THE MAYOR OF the city of Bowling Green has clarified that there wasn’t a massacre in 2011 – correcting claims made earlier by Trump’s chief advisor Kellyanne Conway.
Kellyanne Conway, a White House counselor who managed Trump’s presidential campaign, made the remark Thursday in an interview with MSNBC while defending Trump’s ban on refugees as similar to steps taken by former president Barack Obama.
“I bet it’s brand new information to people that president Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee programme after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. It didn’t get covered.”
There was no massacre at Bowling Green. Conway later tweeted that she “meant to say ‘Bowling Green’ terrorists.”
In a statement, Mayor Bruce Wilkerson said that while “two Iraqi nationals living in Bowling Green were arrested for attempting to provide money and weapons to terrorists in Iraq, there was no massacre in Bowling Green”.
“I understand during a live interview how one can misspeak and we appreciate the clarification,” Wilkerson said.
Two Iraqi men from Bowling Green, Kentucky were indeed indicted in 2011 — but for trying to send money and weapons to Al-Qaeda, and using improvised explosive devices against US soldiers in Iraq. Both are now serving long prison sentences.
After that incident, Obama did order more extensive background checks on Iraqi refugees, but never stopped or banned the refugee resettlement program, The Washington Post reported.
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