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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Kellyanne Conway stated on February 2, 2017 in There was no massacre: \"Two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. … It didn\'t get covered\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * National * Terrorism * Kellyanne Conway ![\\"Steve](\\" By Steve Contorno February 3, 2017 ![\\"Louis](\\" By Louis Jacobson February 3, 2017 # Fact-checking Kellyanne Conway on the \'Bowling Green massacre\' When White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared at a town hall event with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, she mentioned \"the Bowling Green massacre\" -- a terrorist attack that, the social media world would quickly determine, did not exist. This exchange stemmed from her defense of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barring citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya from entering the United States for 90 days and putting Syrian refugee admissions on hold indefinitely. (We go over some of the key issues in this explainer.) Trump’s action inspired protests, but Trump and others in his administration cited as a precedent an action taken by the Obama administration. \"My policy is similar to what President (Barack) Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,\" Trump said. Specifically, the government instituted new background checks for visa applicants from Iraq and expanded screening for Iraqi refugees who had already settled in the United States. (We largely disagreed that the two actions were equivalent, so we rated Trump’s statement Mostly False.) So what does any of this this have to do with Bowling Green, a city in western Kentucky? The Obama-era action was taken after a failed plot by Iraqi nationals living in Bowling Green to send money, explosives and weapons overseas to al-Qaida. The two men were arrested by the FBI in May 2011 for actions committed in Iraq and trying to assist overseas terrorist groups. That’s the context in which Conway brought it up during a town hall at American University on Feb. 2, 2017. \"I bet it\'s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six- month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,\" she said. After some cross-talk between Conway and Matthews, Conway added that the incident \"didn\'t get covered.\" So there was indeed a terrorism-related situation in Bowling Green, Ky., but it wasn’t a \"massacre.\" No one died in Bowling Green. And before long, social media lit up with mockery of Conway, from reminders of a 2013 football blowout of Northern Illinois University by Bowling Green State University to a website for the mythical Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund. Lots of wags added that it was no wonder that the media didn’t cover the massacre because … it didn’t happen. The next morning, Conway clarified matters on Twitter. She tweeted, \"On @hardball @NBCNews @MSNBC I meant to say ‘Bowling Green terrorists’ as reported here.\" She also tweeted that \"honest mistakes abound.\" So Conway has publicly acknowledged her error. Still, we thought it would be important to clear the air about what actually happened and what did not. The account below is largely taken from a fact-check we originally published on Sept. 23, 2014, in which we gave a False rating to the statement that, \"In 2011, (the Islamic State) attempted to attack Fort Knox\" in Kentucky. That was just one of a number of inaccurate statements circulating at the time about terrorist activities in and around Bowling Green, Ky. On Feb. 3, 2017, we ran our original fact-check by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a terrorism expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and he said that our original account remains accurate. The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article. Iraqi nationals in Kentucky The details of the Kentucky case were indeed alarming. In September 2009, the FBI, based on a tip, launched an investigation into an Iraqi, Waad Ramadan Alwan, who was living in Bowling Green. A confidential source for the FBI started talking with Alwan in 2011. Alwan discussed how he previously worked as a bombmaker in Iraq. He boasted about blowing up American Hummers and targeting U.S. soldiers, claiming he used improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, hundreds of times, according to court documents. The FBI even matched a fingerprint from Alwan to an unexploded IED that was discovered by the military in 2005. (There’s a warehouse outside of Washington, D.C., that houses thousands of bombs found by the military). That enabled investigators to determine that Alwan had likely killed U.S. troops while in Iraq. The confidential source continued to meet with Alwan and recruited him to assist in an operation in the United States to send explosives, firearms and money to al-Qaida of Iraq. Al-Qaida of Iraq later morphed into the Islamic State or ISIS, according to terrorism experts. The sting #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on August 5, 2024 in an X post Tim Walz “changed the Minnesota flag so it could resemble the Somalian flag.