Plagiarism and Fabrication - Bowling Green Massacre

The Kentucky town of Bowling Green has a long and rich history, first as one of the few trading posts for "long-hunters" before post-revolution expansion past the Appalachians, then as an important trade and commercial center for Kentucky during the early 1800s, and remains to this day a beautiful city and testament to human resilience and ability to thrive. If you were to walk into town in Bowling Green today, you might happen upon Fountain Square Park, the former location of the town's first courthouse and jail; however, contrary to what Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway would have you believe, what you will not happen upon in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is any sort of "massacre."
   To justify President Trump's executive order to ban entrance to the U.S. for non-U.S. citizens from seven Muslim-majority for 90 days, Conway referenced the town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, saying that there had been a massacre, perpetrated by radicalized Iraqi refugees Waad Radan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi.  This was supposedly the reason for a similar ban on immigration from Iraq for six months in 2011.These claims have been proven to be almost entirely false. To Conway's credit, the Obama administration's State Department did slow down the processing of SIVs to Iraqi applicants after the events of Bowling Green, but again, there was no massacre, nor was there any attack on U.S. soil, or even a plot for an attack on U.S. soil. The two refugees, Alwan and Hammadi, were under FBI surveillance for months prior to the sting operation that brought them in, and both pleaded guilty to using IEDs against U.S. forces in Iraq and attempting to send money and arms to Al-Qaeda in Iraq; both also plead guilty to federal terrorism charges. Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison followed by a life term of supervised release while Hammadi was given a life sentence.

 
   Now, while these two men's presence in the U.S. did pose a legitimate threat to national security, as they were both engaged in combat operations with U.S. ground troops prior to obtaining refugee status and were actively attempting to supply Al-Qaeda with weapons and money from the U.S., Conway's statement that they had successfully conducted an attack on U.S. soil and that it simply "didn't get covered" in the media carries huge weight, no matter how baseless. Conway attempted to backpedal and say that she stumbled and meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists," but proof arose that she had referred to the "massacre" in at least one other interview, this time with Cosmopolitan, and mentioned a "Bowling Green attack" in an interview with TMZ.
   Blatantly false statements like this carry huge implications for the public, and are most certainly dangerous. Not even diving into the ethical mire of using the megaphone of a White House platform to spread false information to justify irrational executive orders, using the megaphone of a White House platform to spread false information about a terrorist attack on U.S. soil is simply incendiary. Consider an uneducated right-wing extremist. Xenophobic, extremely nationalistic, formerly terrified the Obama administration would confiscate their firearms, etc. Obviously they are not a majority, not a large part, not even a considerable part of the right-leaning population, but they exist, and it only takes one to see a news story like this, or even a quote like the one pictured above, and become radicalized and violent towards Middle Easterners in the U.S. One such instance occurred on February 20th when a 51 year old restaurant employee in Kansas yelled "get out of my country" at two Indian men before shooting and killing one and injuring the other. The man, Adam Purinton, reportedly thought the men he was attempting to kill were Iranian.
   We cannot allow false information to cloud our judgement or moral compass, neither as individuals or as a nation.



Ref: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/bowling-green-not-massacre-terrorists-trnd/

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-iraqi-terrorists-living-kentucky-sentenced-terrorist-activities