CA1: Syrian not that oppressed

Saliba v. Mukasey, No. 07-1647 (unpublished) denies the petition for review of a Lebanese petitioner (Greek Orthodox) seeking asylum.  The facts are somewhat interesting, because apparently the Syrians were extorting fish from him. He applied late.  The government argued that the Syrians had left Lebanon. 

The First says that there are no due process problems here because asylum is discretionary.  (This is really strange, and I don’t think this is true.)  But the First notes that it still has jurisdiction over some constitutional claims, and nevertheless analyzes what the IJ did, and says that the IJ did a good enough job.

Under the CAT, the claims fail, because the IJ found that he was being bothered by the Syrians for financial reasons, even though there was some evidence that he was being bothered for religious ones.