The Biden administration put in a good word for accused National Guard murderer Rahmanullah Lakanwal four years before the horrific DC slaying, insisting he was “no threat” to national security, a jarring letter of recommendation obtained by The Post reveals.
The shooting before Thanksgiving led to the death of Specialist Sarah Bekstrom, 20, and wounding of fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, who has been making a “miraculous” recovery.
“I am confident that Rahmanullah poses no threat to the national security of the United States,” according to the letter, which was unearthed by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and has spent years overseeing the chaotic US evacuation from the country following the two decade war.
The letter from the Kabul Annex to Customs officials includes laudatory language officials used to push Lakanwal through the immigration system and into the US, while formally establishing his service to the CIA in Afghanistan during the US war there. An HR rep at the annex promoted Lakanwal for a Special Immigrant Visa that allowed entry into the country.
The letter is dated Oct. 14, 2021 – almost exactly two months after Taliban forces retook Kabul and and the last US troops left the country.
It said Lakanwal had worked as a “security officer” at a State Department Annex since 2011, serving alongside US and Afghan forces for a decade.
Lakanwal provided “faithful and valuable service” to the US, and “has faced significant threat to himself and his family as a result of his dedication to DOS Annex and the U.S. Government’s mission in Afghanistan. His contributions to the mission have no doubt benefited U.S. Government interests and national security,”
An additional section that is redacted for an unidentified “organization” also confirms Lakanwal’s “work for the U.S. Government.”
The Post reported last month that Lakanwal and another Afghan man, Mohammad Dawood Alokozay – who is accused of making terroristic threats – worked at the same counterterrorism base.
“Unfortunately, we have recently seen that the Biden administration’s vetting failures continue to pose serious consequences for the American people,” Grassley wrote CIA Director John Ratcliffe. He cited Ratcliffe’s own public comments about his work for the CIA and press reports that he fought as part of an Afghan “Zero Unit” paramilitary force.
He pressed Ratcliffe for information on how much his agency vetted Lakanwal, as well as two other Afghans arrested around the same time as the Guard shooting – Alokozay, who was arrested in Texas for allegedly making bomb threats on social media, and Jaan Shah Safi, who was arrested in Virginia for allegedly providing support to ISIS-K.
Grassley in a series of letters this week pressed the CIA and other agencies to disclose more about the roles three arrested Afghans played for the US government.
“Did your agency assess, vet, or investigate Alokozay, Lakanwal,or Safi before and/or after their entry into the United States?” he asked. In addition to seeking documents, he inquired whether any of the men provided “material support” or contracted with the CIA, and whether they were vetted against Intelligence Community databases.
The lawmaker told the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Customs and Border Protection, to provide similar information.
The Post previously reported that of the three men, only Safi was on the government’s terror watch listof 18,000 people. He is one of “nearly 2,000 Afghans that have ties to known or suspected terrorists,” according to an official in Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office.
More than 100,000 Afghans came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome during the Biden administration. According to State Department data, 143,000 Afghans were issued Special Immigrant Visas through March 2024. Effective January 1, 2026, the agency suspended visas for 19 countries including Afghanistan. It said it was suspending the congressionally-created Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, citing a presidential proclamation.
However, it said the secretaries of state and homeland security “may find that travel by an individual would serve the U.S. national interest on a case-by-case basis.”
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