Iraqi Abductors Find Deep Pockets in U.S.

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

July 29, 2006

Iraqi Abductors Find Deep Pockets in U.S.

Militants and criminals, seeking ransom, target Iraqi Christians with family overseas.
'Trust me, I swear I do not have much money'
By GINA CHON and JOEL MILLMAN
July 29, 2006; Page A1

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Kidnapping, a scourge in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, has a new twist: militants and criminals seeking Iraqis with families overseas who can pay a ransom. According to Iraqi-Americans, attorneys and U.S. security officials who have served in Iraq, a substantial number of U.S.-based Iraqi families have been extorted in this way. Robert DeKelaita, an Iraqi-American who works as an immigration attorney in Skokie, Ill., says he has represented hundreds of clients in the past two years who have been tapped for ransom payments after relatives have been kidnapped in Iraq. "Those insurgents know exactly what they are doing," Mr. DeKelaita says. "They know who has relatives in the U.S., and who can pay, and our people are suffering for it."

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Many targets of ransom demands are Iraqis living in San Diego and Detroit. They are overwhelmingly Christian, members of a minority that faces increasing isolation and hostility in their homeland, though Iraqis of all ethnic and religious groups have suffered from abductions as security has deteriorated in Iraq. In America, these Iraqi Christians tend to be self-employed, either as professionals or small-business owners. In Detroit, convenience stores tend to be operated by Iraqi expatriates. Iraqi Christians are known collectively as Assyrians, while Roman Catholics there are known as Chaldeans. In total they make up less than 10% of Iraq's population. Iraqis and Americans suspect Shiite and Sunni terrorists are deliberately picking Christians with relatives in the U.S. not only for the cash but also to further a broader goal of ethnic cleansing.

Historically, Christians in Iraq even before the fall of Mr. Hussein, "have always been perceived as pro-Western," says Farouk Gewarges, an insurance broker in the Iraqi enclave of El Cajon, Calif., a San Diego suburb. What's more, dozens of San Diego-based Iraqis and many more from Detroit have joined the war effort, signing on as translators or serving as advisers and contractors to the U.S. military. Some have even donned U.S. uniforms as soldiers and Marines. "That's another reason they terrorize us," Mr. Gewarges says.

In the past Iraqi Christians could apply for asylum in the U.S., but these days that's an increasingly elusive goal. Based on Mr. Hussein's record of persecution, Chaldeans and Assyrians seeking asylum once had an acceptance rate that topped 80%, among the highest of all asylum-seeking groups, according to the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. immigration judges are now rejecting between a half and a third of the applicants they review. Some courts argue that Iraq is a free and democratic country. Others have said that since everyone in Iraq is a potential target of violence, Christians can no longer claim they are being singled out for persecution.


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It's legal to send money from the U.S. to Iraq, but under U.S. anti-terrorism regulations, knowingly funding terrorists -- including paying a ransom to kidnappers -- is a crime. Officials from the Department of Justice and Pentagon declined to comment or said they were unaware of any such cases being prosecuted. Molly Millerwise, the U.S. Treasury Department's Director of Public Affairs, said mitigating circumstances would be considered. Families in Iraq say the rarely if ever seek help from Iraqi authorities, either because they think it will accomplish nothing or because they worry militants have infiltrated the police.

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