Mustafe Muse Jibril v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

We must decide whether, under our case law, an immigration judge’s adverse credibility finding is supported by the alleged implausibilities and inconsistencies in an asylum applicant’s testimony and by his purportedly evasive and unresponsive demeanor while testifying.

I

Mustafe Muse Jibril is a member of the Yibir, a disfavored minority clan without land or power in Somalia, who has applied for asylum in the United States. According to his application, his clan is “the lowest clan,” “scattered all over the country but ... in the minority everywhere,” they “hold no territory” and “have no militias to protect[them].” The Yibir are “considered outcasts even though [they] share the same language, culture and traditions and look the same as every one else in Somalia” and “cannot marry outside [the] clan because [they] are beneath the other clans.” These facts are supported by the Department of State’s Country Report.

Before the civil war that toppled the government of President Siad Barre, Ji-bril’s father was a lieutenant-colonel in the army. President Barre promoted members of minority clans because they had no natural loyalties to the more powerful tribes and could be trusted to…