MESOP: “HOMELAND SECURITY” – US OR CANADADIAN ASYLUM FOR FORMER CADRES WHO LEFT PKK ?

December 3, 2014 – AP / calgarysun / MESOP / WASHINGTON,— Two alleged members of a group listed as a terror organization on both sides of the border are seeking asylum in Canada, the U.S. Homeland Security chief told a House committee Tuesday. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson revealed that two self-proclaimed members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, recently fled to Canada after facing deportation from the United States.

Johnson made the announcement under questioning from Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz during a hearing on border security by the DHS House Committee. He said he was disappointed the men were allowed out of custody in the U.S. “Not my preference,” Johnson said of a judge’s decision to free them. “They were released by the judge, and they fled to Canada and they are seeking asylum in Canada.”

In October, Johnson admitted that four individuals claiming membership to PKK slipped across the Mexican border into the U.S. He told an audience at a Washington think-tank that “these four individuals were arrested, their supposed link to terrorism was thoroughly investigated and checked, and in the end amounted to a claim by the individuals themselves that they were members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party. They would be deported, Johnson said at the time. But it was a different story Tuesday when Chaffetz pushed Johnson for an update.

“Two are detained, the two others were released by the judge — not my preference, they were released by the judge — and they fled to Canada and they’re seeking asylum in Canada,” Johnson told lawmakers. Chaffetz pressed Johnson on their alleged ties to the PKK. “They are, or were, members of the Kurdish Workers Party,” Johnson responded. Both Public Safety Canada and the U.S. State Department designate the PKK, founded in 1978, as a foreign terror group in 2002. The PKK is a Kurdish separatist group based in Turkey that, according to the Canadian government, “has led a campaign of guerrilla warfare and terrorism” to attain their political goals.

However, the Kurdish PKK group is also a current ally in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State IS group militants in Iraq and Syria. Canadian officials didn’t returned requests for comment by press time.