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 6, 2024 On five occasions, Alwan helped procure and load money and weapons he believed were going to help al-Qaida of Iraq fight U.S. troops. In January 2011, Alwan recruited a friend to assist him — Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, another Iraqi who had moved to Bowling Green after first living in Las Vegas. Alwan and Hammadi entered the United States as refugees after lying about their past terrorism ties on paperwork. From January to May 2011, the two worked together on five missions to send grenade launchers, machine guns, explosives, sniper rifles, hand grenades, missile launchers and $565,000 to al-Qaida of Iraq. Of course, this was all a sting operation. While Alwan and Hammadi thought they were helping insurgents in Iraq, in reality, the FBI was monitoring all of their actions -- a common tactic for sting operations involving suspected terrorists. The weapons, which the FBI rendered unusable, were merely transferred from one location under FBI control to another. In May 2011, Alwan and Hammadi were arrested. In December 2011, Alwan pleaded guilty to a 23-count indictment, including conspiring to kill U.S. nationals abroad and multiple charges of weapons and terrorist activities. Hammadi pleaded guilty to a 12-count indictment, including attempting to provide material support to terrorists. For cooperating with authorities, Alwan received a reduced sentence of 40 years in prison followed by a lifetime under house arrest. Hammadi was sentenced to life in prison. The charges None of the charges filed against Alwan and Hammadi were for domestic terrorism plots. They were not convicted of any crimes related to domestic terrorism. All of the charges against these individuals were for actions committed while in Iraq or for trying to assist terrorist groups operating overseas. PolitiFact has combed through hundreds of pages of court documents that were available online. The only conceivable reference to any other terrorist activity is in Hammadi’s appeal of his sentence. There, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote: \"Hammadi and Alwan also plotted to murder a U.S. Army Captain whom they knew from Iraq.\" An ABC investigative report had a few more details: \"Alwan had been caught on an FBI surveillance tape talking about using a bomb to assassinate an Army captain they\'d known in Bayji, who was now back home — and to possibly attack other homeland targets.\" We should also note that while Alwan and Hammadi thought they were helping a predecessor of the Islamic State, al-Qaida of Iraq had no communication with them. At root, this was a case of two Iraqis with dangerous backgrounds who were duped by the FBI into believing they were helping Islamic insurgents fight Americans overseas. Conway’s statement So how does Conway’s original (and now inoperative) statement stack up? Most importantly, there was no \"massacre\" in or around Bowling Green that was either carried out or attempted. In addition, while the two men were charged with serious crimes and were sentenced accordingly, it’s important to remember that everything that happened was part of a sting operation by the FBI. This means that the people of Bowling Green were not endangered at any point, and that the entire incident can be viewed as a law-enforcement success. The fact that it was a sting undercuts Conway’s use of the word \"masterminds.\" Conway also said the event \"wasn’t covered\" by the media. We used the Nexis database to search media reports from around the time of the arrest and found that it wasn’t a huge, newscycle-dominating story. But several major news outlets did cover the story when it broke, including CNN, CBS and the Associated Press. And they also covered the debate that followed — including the call by some members of Congress to send the Iraqis to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the fact that it exposed a gap in the refugee screening process. In her tweet correcting her statement on MSNBC, Conway linked to a news story about the two Iraqis and other refugees, a 2013 article by ABC, headlined, \"US May Have Let \'Dozens\' of Terrorists Into Country As Refugees.\" Our ruling Conway said that \"two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. … It didn\'t get covered.\" Put simply, there was no massacre. While Conway admitted her mistake the following morning -- and we\'re happy she did -- it\'s important to make sure the record is crystal clear. We rate the claim False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Kellyanne Conway, interview on MSNBC, Feb. 2, 2017 PolitiFact, \"Rep. Peter King says Islamic State tried to attack Fort Knox in 2011,\" Sept. 23, 2014 Kellyanne Conway, tweet, Feb. 3, 2017 Kellyanne Conway, tweet, Feb. 3, 2017 Email interview with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, terrorism expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Feb. 3, 2017 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Steve Contorno ![](\\" ![](\\" Kellyanne Conway stated on February 2, 2017 in There was no massacre: \"Two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. … It didn\'t get covered\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • February 3, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Hillary Clinton stated on September 27, 2016 in the first presidential debate: Says Donald Trump \"started his career back in 1973 being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • September 27, 2016 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 26, 2016 in a Presidential debate: Says Hillary Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership \"the gold standard. You called it the gold standard of trade deals. You said it’s the finest deal you’ve ever seen.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • September 27, 2016 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ted Cruz stated on March 23, 2015 in a speech at Liberty University: \"Small businesses (are) going out of business in record numbers.