The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence holds a hearing on "Terrorist Exploitation of Refugee Programs."
The hearing examined legislation which allowed Iraqis who helped the United States, to gain special refugee status and resettlement in the U.S. after the insurgency in Iraq resulted in substantial civilian displacement from 2004 to 2007.
In May 2009, two Iraqi nationals who were given refugee status and resettled in the U.S. were arrested and accused by the FBI of plotting to send weapons and money to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Subcommittee Chairman Patrick Meehan (R-PA) said that the hearing will "identify any remaining gaps in the security screening process that need to be remedied. It is concerning that neither (Mohanad Shareef) Hammadi nor (Waad Ramadan) Alwan had worked for any U.S. organization in Iraq, yet both received refugee status for humanitarian reasons.”
Witnesses included: Lawrence Bartlett, Director of the Refugee Admissions Office Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
U.S. Department of State, Barbara Strack, chief of the Refugee Affairs Division, Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security; and Dawn Scalici, deputy undersecretary of Homeland Security at the Office of Intelligence and Analysis