Donald Trump adviser cites fake terror attack to defend visa ban

Washington: Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump defended his controversial immigration ban by citing a fake terror attack, the media reported.

In an MSNBC interview on Thursday night, Conway blamed two Iraqi refugees for the fictional "Bowling Green massacre".

"Most people don`t know that because it didn`t get covered," Conway said.

However, there has never been a terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Kentucky, carried out either by Iraqi refugees or anyone else, the Washington Post reported. 

Conway was likely referring to two Iraqi citizens living in Bowling Green who were arrested in 2011 and eventually sentenced to federal prison for attempting to send weapons and money to Al Qaeda in Iraq for the purpose of killing US soldiers, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 25, was sentenced to life in federal prison, and Waad Ramadan Alwan, 31, to 40 years in federal prison, followed by a life term of supervised release. Both men pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges.

Both men admitted having taken part in attacks against US troops in Iraq, not in Bowling Green.

In the interview, Conway also reiterated claims from Trump that his refugee policy is similar to "what (former) President Barack Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months." 

Conway said it was "brand new information" to people that Obama enacted a "six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee programme". 

However, this was also untrue.

Former Obama administration officials told the Washington Post that there was never a point when Iraqi resettlement was stopped or banned. 

In the aftermath of the arrests of the two Iraqis living in Bowling Green, Obama imposed more extensive background checks on Iraqi refugees, and the new screening procedures created a dramatic slowdown in visa approvals.