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Trump Advisor Claims 'Bowling Green Massacre' That Never Happened Justifies Travel Ban

Gage Skidmore

A senior advisor to President Donald Trump is under fire for citing a so-called “Bowling Green massacre” as a way to defend the administration’s recent travel ban.

In an interview that aired on MSNBC Thursday night, Kellyanne Conway said the administration was justified in banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries because of the 2011 incident in southern Kentucky.

But there was never a “massacre” in Bowling Green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-w16cyQ8wQ

Two Iraqi citizens, Mohanad Shareff Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan, were arrested in Warren County that year and later sentenced to federal prison after they were caught in an FBI sting operation.

The two men wanted to send money and weapons to Al-Qaeda members in Iraq in order to kill American soldiers.

Nobody was killed as a result of the plot, and the two were arrested without incident.

In her MSNBC interview, Conway insisted that media downplayed the arrests, and that most Americans probably don’t know about the incident.

On Friday, Conway said in a tweet that she misspoke during teh MSNBC interview, and meant to say Bowling Green "terrorists" instead of "massacre."

This story has been updated.

The award-winning news team at WKU Public Radio consists of Dan Modlin, Kevin Willis, Lisa Autry, and Joe Corcoran.
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