US

DHS Knew OSU Attacker Was Terror Recruitment Target, Let Him Into The U.S. Anyway

Courtesy of Kevin Stankiewicz for The Lantern/Handout via REUTERS

Font Size:

Department of Homeland Security officials knew Ohio State University attacker Abdul Razak Ali Artan was a possible recruitment target of Islamic terrorists but granted him asylum anyway, along with his mother and six of his siblings, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley revealed in a letter sent Wednesday to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Abdul Razak Artan, a third-year student in logistics management, sits on the Oval in an August 2016 photo provided by The Lantern, student newspaper of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Courtesy of Kevin Stankiewicz for The Lantern/Handout via REUTERS

Abdul Razak Artan, a third-year student in logistics management, sits on the Oval in an August 2016 photo provided by The Lantern, student newspaper of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Courtesy of Kevin Stankiewicz for The Lantern/Handout via REUTERS

While seeking asylum as refugees from Mogadishu, Somalia in 2013, Artan’s mother told immigration authorities that she feared persecution from al-Qaeda affiliate group al-Shabaab, and worried that Abdul and his siblings would be recruited by the terrorist organization if they remained in Somalia.

That knowledge should have lead USCIS officials to “conduct additional questioning better understand ties to a group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2008.” But the additional questioning, which the Committee describes as “common practice” in those situations, never happened.

Artan’s father, according to the letter, had been kidnapped by the terrorist group. According to the Committee, one of Abdul’s siblings did not travel to America with the rest of the family, for reasons left unclear.

Artan’s family spent time in a Pakistani refugee camp before entering the United States.

Abdul Artan was shot dead in late November after plowing his car into a group of pedestrians before attacking students at random with a butcher knife. ISIS has claimed credit for the attack. In an interview with school newspaper a few months before the attack, Artan complained about the lack of Muslim prayer rugs provided by the university.

A girl is led to an ambulance by emergency personnel following an attack at Ohio State University's campus in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. November 28, 2016. Courtesy of Colin Hass-Hill/thelantern.com/Handout via REUTERS

A girl is led to an ambulance by emergency personnel following an attack at Ohio State University’s campus in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. November 28, 2016. Courtesy of Colin Hass-Hill/thelantern.com/Handout via REUTERS

“According to sources, Abdul Razak Ali Artan was a lawful permanent resident who originally came to the United States from Mogadishu, Somalia after spending time in a Pakistani refugee camp with his mother, Fatima Abdullahi, and six siblings,” Grassley’s letter reads.

“According to records obtained by the Committee, the mother sought asylum in 2013 for herself and seven of her eight children because she feared persecution from ‘Militia and Al-Shabaab.’ She also indicated that her husband was kidnapped, and that her children would be kidnapped and recruited by Al-Shabaab if they remained in Somalia.”

“This information should have caused the asylum officer to conduct additional questioning of the older children to better understand ties to a group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2008. Further questioning could have eliminated the possibility that the asylees had dubious ties to the terrorist group and could have allowed for more robust vetting and data collection. However, although common practice in these cases, no additional questioning was conducted.”

Additionally, a press release from Grassley’s office states, “government forms used in the 2013 vetting interview appear to be from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was replaced by the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. It’s unclear whether the forms used in the interview excluded certain fields that may have been required in the 2013 version of the forms, leading to an incomplete review.”

Grassley is asking USCIS to provide additional documentation from the interview conducted with Artan’s mother and siblings.

This story was updated with additional information

Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel