that we can infuse not only humanitarian aid but also liquidity into the Afghan economy…Thomas West was recently in Pakistan, where he attended a meeting of the OIC.

And the OIC recently announced in the context of that meeting the establishment of a trust fund, which will provide another important tool to provide money to the people of Afghanistan.”

While providing humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan that are subjected to the violent and bloody rule of the terrorist organization, the Taliban, seems noble… how is it that the United States and other countries plan on ensuring the people, not the terrorists, receive the money?

An even better question would be how does any country that provides financial assistance to the terrorist organization ensure that those funds are not used to fund terrorist activities?

Of course, the questions are rhetorical in nature as they most likely will never be asked by political leaders of any country. However, that has not stopped progressives and Democrats from calling on the Biden Administration to release the funds.

Democratic leaders, Pramila Jayapal, Jamaal Bowman, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush authored a letter to Democratic President Joe Biden urging for the release of funds to the terrorist organization.

The letter states in part:

“As you transition into a new phase of our relationship with the country and people of Afghanistan, we stand with American allies and humanitarian experts in urging the United States to avoid harsh economic measures that will directly harm Afghan families and children.

This means conscientiously but urgently modifying current U.S. policy regarding the freeze of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves and ongoing sanctions.”

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Report: Afghan refugees under Biden get free food, housing, $2275, but questionable vetting

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Under the Biden administration, thousands of Afghans transported to the United States are receiving free food, housing, and $2,275 in federal aid, along with questionable vetting.

According to the Washington Post, as Afghan refugee families are moved from temporary housing and care on military bases to cities throughout the United States, resettlement agencies are struggling to keep up with the volume of families waiting for permanent housing and additional aid.

 

KTRH NewsRadio reports that the White House has provided a “loose” estimate of 95,000 Afghans total coming into the United States.

The Washington Post notes:

“Federal officials say they are working to spread the evacuees to different parts of the country as they begin to shut down the temporary housing camps at seven military bases that are still home to 34,000 Afghans. 

“The process is expected to be completed by mid-February.”

In some areas of the country, Oklahoma for instance, resettled refugees are being offered “free housing” to relocate there.

The Post adds:

“The evacuees are each entitled to receive $2,275 in federal support that is meant to cover housing costs, job training and other expenses over a three-month period once they are matched with a resettlement agency.”

Funding for such expenses is covered nationally by massive dollar amounts earmarked for Afghan refugees.

As we previously reported, Congress has now authorized a total of $13.3 billion for the Biden administration to settle Afghans in the United States.

Other areas of the country are working on additional local funding for Afghan refugees.

For example, according to Breitbart, New York taxpayers will be covering at least $5 million in relocation expenses, after Governor Kathy Hochul (D) earmarked an additional $2 million for that purpose.

 

Also for example, in Oregon, Yahoo News reports that SB5561, passed on December 13, 2021, will “support Afghan individuals and families with housing, education, legal aid, job training and culturally-specific support as they settle in the state.”

The news outlet goes on to note:

“Of that $18 million, $5.25 million has been earmarked for short-term food and shelter, $2.9 million will support case management services, $5.9 million will be for rental assistance and $2.89 million is for immigration and legal services. 

“An additional $807,600 will be available for culturally specific assistance and interpretation classes.”

These costly efforts are not without criticism, especially given the question of vetting, or possible lack thereof, of these Afghan refugees.

According to Breitbart, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that “not all” of the thousands of Afghan refugees entering the country have been interviewed by federal law enforcement, even though that is “standard vetting protocol.”

Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, recently told KTRH NewsRadio:

“We need to be concerned about the fact we really don’t know who is has gotten out of Afghanistan. And at the same time, we need to be doubly concerned about the growing humanitarian crisis in that country.”

He added:

“We have no idea for the most part who those people are.”

Mehlman continued:

”Most of them no doubt are just decent people who understandably wanted to get out of there. But as we’ve learned at a very high cost, it only takes a few people to cause an awful lot of trouble.”

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed these sentiments.

Noting that the “federal government has not shared its vetting procedures with Texas,” Paxton told Alex Marlow:

“We don’t have any confidence in the Biden administration [to vet Afghan migrants].”

 

He continued:

“When you look at the border and how they’re just inviting people to come across … obviously the cartels are involved in every transaction, because you have to pay them to get across the border….

“We’ve got the Biden administration helping the cartels, helping them import drugs, helping them import COVID into our state, helping them import sex trafficking and other human trafficking…. and yet here we are with the Afghan refugees.”

Paxton went on to say:

“I don’t know that we’ll vet [Afghan refugees] at all. I think it’ll just be whatever the federal government says they’ve done. We won’t really know if it’s true. 

“We won’t even know if they’ve done anything, and so, they’ll be dropped wherever the federal government wants to drop them, and they’ll disappear into our society. 

“We’ll never know, until something bad happens, if we have a terrorist.”

—

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About The Author

Jenna Curren, Ed.D., is an assistant professor in criminal justice studies. As chair of a CJ advisory board, Jenna actively partners with members of the community to integrate current students into internships and prospective law enforcement careers. Prior to working in academics, Jenna held various custody and treatment positions and was a lieutenant for the CT Department of Correction. Throughout her tenure, she supervised men, women, youth and mental health offenders. A C.E.R.T and honor guard member, as well as a training officer, Jenna has 10 years of experience in the criminal justice and human services fields.

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