Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to President Donald Trump, apparently made up a terror attack Thursday called “Bowling Green massacre” to defend the latter’s controversial immigration ban on seven Muslim-majority counties. Her statement on the “massacre” came during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” Conway told Matthews. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”
However, the “massacre” in Bowling Green, Kentucky, by Iraqi refugees never happened. And even, Barack Obama’s administration did not impose any ban on asylum seekers from Iraq entering the U.S.
However, Vox and New York Daily News speculated that Conway’s supposed Bowling Green terror attack assumption would have come over the 2011 arrests of Iraqi citizens Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan who were taken into custody by federal authorities on terrorism charges. The two men were accused of attempting to send weapons and money to al Qaeda in Iraq to attack U.S. soldiers. While Hammadi was sentenced to life in prison, Alwan was handed down 40 years of jail term. However, there was no “massacre” in Bowling Green as said by Conway.
At the time of the investigation of the arrested Iraqi nationals, the FBI found that fingerprints from Alwan on a roadside bomb in Iraq indicated an error in the United States’ refugee screening process. Officials found that databases containing fingerprints from Iraqi terrorists were not well-integrated into U.S. refugee admissions process. Following this, the Obama administration then ordered a review of vetting procedures for Iraqi nationals — and not ban the refugees. This may have led Conway to believe that Obama brought in a “six-month” ban on Iraqi refugees.
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