US officials encountered 55 Afghan evacuees on the terrorist watchlist after the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country, according to a Justice Department inspector general report.
The report, released Tuesday, confirmed longstanding suspicions from Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration failed to properly vet US-bound refugees as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.
“I’ve sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement, reacting to the DOJ IG report. “The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms.”
The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) identified 55 Afghans that were either already on the terrorist watchlist and made it to a US port of entry or were added to the database during the evacuation and resettlement process, the report found.
Of those, at least 21 were added to the terror list after they had already entered the US.
After investigations, the FBI eventually removed 46 evacuees from the watchlist, determining that they posed no threat to the homeland.
However, nine remained in the terror database as of July 2024 and eight were in the US.
“As if it wasn’t already obvious, the Biden-Harris administration endangered American lives by allowing suspected terrorists to enter the United States and roam free for years,” Grassley argued, noting that his “oversight of this matter will continue.”
Roughly 90,000 Afghans were allowed entry into the US and became eligible for Special immigrant Visas under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) and Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) programs, which provided the foreign nationals immigration processing and resettlement support.
“According to the FBI, the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security, which increased the risk that bad actors could try to exploit the expedited evacuation,” the DOJ IG report stated.
Despite the 55 individuals flagged, the DOJ inspector general determined that overall “each of the responsible elements of the FBI effectively communicated and addressed any potential national security risks identified.”
Last October, the DOJ charged an Afghan national brought into the US during the chaotic withdrawal with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was living in Oklahoma City on a Special Immigrant Visa as he took steps to stockpile AK-47 rifles and ammunition to carry out an attack on US soil “in the name of ISIS,” according to the Justice Department.
Tawhedi entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, just weeks after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and the last US troops departed from the war-torn nation.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and is currently awaiting trial.
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