Biden ‘ignored warnings about letting terror-linked Afghans into US’

Joe Biden’s administration ignored counter-terrorism warnings to admit Afghans with terrorist links into the US, it has been claimed.

Officials flagged more than 1,000 Afghans with ties to Islamic State (IS) and other terror groups who came over during Operation Allies Welcome, following the US’ bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a senior intelligence official told The Telegraph.

But Mr Biden, the former president, is said to have “prioritised mass migration over security” and disregarded warnings from those within his administration who “identified terrorist threats”.

US government reports have previously concluded the normal system of background checks was suspended because of the pressing need to evacuate Afghans following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

On Nov 26, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan soldier who fought alongside American forces and was granted humanitarian parole in the US under Mr Biden, shot and killed a National Guardsman and left another in critical condition.

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries on Thanksgiving. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still recovering in hospital, but is expected to survive. Mr Lakanwal is thought to have been radicalised in the US.

According to a senior official with the ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence), around 1,400 Afghan nationals were flagged up as potential terrorists. However, that figure has now been revised up to 2,000 by the National Counterrorism Centre (NCTC).

This makes up two-thirds of the 3,000 “known jihadists” located in the US, according to the NCTC.

Joe Kent, director of the NCTC, told Congress on Thursday that the “number one threat” to the US was that “we don’t know who came into our country in the last four years of Biden’s open borders”.

Last week, immigration agents arrested Jaan Shah Safi, whom Donald Trump’s administration claims is an “unvetted” Afghan who supported IS and had provided weapons to his father, a militia commander in Afghanistan.

The day before the Washington DC shooting, authorities arrested Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, an Afghan national who allegedly posted a video on social media about building a bomb.

Both men entered the US under Operation Allies Welcome.

“The deliberate decision was taken to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghan nationals and their immediate relatives on the premise that the principal applicants had rendered significant service to the US government effort in Afghanistan,” said Simon Hankinson, a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation and former diplomat.

However, he continued, the US did not have the “time or means” to determine which evacuees had terrorist or Taliban links, or even their true identities.

Watchdog reports have cast doubt on claims by Mr Biden’s administration that it carried out comprehensive checks of the roughly 85,000 Afghans who entered in the wake of the evacuation.

“According to the FBI... the normal processes required to determine whether individuals posed a threat to national security and public safety were overtaken by the need to immediately evacuate and protect the lives of Afghans,” an audit from June states.

One review by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general found border agents did not have “critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees” because they did not have even basic information, including people’s names and dates of birth, and did not have access to their travel documents.

“We also determined CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States,” according to the report, which was released in Sept 2022.

In response, homeland security insisted it had screened “all Afghan nationals prior to parole into the United States” by working with “intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism officials” – a claim contradicted by the senior ODNI source.

“The Biden administration prioritised mass migration over security, disregarding NCTC professionals who identified terrorist threats, to grant mass parole and admit violent extremists, dangerous criminals, and drug-traffickers into our country,” they said.

Mr Lakanwal, who settled in Bellingham, Washington, shouted “Allahu Akbar” before shooting the two National Guard members, according to court documents.

He has been charged with first-degree murder, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general, has indicated she will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Mr Lakanwal, a former special forces commander, is said to have undergone “tactical wartime vetting” to fight alongside US forces in Afghanistan, the source said.

However, the Biden administration allegedly tore up security protocols by using this vetting to determine his suitability to live in the US, providing him with a “Special Immigrant Visa”.

“Biden endangered national security by allowing this war zone vetting standard to be used to grant Afghans, like Lakanwal, access to live alongside the American people,” the ODNI official said, adding this had “never been used in this way before”.

Last month, Mr Kent said 85,000 Afghans, including those with “backgrounds similar” to Mr Lakanwal, had been admitted to the US “without the rigorous vetting that has protected us in the past”.

Referring to the National Guard shooting, he added: “Incidents like this aren’t isolated – they’re the predictable outcome of prioritising speed and volume over security.”

Counter-terrorism officials are re-vetting Afghan evacuees who entered under Mr Biden, and have passed on a list of those with links to known or suspected terrorists to homeland security.

Mr Biden’s representatives were contacted for comment.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]