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(Update) Trump Adviser Claims 'Bowling Green Massacre' That Never Happened Justifies Travel Ban

Gage Skidmore, Flickr Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Update: Conway said on Twitter she misspoke when she said "massacre" and meant to say "terrorists." FactCheck.org explains what happened in Bowling Green in 2011.

Original Story:

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.

Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC last night that 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.

Two Iraqi citizens living in Warren County were arrested 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.

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Matt Markgraf joined the WKMS team as a student in January 2007. He's served in a variety of roles over the years: as News Director March 2016-September 2019 and previously as the New Media & Promotions Coordinator beginning in 2011. Prior to that, he was a graduate and undergraduate assistant. He is currently the host of the international music show Imported on Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
Kevin is the News Director at WKU Public Radio. He has been with the station since 1999, and was previously the Assistant News Director, and also served as local host of Morning Edition. He is a broadcast journalism graduate of WKU, and has won numerous awards for his reporting and feature production. Kevin grew up in Radcliff, Kentucky and currently lives in Glasgow.
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