A new report on Politico adds yet another scandal to the scandal-free presidency of Barack Obama.
According to a lengthy and in-depth report on Politico, President Barack Obama brokered a secret deal to send three Rwandan men that had been accused of butchering Americans to Australia in exchange for 1,250 migrants.
Gruesome Murders
In 1999, a group of Western tourists on a gorilla-watching tour in Uganda were brutally murdered.
According to the report, the men responsible for the massacre were three Rwandan men.
The men were captured by local authorities and extradited to the United States.
They were later charged under terrorism laws.
However, in 2006, the judge presiding over the case ruled their confessions were invalid because they were obtained when local Rwandan authorities tortured them while they were being held.
Eventually, the case was thrown out and the men were left to sit in a Virginia prison.
The Trade
The three men remained in prison until President Obama struck a deal with Australia.
The Obama administration made two separate deals with Australia at roughly the same time.
One deal would send the three men to Australia.
The second deal was for the United States to accept roughly 1,250 migrants from Australia that were being held in a refugee camp.
While the deals were not technically linked, it was quite apparent this was an outright exchange to dump the murderers into someone else’s lap and take in more than 1,000 refugees.
The timing of the deal is where the problems started to begin.
The deal was brokered during the waning days of the Obama presidency, which meant the actual exchange would happen under President Trump.
When Trump found out about the deal, he went ballistic.
During a phone call between Trump and then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump stated, “Here I am calling for a ban where I am not letting anybody in and we take 2,000 people.
“Really, it looks like 2,000 people that Australia does not want and I do not blame you by the way, but the United States has become like a dumping ground.”
Trump reportedly continued to push back when Turnbull more or less hinted the prisoners would not be taken in by Australia unless Trump took the migrants.
Turnbull stated, “We are taking people from the previous administration that they were very keen on getting out of the United States.”
Two of the three men were taken in by Australia, but the third reportedly remains in a Miami detention center.
The report states that technically the deal was not set up to be a quid pro quo, but that the Obama administration pushed Turnbull to make “a series of gestures on refugee-related issues.”
Current Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked to comment on the two deals, but he stated, “I don’t intend to make a commentary on allegations that have been made … but simply to assure Australians that they are the process we undertake, and these are the same security agencies that have thwarted 15 terrorist attacks.”
You can read the full report on Politico.
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