The Bowling Green massacre is a fictitious incident of Islamic terrorism mentioned by Kellyanne Conway, then–Counselor to the President of Donald Trump, in interviews with Cosmopolitan and TMZ on January 29, 2017, and in an interview on the MSNBC news program Hardball with Chris Matthews on February 2, 2017. Conway cited it as justification for a travel and immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries enacted by United States President Donald Trump. However, no such massacre occurred. The day after the interview, Conway said she misspoke and had been referring to the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on charges including "attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda in Iraq". She stated that she had mentioned the incident because it led previous President Barack Obama to tighten immigration procedures for Iraqi citizens. Her false statement went viral and became the top trending topic on Twitter, with many tweets parodying it. A website was set up anonymously for the purpose of collecting donations for supposed victims. Facebook users used the site's safety check feature to act as if the event were real. Mock vigils were held in Kentucky and New York in commemoration. It provoked widespread press reaction, with many relating it to Conway's earlier use of the phrase "alternative facts" to describe false statements by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in the wake of Trump's inauguration. Background Terrorism-related arrests In 2011, two Iraqi men who had entered the country as refugees were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on federal terrorism charges after they attempted to send both money and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Both were convicted of supporting attacks on the U.S. military while they were still in Iraq as well as attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda in Iraq after they emigrated to the United States. Arrests were made on various charges, including "attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al Qaeda in Iraq". Before entering the U.S., both had used improvised explosive devices in Iraq, although this was not known at the time of their admission. Both pleaded guilty; one is serving a life sentence while the other is serving 40 years in federal prison. The two did not attack anyone in the U.S., and there was no evidence that the men traveled back to Iraq or had any contact with the Islamic State of Iraq and