Afghan CIA worker charged in US Election Day terror plot reveals ‘catastrophe’ vetting of refugees: sources

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Afghan CIA worker charged in US Election Day terror plot reveals ‘catastrophe’ vetting of refugees: sources


The Afghan nationwide who’s charged with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day bloodbath on American voters is only one instance of the “f–king catastrophe” vetting of strategy of asylum seekers through the Biden-Harris administration’s pullout from Afghanistan, in accordance with sources and a number of authorities stories.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, reportedly labored for the CIA in Afghanistan earlier than being welcomed into the US in September 2021 — weeks after the Taliban took over Kabul and American forces beat a hasty and disastrous retreat.

He was residing in Oklahoma Metropolis on a Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) when he started stockpiling AK-47 rifles and ammunition to hold out an ISIS-inspired assault on US soil, in accordance with the Justice Division.

“They’d no clue, they had been simply shoving them in tents. They’d no group so we needed to begin from scratch. And as that was occurring, we had been getting flights of about 500 to 700 folks in a day,” a legislation federal enforcement supply advised The Submit.

“The Afghanistan withdrawal will find yourself proving to be the worst factor that this administration did.”

Nasir Ahmed Tawhedi radicalized whereas within the US, the place he allegedly deliberate his Election Day bloodbath, per legislation enforcement sources. FBI

Tawhedi is only one of 77,000 SIV candidates from the Kabul withdrawal who had been paroled into america for a two-year interval.

Technically, he and others in this system had been required to re-up their parole if their instances after that. Nevertheless, the Division of Homeland Safety has failed to trace the parole expirations of SIV candidates as soon as they had been within the nation — that means that there was no accountability in the event that they stayed within the nation illegally, in accordance with a DHS Inspector Common report printed in Might.

The US granted parole standing to greater than 70,000 Afghans following the chaotic withdrawal and Taliban takeover of the south Asian nation, Courtesy of Mission DYNAMO

A federal watchdog later decided that the DHS “encountered obstacles to display, vet, and examine” the Afghan evacuees, including that they lacked “important information” for most of the people.

“Consequently, DHS might have admitted or paroled people into america who pose a danger to nationwide safety and the security of native communities,” the inspector common concluded.

When evacuees had been boarding US planes on the tarmac in Kabul through the withdrawal, US officers weren’t screening them, a legislation enforcement supply concerned within the course of advised The Submit.

And once they arrived on US soil at designated army bases for vetting, a few of them simply walked off the premises by no means to be seen once more.

“As a result of these folks had been paroled into the nation, they didn’t have to remain on the base, they might stroll off and we couldn’t cease them,” the supply mentioned.

“And in the event you didn’t have them recognized correctly, then that was robust s–t. However that’s what this administration did. And it was horrible.

The supply’s assertions echo testimony made earlier than the Home Homeland Safety committee in April by Simone Ledeen, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Protection for the Center East.

“These first couple of planes that took off from Kabul Airport had been full of people that had not been vetted.”

Later vetting confirmed some had been terrorists suspected on planting EIDs, or who confirmed up in US army databases as safety threats, she mentioned.

“I’ve very grave issues about this,” Ledeen advised the committee.

On Thursday, NBC Information reported that Tawhedi was employed as a safety guard for the CIA.

Different legislation enforcement sources advised The Submit that the feds imagine Tawhedi radicalized himself on-line after arriving within the US.

Whereas investigating Tawhedi’s on-line historical past, the FBI found “ISIS propaganda on his iCloud and Google account” and a video recorded on Tawhedi’s cellphone of him telling two kids about “the rewards a martyr receives within the afterlife,” in accordance with a felony criticism.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, simply weeks after the Taliban regained management of Afghanistan and the final US troops departed from the war-torn nation.

Within the video, Tawhedi acknowledged that “martyrs can be exempted from the sufferings of the grave, positioned in heaven, get married to 72 virgins, and obtain a crown stuffed with jewels,” in accordance with the criticism. 

Authorities additionally discovered a photograph of man sporting a suicide bomber vest, a picture of the Sept. 11, 2021, terrorist assault on the World Commerce Middle, and a portrait of ISIS large Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Tawhedi’s cellphone.

It was additionally found that Tawhedi was a part of ISIS-aligned Telegram chats and that he gave a minimum of $540 in cryptocurrency to a Syria-based “charity which fronts for and funnels cash to ISIS.” 

Tawhedi allegedly deliberate to conduct his assault with the assistance of a juvenile co-conspirator, who has additionally been arrested.

The scheme unraveled when the 2 terror suspects listed a Chrome guide on Fb Market, the place an undercover FBI agent discovered them and acquired a number of electronics from them. The identical agent later bought them the AK-47s they supposed to make use of of their terrorist assault.

Tawhedi might have supposed to commit the assault in Washington, DC. He had regarded up and considered the general public webcams of the Washington Monument and the White Home on July 25, 2024 — the identical day the Moore, Okla. dwelling was listed on the market.

The FBI additionally discovered proof that Tawhedi participated in ISIS-aligned Telegram teams and that he donated a minimum of $540 in cryptocurrency to a Syria-based “charity which fronts for and funnels cash to ISIS.”

Legal professional Common Merrick Garland mentioned the DOJ “foiled” Tawhedi’s alleged “plot to amass semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent assault within the title of ISIS on US soil on Election Day.”

“We are going to proceed to fight the continuing risk that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s nationwide safety, and we are going to establish, examine, and prosecute the people who search to terrorize the American folks,” Garland mentioned in a press release.

Tawhedi faces fees of conspiring and making an attempt to supply materials assist to ISIS, which may lead to as much as 20 years in jail.


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