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • March 24, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron Johnson stated on March 8, 2015 in an interview on \'Fox News Sunday\': \"The Iranian parliament will get to say yes or no on this deal, and I think the United States Congress should have the exact same input into the process.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • March 10, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Charles Schumer stated on March 8, 2015 in comments on CBS\' \"Face the Nation\": \"The State Department asked all secretaries of state to send their emails over.\" Hillary Clinton\'s \"the only one who’s done it.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • March 8, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Marco Rubio stated on February 27, 2015 in a speech at CPAC: \"There are at least three sectors of the border, one in particular, that are just completely insecure.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • March 5, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on March 3, 2015 in the Florida State of the State address: \"The average person only pays about $1,800 in state taxes — which is the lowest of all 50 states.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • March 3, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" American Crossroads stated on February 23, 2015 in a video: \"The Clintons\' foundation took millions from foreign governments\" including United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • February 26, 2015 ![](\\" rudygiuliani/284bc4438a7be1da4dc64b1371a6b23d.jpg\\") ![](\\" rudygiuliani/e199c9dcf8cd798c6b0f38ca53495eb2.jpg\\") Rudy Giuliani stated on February 23, 2015 in an op-ed in the \'Wall Street Journal\': Says President Barack Obama said \"that American exceptionalism is no more exceptional than the exceptionalism of any other country.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • February 23, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Robert McDonald stated on February 15, 2015 in an appearance on NBC\'s \'Meet the Press\': \"Nine hundred people have been fired since I became secretary (of Veterans Affairs). We’ve got 60 people that we fired who have manipulated wait times.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • February 20, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Adam Kinzinger stated on February 15, 2015 in an appearance on ABC\'s \'This Week\': The current debate over authorizing military action against the Islamic State \"would be the first time Congress would place limits on the commander-in- chief\'s ability to be commander-in-chief.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Steve Contorno • February 19, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Roy Moore stated on February 12, 2015 in an interview with CNN: Alabamians \"haven’t changed their opinion\" on same-sex marriage since voting to ban it in 2006. ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • February 13, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Alcee Hastings stated on February 5, 2015 in an interview with CNN: One Texas city \"has a law that says that women can only have six dildos.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • February 9, 2015 ![](\\" ![](\\" Nationwide stated on February 1, 2015 in an ad during the Super Bowl: \"The No. 1 cause of childhood deaths is preventable accidents.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Steve Contorno • February 2, 2015 ### Fact-checking Kellyanne Conway on the \'Bowling Green massacre\' * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on August 27, 2024 in an Instagram post: California S.B. 1174 eliminates the requirement for voter ID at polling places. ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on August 29, 2024 in X posts: President Joe Biden “did a campaign ad at the graves in Arlington in 2020.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on August 16, 2024 in a video: Video shows “Kamala Harris describing how she can ruin lives with the \'swipe of a pen.’\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 25, 2024 in a post: Kamala Harris’ “plan to tax unrecognized Capital Gains mean(s) if your house goes up in value you will have to pay that Tax Even if you don’t sell your House!” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Sara Swann • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 25, 2024 in a Facebook post: “There’s no such thing as menopause.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Madison Czopek • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on August 27, 2024 in an Instagram post: “Hollywood actor Kurt Russell just said: ‘It is now proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden CHEATED in the 2020 election with mail-in ballots.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 22, 2024 in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention: Former President Donald Trump \"intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax ... that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on August 27, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Kurt Russell forms a new non-woke actors alliance with Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on August 23, 2024 in an X post: Photo of former President Donald Trump after an assassination attempt was generated by artificial intelligence. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on August 28, 2024 in an X post: C-SPAN captions for a JD Vance speech said, “Single person clapping.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 30, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. 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Two Iraqis came here to this country were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre It didnt get covered