It’s curious that Abdullatif Aldosary (pictured), the Iraqi refugee who bombed the Casa Grande Arizona Social Security office last November, was tried initially for illegal gun possession rather than the attempted terrorism.

He was clearly a hostile character who should have been deported after two arrests and 8 months in jail for aggravated harassment which occurred before the bombing. Furthermore, Aldosary was denied citizenship “pursuant to terrorism related grounds of inadmissability.”

As local Congressman Paul Gosar asked in a letter to Homeland Security, “Why wasn’t a known terrorist detained and deportation proceedings initiated once DHS concluded he was engaging in terrorism related activity?”

What does it take to get a violent foreigner deported these days?

In addition to the terrorist bombing in Casa Grande last fall, Aldosary was charged in July with murdering former coworker Orlando Requena.

This is one strange Iraqi, and the dinky gun possession trial did nothing to enlighten the public further about him. Why did the government bother with a firearms trial when a terror conviction could easily put him away for life, not to mention the apparently non-terror murder?

Whatever the curious background of this case, the fact remains that yet another Muslim foreigner has committed criminal and terrorist actions endangering the public, and our legal system has to sort out the mess.

The more basic question is why does the government continue to admit immigrants from societies that hate us when there are plenty of nice people who would like to immigrate here.

Sentencing set in Casa Grande bombing suspect’s gun possession case, Associated Press, September 23, 2013

PHOENIX (AP) — An Iraqi man charged in state court with detonating a homemade explosive device outside an Arizona Social Security building is set for sentencing in December after a jury found him guilty on three federal counts of being a felon in possession of guns and ammunition.

Abdullatif Ali Aldosary had pleaded not guilty in the federal case after authorities said they found guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition hidden in his attic and behind dresser drawers.

Opening statements began Wednesday. The jury reached a verdict Friday after about an hour of deliberations.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 9. Aldosary faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts.

Prosecutors explained that Aldosary had a previous felony conviction and therefore wasn’t allowed to own firearms or ammunition.

Aldosary’s attorney told jurors to be skeptical of the government’s case, and not to believe that just because the weapons were found inside his home that he knew they were there.

Separately, Aldosary faces multiple state counts, including 14 attempted first-degree murder charges, arson and use of explosives. Authorities say he detonated a homemade explosive device on Nov. 30 outside a Social Security Administration building in Casa Grande. No one was injured in the blast. Prosecutors said the attempted murder charges stem from 14 employees who were inside the building at the time of the explosion.

A trial date in that case has not yet been set.

Investigators say a search of Aldosary’s home turned up documents that explained how to build an explosives device. Police have not disclosed a motive for the bombing. Aldosary has pleaded not guilty in the state case.

The federal firearms charges stemmed from evidence collected during searches of his home after the explosive was detonated, though a judge ruled previously that jurors in his federal trial would not be informed of the bombing.

In yet another apparently unrelated state case, Aldosary was charged in July with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two firearms counts in the Nov. 27, 2012, killing of an employee at the Arizona Grain processing facility in Maricopa.

Orlando Requena, 26, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. He had worked for several years at the facility, where Aldosary also was employed for a time.

Aldosary came to the United States legally in 1997 from his home country of Iraq.

In 2008, he pleaded guilty to felony aggravated harassment charges. He was sentenced to two months in jail and three years of probation. But his probation was revoked a year later, and he was ordered to serve a year in prison.

Aldosary had sought help from U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar’s office in 2011 in obtaining permanent residency. Gosar has said he contacted Homeland Security, which responded in a letter that Aldosary’s case had been put on hold “pursuant to the terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility” under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Authorities say he was denied a green card in 2008 because he fought with anti-government forces trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Basra, Iraq, in 1991.

Gosar’s office questioned why the man hadn’t been deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Aldosary’s previous arrests on harassment charges and a probation violation weren’t considered deportable offenses.