[ April 18, 2024 ]
Further proof of why President Trump’s National Security travel ban is so essential. I don’t blame Uber or Lyft. He should not have been allowed to step foot in this country.
He’s accused of war crimes and torture. Uber and Lyft approved him to drive.
By Scott Bronstein, Curt Devine and Drew Griffin, CNN, May 15, 2019:
Where does an alleged war criminal accused of torture and directing mass executions look for work while living in the United States? For Yusuf Abdi Ali, there was an easy answer: Uber and Lyft.
Story continues below advertisementWithin a couple of days of applying to be a ride-share driver, Ali said he was approved to shuttle passengers from place to place. He’s been doing it for more than 18 months, according to his Uber profile.
When CNN reporters recently caught a ride from Ali, the former Somali military commander was listed on Uber’s app as an “Uber Pro Diamond” driver with a 4.89 rating.
“I do this full time,” said Ali, who drives in suburban Virginia. He explained that he prefers to drive during weekends because “that’s where the money is.”
Ali said he has driven for Lyft, too, but he prefers working for Uber. His white Nissan Altima had only an Uber sticker on it. Asked if the application process was difficult, Ali replied that it was a breeze.
“They just want your background check, that’s it,” said Ali, who was unaware that undercover CNN reporters were riding with him and recording the trip on video. “If you apply tonight maybe after two days it will come, you know, everything.”
Ali’s work as a ride-share driver raises new questions about the thoroughness of Uber and Lyft’s background check process and the ease with which some people with controversial pasts can get approved to drive.
CNN previously reported that Uber and Lyft have approved thousands of people who should have been disqualified because of criminal records. Some of those Uber drivers have included a murderer on parole and a convicted felon who was later convicted for sexually assaulting an Uber passenger.Ali has not been convicted of a crime, but a basic internet search of his name turns up numerous documents and news accounts alleging he committed various atrocities while serving as a military commander during Somalia’s civil war in the 1980s.
His past was detailed in a documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that featured eyewitnesses in northern Somalia who described killings allegedly committed under the direction of Ali, also known as “Colonel Tukeh.”
One witness in that documentary said, “Two men were caught, tied to a tree. Oil was poured on them and they were burnt alive. I saw it with my own eyes. I cut away their remains.”
Another witness in the same village said, “He caught my brother. He tied him to a military vehicle and dragged him behind. … He shredded him into pieces. That’s how he died.”
When asked, “Did you see Tukeh do that with your own eyes?” the villager replied, “Yes, and there are many people around who saw it.”Uber strengthened its background check policy last year and it now includes more frequent checks, and disqualifies convicted drivers, as well as drivers who have not been convicted, but are charged with serious offenses. All drivers “must undergo a driving and criminal history background check reviewing local, state and national records, and we evaluate eligibility in accordance with criteria set by local laws,” Uber said in a statement to CNN.
Following CNN’s inquiries, an Uber spokesperson said the company had suspended Ali’s access to the app as it reviewed the matter.
A Lyft spokeswoman responded that the company had permanently banned Ali from the platform. Lyft said he hasn’t given a ride on its platform since September 2018.
“The safety of our community is our top priority and we are horrified by the allegations described. Before giving a ride on the Lyft platform, all driver-applicants are screened for criminal offenses and driving incidents in the United States,” the Lyft spokeswoman said.
Uber and Lyft’s background checks are mostly performed by a separate company called Checkr, which uses applicants’ names and Social Security numbers to search for information in a national sex offender database, federal and local court records and databases used to flag suspected terrorists and others, representatives from the companies said.
A Checkr spokesperson told CNN that its background checks “rely on public criminal records that have been adjudicated in a court of law rather than unverified sources like Google search results. Similarly, most employers don’t request background checks that include pending civil litigation due to its subjective nature.”This week, Ali is defending himself against a civil suit filed in federal court in Virginia by a man who claims he was one of Ali’s victims in 1988. Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa alleged in court documents that Ali tortured and shot him and ordered bodyguards to bury his body. The guards recognized that Warfaa, a farmer, had not died and accepted a bribe from his family to release him, according to documents.
Warfaa, who has come to the United States to testify against Ali, is being represented by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that seeks to bring alleged war criminals to justice. The suit accuses Ali of directing a “brutal counterinsurgency campaign that refused to distinguish between civilians and combatants” between about 1984 and 1989.Although the case against Ali has been allowed to proceed in US civil court, no criminal court has jurisdiction to try Ali for alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) wasn’t formally envisioned until 1994, following the genocide in Rwanda, and Somalia has never been able to develop a complete justice system that could embark on a war crimes tribunal.
When approached outside the courthouse this week, Ali declined to answer CNN’s questions. His attorney, Joseph Peter Drennan, dismissed the allegations against his client, saying the suit was politically motivated to benefit Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.
According to public accounts, Ali moved to Canada after the Somali military regime he worked under collapsed in 1991. He was deported after news about his alleged war crimes in Somalia became public through that CBC documentary.
Ali entered the United States on a visa through his Somali wife who became a US citizen. In 2006, his wife was found guilty of naturalization fraud for claiming she was a refugee from the very Somali clan that Ali is accused of torturing.
