John Jefferson
Lawmakers are raising new concerns about potential terror threats after the arrest of an Afghan national accused of planning an Election Day attack. On “Fox & Friends” Tuesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., raised concerns about the vetting process for foreign nationals, warning “thousands” of individuals were “rushed” over in the wake of the Biden-Harris administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
AFGHAN CHARGED WITH ELECTION DAY TERROR PLOT RAISES QUESTIONS, FEARS FROM LAWMAKERS: ‘THIS IS REAL’
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN: I was briefed a few weeks prior to this, not by the FBI, but from a different agency. What we understood is this individual was vulnerable to touch points, meaning that they were accepted in on an SIV, special immigration visa, but there’s confusion if he was prior or after the withdrawal. We believe that he was rushed with an SIV after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and it wasn’t proper vetting to actually say he was an SIV. The issue that we have here is there’s thousands of individuals that [were] rushed over here because of the Harris-Biden withdrawal, and they weren’t properly vetted. And when you don’t probably vet them, you don’t know what their touch points – touch points mean their vulnerabilities – vulnerabilities mean what can be leveraged against the individual to make them turn on their host country like this individual did. Fortunately, the FBI was doing their job. They did it correctly that no one was actually at harm, but they caught the individual. How many individuals are out there that we’re not paying attention to?
Authorities announced last week the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national who came to the U.S. in 2021 after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Tawhedi is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.
Authorities say he liquidated his family’s assets to finance his plan, including purchasing rifles and one-way tickets for his wife and child back to Afghanistan.
“This defendant, motivated by ISIS, allegedly conspired to commit a violent attack, on Election Day, here on our homeland,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a statement.
Court filings initially stated that he came on a special immigrant visa but have since clarified that he came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status.
A senior administration official told Fox News last week that Tawhedi was screened three times. He was screened first to work security for the CIA in Afghanistan, then for humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. in 2021, when he was vetted and screened in a third country, and then for special immigrant status, for which he was approved. His status has not yet been finalized. Officials believe he was radicalized after coming to the U.S.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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