Bowling Green Massacre Never Happened

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Scott Eisen/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Despite comments made by White House Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway, there never was a massacre at the hands of Iraqi refugees in the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

In fact there never has been a terror attack of any kind in the city of 60,000, and local officials are now rushing to assure everyone their town is safe – and always has been.

“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized, and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green Massacre,” Conway said on MSNBC on Thursday night. “I mean most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

It didn’t get covered because it didn’t happen. There was no massacre.

It is true – as ABC News first reported in 2013 – that in 2009 two al-Qaeda terrorists from Iraq were found to be living as refugees in Bowling Green. In court, they later admitted that they had attacked U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The arrest of the two men, who are now in prison, led to a six month drastic curtailment and overhaul of the Iraqi refugee program in 2011.

The entire saga played out in the small Kentucky town without bloodshed, much less a massacre.

Conway’s comments marked another embarrassing on-air appearance for the senior white house counselor.

On Jan. 22, Conway defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s claim that Trump’s inauguration saw “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”

Pressed by a journalist on the press secretary’s false characterization, Conway said, “you’re saying it’s a falsehood and they’re giving – Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”

On Friday, Conway’s false claim that a massacre took place in Bowling Green became the subject of widespread mockery on social media – replete with custom memes and a parody hashtag.

But where there was humor, there was also drama.

Early on Friday, Conway tweeted that she “meant to say ‘Bowling Green terrorists’,” during her live appearance last night.

Not long after, Chelsea Clinton – daughter of Trump’s campaign rival, Hillary Clinton – tweeted in part: “Please don’t make up attacks.”

Conway later said on the social network, “Instead of creating memes & phony outrage. It’s a dangerous world.”

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