CNN’s recent Uber ride with Ali was not the first time the network has caught up with him as he sought to make a living in the country.
In 2016, CNN reported that Ali had been working as a security guard at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC.
He was fired from that job shortly after the CNN story aired.
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27 Comments
4 years ago
Obviously, no one has a problem with hiring these people, while knowing nothing about them. Pathetic. They live a lie and constantly lie. Oh, but I must be r-a-c-i-s-t-.
4 years ago
No Somalians should be allowed here. We do need better vetting on our VISA people.
I would hope these people are deported…
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
After the pirates and what they did to our military, nope they are viscous low lives
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Somalian are, generally, rubbish wherever they go. Low IQ and often violent, on what basis are they allowed in anywhere? Low IA and Muslim adds to their hostile attitude.
4 years ago
Would you step into his car? Safety is not guaranteed.
4 years ago
Reply to
Ari
I don’t take any taxis or uber in Southern Caliphornia because it seems they’re all driven by f’ing muslums. If I can’t take my vehicle it’s the shoe leather express and buses for me.
4 years ago
Reply to
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
How bad is it in southern California?
California is a beautiful state. I was shocked to see Orange Country go blue!
Is that a result of ballot harvesting?
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
My friend from Los Angeles thinks it’s only because of mass voter fraud. He told me a Dem0rat in Los Angeles was arrested, charged and convicted of facilitating voter fraud.
4 years ago
Reply to
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
Let’s hope they fix that. I would imagine there is allot of voter fraud there.
4 years ago
The real crime is that he was permitted to enter the United States at all
4 years ago
Reply to
Tamara Hussey-Mecklenburg
You Americans think this is bad? In Canada a Yazidi woman who had been held in Syria or Iraq as a sex slave to a Muslim piece of vermin eventually got free and moved to Canada. Then one day while in a street in London, Ontario, she came face to face with the ISIS piece piece of dung who had been her sex slave master. In other words, idiotic Canada has allowed ISIS murderers and rapists into Canada. We already know that other ISIS men, Canadians, were simply allowed to return to Canada. So the fact that they murdered and raped in Syria or Iraq counts for nothing in a country that is rapidly turning into what Tump described as ‘shit-holes’. When moral go to hell in a society this is what you get, a useless leader and gutless, useless snivel servants who have no morals and no sense of moral outrage against vile pieces of filth who they pass for human beings.
4 years ago
Reply to
Rob Porter
I’m Canadian.
And Justin Turdope is losing.
Everyone is now voting PC into office everywhere.
Even the kids that voted him in are wise to him.
Thank goodness.
Americans need to follow suit so Trump can actually pass all the laws and reforms everyone voted him in to do. He gets stuff done but he needs really great Republican candidates out there earning the trust of the American people. He can’t do the job by himself.
4 years ago
Reply to
Tamara Hussey-Mecklenburg
Yes, at last I think the message is sinking in that Trudeau is a disaster.
Americans do need to vote in good people rather than useless RINOs. Things are still a mess in this regard. As you said, he can’t do the job himself – and he desperately needs sound support, not half-baked fools like Romney, that idiotic Collins woman and numbers of others. .
4 years ago
Reply to
Rob Porter
I’m always shocked how some members of the Republican party can be so disloyal to their President and leader of their party. It’s very unprofessional.
It would be different if these accusations were founded in reality. A person is innocent until proven guilty. They act like he is guilty! So very unprofessional!
4 years ago
So his wife got in illegally and he was deported from the canukians and entered the US on a visa from his illegal wife…time to deport them all back to where they came from. Keep taking in all of these criminal supposed refugees who should be in a prison or shot somewhere and the politicians want to outlaw the American citizen from owning a weapon. Just can’t fix STUPID.
4 years ago
Yeah but, think of all the colorful stories he can regale his passengers with, as hes getting lost, driving them around town….
4 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
If they use a meter, driving around runs it up. Years ago when I was in Minnesota for business,
the dumb taxi driver was actually hitting the meter to jack up the fare. I warned him to stop it. When I got to the hotel, I paid him half with no tip. He was pissed. Too bad.
4 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Someone suggested that when you get out of the cab after paying the muslum driver you leave the door open — they love that.
4 years ago
enemy inside
4 years ago
This is clear cut VISA abuse. We don’t need Muslims imported in to be Uber drivers.
You couldn’t pay me to use Uber.
4 years ago
Uber and Lift seems to hire anybody. I know one rape occurred from one of these drivers (forgot if it was Uber or Lyft). They got the guy, of course. Stupid ughlee fella.
There must be many more…..
Now you got a terrorist driving you around. One who tortured people. That is who your driver will be. The one in kontrol of the vehicle.
4 years ago
He had a 4.89 customer rating. That’s pretty high. He must have been a pretty good driver with good customer service, despite his past. How he got into this country is another question.
4 years ago
4 years ago
Somalialand..Sounds like the worst amusement park ever….Come to the Ilhan Omar HUGE House of horror choppers ..The smile of hate if you dare.
