A Somali national who traveled illegally through the Americas and the U.S. is on trial for the attempted murder of five people in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Abdulahi Hasan Sharif appears\nto be the first U.S. border-crossing asylum-seeker to commit a terrorist\nattack, don\u2019t\nexpect Canada\u2019s straitened court proceedings to shed much light on his\nunderlying motives or the security breaches that enabled him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sept. 30, 2017, Sharif allegedly rammed a\nvehicle into an Edmonton policeman outside Alberta\u2019s Commonwealth Stadium.\nSharif reportedly stabbed the officer before fleeing. An ISIS flag was found\ninside the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few hours later, Sharif showed up in downtown\nEdmonton driving a rented U-Haul truck, which ran down four citizens. The truck\noverturned after a chase, and Sharif was arrested. All victims survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At his arraignment, the 30-year-old Sharif pleaded not guilty<\/a> to 11 felony charges, including five counts of attempted murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how did this wayfaring Somali get to Canada?\nAnd what was the reason for his transcontinental journey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to media reports, Sharif left Somalia in 2008 and transited through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia and Angola before flying to Brazil. He worked at a chicken-processing plant there before hiring smugglers to help him continue on to Mexico. Canadian Press<\/a> reported that Sharif got to the California border on July 12, 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonny Wakefield<\/a> of the Edmonton Journal reported that Sharif crossed into the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and requested asylum.\u00a0For reasons unknown, U.S. immigration Judge Carmene Depaolo rejected Sarif\u2019s asylum claim and ordered him deported to Somalia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That deportation never happened. Todd Bensman, writing in The Federalist<\/a> this month, suggested it was because \u201cno civil authority in Somalia had developed enough to accept deportees from the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause various U.S. court rulings\u00a0<\/a>and policies didn\u2019t allow for such stateless people to be indefinitely detained, Sharif was released on an order of supervision,\u201d Bensman noted. Sharif was supposed to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regularly but failed to show up on Jan. 24, 2012. He was in Canada by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As FAIR commented<\/a> on the Sharif saga: \u201c\u2019Vetting,\u2019 \u2018rigorous vetting\u2019 and \u2018extreme\nvetting\u2019 of refugees from countries without viable governments or functioning\ncivil societies is not as assuring as it might sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, because Alberta prosecutors did not charge\nSharif under terrorism statutes, it is unlikely the trial in Edmonton will\nreveal any pertinent insights into U.S., or even Canadian, security lapses. The\ngovernment has imposed a publication ban on the proceedings, effectively\nblocking courtroom journalists from reporting anything not in actual court\ntestimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Footnote: In October 2018, the House Oversight and Reform Committee\u2019s Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., issued a letter<\/a> formally requesting that DHS\u2019s Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate the Sharif case because \u201cit appears there has been no comprehensive study of the incident.\u201d A year later, there\u2019s been no word on whether the OIG ever took up the committee\u2019s request.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Somali national who traveled illegally through the Americas and the U.S. is on trial for the attempted murder of five people in Canada. Though Abdulahi Hasan Sharif appears to be the first U.S. border-crossing asylum-seeker to commit a terrorist attack, don\u2019t expect Canada\u2019s straitened court proceedings to shed much light on his underlying motives<\/p>\n