WASHINGTON — A high Trump administration intelligence official mentioned Friday that the suspected Afghan terrorist who gunned down two Nationwide Guard service members was “not vetted” earlier than being allowed to enter the US in 2021.
Joe Kent, the director of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart on the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence, posted on X that the Biden administration was accountable for the lapse in vetting of Rahmanullah Lakanwal — who’s being charged with killing one of many troops, Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom.
The NCTC director mentioned there have been greater than 2 million in whole who entered “from Muslim majority nations & areas surged … usually with minimal scrutiny amid document border crossings” — together with 85,000 Afghans who “had been quickly admitted into our nation with out the rigorous vetting that has protected us prior to now.”
“This can be a lethal mixture,” Kent declared, noting that the suspected terrorist “was solely vetted to function a soldier to battle towards the Taliban, AQ, & ISIS IN Afghanistan, he was NOT vetted for his suitability to come back to America and stay amongst us as a neighbor, combine into our communities, or finally turn out to be an American citizen.”
A senior US official confirmed that he had been “vetted to battle” alongside US forces towards Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS militants between 2011 and 2021 — however that this was a “low customary” that “has by no means been used earlier than to let folks into the US.”
“Previous to Biden it took 18 months or longer for somebody to be granted a Particular Immigrant Visa, together with the applicant needing to flee to a 3rd nation so the US authorities might interview and vet them,” the official famous. “Biden threw all of this out and utilized tactical battle time vetting to folks searching for entry into the homeland.”
Each the Division of Homeland Safety and CIA have additionally blamed President Trump’s predecessor for enabling the DC capturing with lax vetting through the hasty withdrawal from Kabul in August 2021.
“[T]he Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the USA in September 2021 as a consequence of his prior work with the U.S. Authorities, together with CIA, as a member of a accomplice pressure in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” mentioned CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Thursday.
Homeland Safety Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin added that Lakanwal had been “paroled in” with tens of hundreds of different Afghan refugees.
Comply with the most recent on the Nationwide Guard capturing in Washington, DC:
Lakanwal, 29, ambushed two Nationwide Guard members in a cowardly capturing on Thanksgiving eve in DC. Each had been deployed from West Virginia as a part of a federal surge to crack down on crime within the nation’s capital.
The armed troopers had been simply blocks away from the White Home when he rounded a nook and opened fireplace with a revolver, placing Beckstrom, 20, first. She died the next day at an area hospital.
Lakanwal solely fired 4 bullets from the handgun earlier than selecting up Beckstrom’s rifle and turning it on Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, who was hit and stays in vital situation on the hospital.
He exchanged gunfire with different troops earlier than being subdued by an unidentified hero Guardsman, who bull-rushed the shooter whereas he was reloading and stabbed him repeatedly within the head with a pocket knife to subdue him.
Lakanwal was relocated to the US below former President Joe Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome” program, which introduced practically 80,000 Afghans to the US who had battled towards the Taliban.
The Kandahar Strike Power he joined was a CIA-backed paramilitary group that fought alongside US forces — however was additionally accused of being a dying squad that tortured and executed civilians.
Roughly 10,000 members of the so-called “Zero Models” finally settled in Washington State close to Seattle. Lakanwal ended up in Bellingham, Wash., along with his spouse and 5 kids in September 2021.
McLaughlin famous in her assertion Thursday that “this monster wouldn’t have been eliminated due to his parole,” even when the Trump administration sought to take away him earlier this 12 months.
“Biden signed into regulation that parole program, after which entered into the 2023 Ahmed Court docket Settlement, which certain USCIS to adjudicate his asylum declare on an expedited foundation,” McLaughlin mentioned.
The Trump administration has since “stopped indefinitely pending additional overview of safety and vetting protocols” any immigration requests “regarding Afghan nationals,” she added.
“The Trump Administration can also be reviewing all asylum instances accepted below the Biden Administration, which did not vet these candidates on an enormous scale.”
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The president additionally personally directed a sweeping overview of inexperienced card holders from 19 nations of concern, and asylum purposes from all nations at the moment are paused.
Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson on the State Division, mentioned Friday that visa processing for Afghan nationals is now paused within the wake of the horrific terror assault.
“The Trump administration has no increased precedence than guaranteeing the security of Individuals and has launched a whole-of-government effort to defend America’s nationwide safety,” Pigott mentioned.
In accordance with a Homeland Safety inspector normal’s report in 2022, officers “didn’t at all times have vital information to correctly display screen, vet, or examine the evacuees” from Afghanistan particularly. That Biden-era program let round 76,000 Afghans into the US.
Lakanwal utilized for each a particular immigrant visa and asylum, the latter of which he requested for in December 2024 and it was granted the next April.
Chad Robichaux, a former Power Recon Marine who deployed to Afghanistan eight occasions and was a part of a coalition effort that evacuated 17,000 nationals from the nation in 2021, claimed to The Submit that there was “zero vetting” for tens of hundreds of Afghans flown out of Kabul within the closing days of the withdrawal.
“In all probability near 100,000 of them had been flown straight from Kabul to the USA to totally different airfields, they usually had been let go into the American inhabitants. We don’t know who they’re — zero vetting,” mentioned Robichaux, who authored the 2023 e book “Saving Aziz: How the Mission to Assist One Turned a Calling to Rescue Hundreds from the Taliban.”
“Simply since you’re accepted to work with particular operations of the CIA, that doesn’t offer you a pathway to the USA. You continue to should undergo the State Division. You continue to have to use. He would nonetheless should have utilized for a particular immigrant visa course of,” he added.
Trump advised that Lakanwal “went nuts” shortly earlier than touring to DC and firing on US troops — and Robichaux shared that as a particular operations soldier, he labored aspect by aspect with different Afghans who had been later “disloyal” to the US and “turned on” them.
“I do know guys which have misplaced their lives being out on operations in Afghanistan,” he recalled, mentioning one Afghan nationwide who was educated by the CIA, labored along with his crew and whom he wrote about in his e book about rescuing an interpreter.
“I, like, slept on the aspect of mountains with this man … trusted him with my life. He activates us,” he recounted, “has a car bomb pushed into my home, had 12 of our teammates rolled up, captured and killed, and I bought kidnapped by a overseas intelligence company due to this man.”
Robichaux added: “They didn’t know who was on these planes. He might have labored for the CIA. He might have labored for the Taliban.”
One in all Lakanwal’s family members informed NBC Information that he finally labored as a contractor for Amazon Flex as a supply driver after resettling within the US.
A buddy additionally recalled to the New York Instances that he suffered psychological issues after seeing fight in Afghanistan “When he noticed blood, our bodies, and the wounded, he couldn’t tolerate it,” the buddy was quoted as saying. “It put a variety of strain on his thoughts.”
A rep for Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
