In the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, and the revelation that at least two of the terrorists were Syrian refugees, the governors of Texas, Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana, and even Massachusetts, have announced they will seek to bar Syrian refugee resettlement in their states. As of Monday night they were joined by the governors of over twenty states with more doubttless to come.

But the resettlement contractors have fired back. Based on the announcements by Michigan and Alabama, which came first, Church World Service President and CEO, Rev. John L. McCullough responded forcefully:

For these governors to falsely assert that the U.S. refugee admissions program places their states at risk is utterly preposterous. Refugees are the single most scrutinized and vetted individuals to travel to the United States, undergoing more than seven security checks by intelligence agencies, including biometric tests, medical screenings and in-person interviews with Department of Homeland Security officials. To blame Syrian refugees, who are themselves fleeing the horrors of ISIS, for the acts of their perpetrators, is just plain wrong.

As usual, the leader of this resettlement contractor, like all of them, is being flatly dishonest. While some refugees do undergo extensive vetting, most of it relies on various databases available to them. There are no such databases on Syrians. It is a nation in the midst of a civil war, whose government is an enemy of the U.S. If there were any such databases available, FBI Director James Comey would have confirmed this. Instead, he specifically stated the opposite, as did his counterterrorism chief, Michael Steinbach, in testimony before Congress. Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said the prospect of ISIS gaining access to the U.S. through the refugee program is a “huge concern.” Even Jeh Johnson has admitted that they don’t really know who the refugees are. All of those whose job it is to protect our nation from attack have raised a red flag, noting that Syrian refugees cannot be vetted.

Does McCullough know more than those professionals whose job it is to keep America secure from such threats? Is he calling the FBI director an idiot? Who on earth do these people think they are? Let’s look at the more likely explanation for this overtly fraudulent statement.

Church World Service is a subsidiary of far left National Council of Churches. Founded in the 1950s, the NCC was the follow-on organization to the Federal Council of Churches, a communist front. It is a subsidiary of the World Council of Churches, captured in the 1970s by the KGB, according to former Romanian intelligence chief, Ion Pacepa. Among other outrages -- most notably participating in the Left’s nonstop effort to muddy the Bible’s message -- NCC colluded with the Cuban Council of Churches to get the Cuban refugee, Elian Gonzales, returned to Cuba. Remember poor little Elian, whose mother drowned helping him escape Cuba?

Last year CWS received $45.4 million in government grants, 56.8% of its total revenue. The rest comes from church tithes by well-meaning but almost certainly uninformed parishioners, and radical leftist foundations, like Tides, Ford, Unbound Philanthropy, Soros’s Open Society and others. Resettlement contractors stand to boost their income by an additional $50 to $100 million this year and even more next year to resettle Syrians. RINO Senator Lindsay Graham wants to boost the overall resettlement effort by $1 billion!

The “Reverend” McCullough received $288,000 in pay and benefits in 2014. Not bad pay for a preacher. In fact, what preacher do you know who earns that much for an essentially basic administrative job, or for any job? He also does not speak like any preacher I know, spending his time pushing radical leftist political views. Like the other resettlement contractors misnamed “Voluntary Agencies”, McCullough is much more interested in himself and his organization’s financial well being than the taxpayers who are financing his lifestyle.

To commit such overt fraud is bad enough under normal circumstances. But now with the undeniable specter of ISIS terrorists entering the U.S. to visit mass murder on our shopping malls and sports events this upcoming Christmas season, to attempt to mislead the American people this way is an unspeakable atrocity -- tantamount to colluding with terrorists.

Trey Gowdy’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and National Security is holding a hearing on the national security implications of refugee resettlement this Thursday morning at 9am. Let’s hope he displays the sanity and courage now being demonstrated by, at latest count, nine state governors.