by CHQ Staff
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, 45, an Iraqi “refugee” admitted under the Obama – Ryan refugee program was arrested Wednesday in Northern California on a warrant alleging that he killed an Iraqi policeman while fighting for the Islamic State organization.
Ameen and other members of ISIS are alleged to have killed the officer after the town of Rawah, Iraq, fell to the Islamic State in June 2014, according to court documents.
According to our friends at NewsMax, Ameen was arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force at a Sacramento apartment building based on a warrant issued in May by an Iraqi federal court in Baghdad. U.S. officials plan to extradite him back to Iraq under a treaty with that nation, and he made his first appearance in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Court documents unsealed Wednesday afternoon and reported by Sam Stanton, Darrell Smith and Julia Sclafani of the Merced (California) Sun-Star describe Ameen as a “terrorist” and leader of al-Qaida forces that captured and executed soldiers, and as a close associate of well-known terror leaders in the region.
Documents reported by Stanton, Smith and Sclafani say Ameen was part of a four-vehicle convoy that drove to the home of the victim on June 22, 2014, at about 7 p.m. and opened fire. “In response to the attack on his home, the victim returned fire with his Kalashnikov rifle,” court documents state. “Ameen then fired his weapon at the victim while the victim was on the ground.
“A death certificate issued by the Rawah hospital confirms the victim’s death by gunshot to the chest,” the documents say. “ISIS announced the killing via a post on social media.”
Ameen entered the country seeking asylum as a refugee, but court papers reported by Stanton, Smith and Sclafani say he lied about his background.
He arrived in Turkey in April 2012 to begin the process of seeking asylum, and lied about his background, claiming his father had been killed because he had cooperated with U.S. forces, documents say. Instead, the documents say his father died of a cerebral clot on Christmas Day 2010.
Ameen was approved to come to the United States as a refugee on June 5, 2014, but instead according to Stanton, Smith and Sclafani’s reporting it is believed he returned to Iraq to commit the slaying two weeks later.
A photo of a resume filed with the documents lists his first job in the United States as a truck loader at a thrift store in Salt Lake City in January 2015, and says he started work in Sacramento as an auto mechanic in February 2016.
In an interview with immigration authorities in May 2016, after coming to Sacramento, Stanton, Smith and Sclafani report he repeatedly lied about his past, saying he had never killed anyone, used weapons against people or belonged to violent groups, documents say.
Prosecutors cited his alleged background as reasons to keep him in custody.
“As an initial matter, Ameen is accused of a brutal and premeditated murder,” a filing by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Audrey Hemesath and Heiko Coppola say. “The evidence of this crime presented in the Iraqi request for extradition alone demonstrates that Ameen is a danger to the community.
“Moreover, the national security implications of the release of an alleged member of a designated foreign terrorist organization are patent.”
Ameen has been a member of al-Qaida in Iraq and ISIS since at least 2004, court documents reviewed by Stanton, Smith and Sclafani say, and “he is not known to have ever renounced his membership in either group.”
Instead, documents say, Ameen participated in “numerous acts of violence” ranging from the murder to planting improvised explosive devices.
“The FBI has interviewed at least eight witnesses who identify the Ameen family — including Ameen himself, his father, brothers and paternal cousins — as affiliated with AQI and ISIS.”
Stanton, Smith and Sclafani report Ameen’s personal car was a 2005 Kia Sportage “with a cut-out roof and a PKC machine gun mounted on the rear,” court filings say, and was adorned with a black AQI flag.
Ameen was born in Rawah, a town of nearly 20,000 residents, and was seen walking the streets with an AK-47 according to documents reviews by Stanton, Smith and Sclafani.
The documents say Ameen started working with terrorist cells in 2004 and was a founder of al-Qaida groups and “one of the close associates of Abu Mus’ ab al-Zaqqawi.”
Later, court documents say, he took control of the military leadership of and finances of al-Qaida groups in Anbar province.
“He committed the most heinous crimes against the citizens and security forces at that time,” documents say, allegedly taking soldiers as prisoners and executing them report Stanton, Smith and Sclafani.
Following the brief court session, two women in head scarfs — one described as Ameen’s wife, the other a friend — showed up with a young man, but they declined to comment before disappearing with the lawyers.
