Maroki

MEMORANDUM **

Reem Maroki petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which affirmed without opinion an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her applications for asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). The IJ denied Maroki’s applications because he found her not credible. We grant the petition and remand to the BIA for further consideration of Maroki’s applications for relief.

We review credibility findings for substantial evidence. Nonetheless, “[w]e do not accept blindly an IJ’s conclusion that a petitioner is not credible” but instead “examine the record to see whether substantial evidence supports that conclusion and determine whether the reasoning employed by the IJ is fatally flawed.” Osorio v. INS, 99 F.3d 928, 931 (9th Cir.1996). Although given substantial deference, an adverse credibility finding cannot be based on “conjecture and speculation.” Guo v. Ashcroft, 361 F.3d 1194, 1199 (9th Cir. 2004). Rather, the IJ “must have a legitimate articulable basis to question the petitioner’s credibility, [ ] must offer a specific, cogent reason for any stated disbelief1’ and *592 any such reason…

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent.

The law requires us to determine whether the IJ offered a “legitimate articulable basis” for questioning Maroki’s credibility or a “specific, cogent reason for any stated disbelief.” 1 The majority finds that Maroki’s explanations for her inconsistent testimony could have been credited and that there may have been legitimate explana *595 tions for her inconsistencies or omissions. But this is not the test. Rather, we may only reverse an IJ’s “not credible” finding if the record compels the inference that the witness was credible. 2 We must therefore uphold the IJ’s finding so long as a rational judge could have found as he did. There is sufficient support in the record for the IJ’s no credibility finding in this case.

There were serious inconsistencies between Maroki’s earlier and later testimony and in the papers that went to the heart of her asylum claim. Though she testified before the IJ that her family left Iraq due to her father’s torture, she never mentioned her father’s alleged torture in her credible fear interview. She said then that he was in a car accident with the police and that the police refused to call an ambulance. Neither…