Government agencies are pointing fingers at how an Afghan national, who is now accused of planning a terrorist attack on Election Day, was allowed into the United States and when he was allegedly radicalized – while Lawmakers are asking for more information.
Authorities announced last week the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, accused of planning an ISIS-inspired Election Day terrorist attack.
Tawhedi is charged with conspiracy and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and receiving a firearm for use in committing a felony or federal crime of terrorism. Court documents say he liquidated his family’s assets to finance his scheme, including purchasing rifles and one-way tickets for his wife and child to Afghanistan.
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Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi is seen making the ‘Tawheed’ gesture in a photo taken. (Ministry of Justice)
Tawhedi arrived in the United States in September 2021 amid a mass evacuation effort as the Taliban retook Afghanistan. The United States subsequently admitted more than 97,000 Afghan evacuees, of whom approximately 77,000 were admitted via humanitarian parole.
Court records initially said he came on a special immigrant visa, but have since clarified that he came to the United States via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status. Parole requires less intense monitoring than the SIV process.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas initially declined to answer questions during a White House briefing last week. But one senior administrative official told Fox News that Tawhedi was thrown three times. He was first selected to work in security for the CIA in Afghanistan and then for humanitarian parole to enter the United States in 2021, when he was screened and vetted in a third country , and finally for special immigration status, for which he was approved. Its status is not yet finalized.
Officials said they believed he was radicalized after arriving in the United States and that there was no indication there were red flags to bar him from entry.
But that’s when the government began engaging in a blame game over when he had become radicalized. Fox News has learned that the FBI is still determining exactly when he was radicalized and whether he fell through the cracks.
“The Department of Homeland Security directly contradicts the State Department in terms of who checked who,” Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told Fox News. “I think all of us involved know that the controls didn’t go as well as they should have. They weeded out a lot of bad people and left the good people behind.”
DHS said it did everything by the rules.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, during a briefing at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“When we examine, and we do this intensively, when we examine an individual, it is a screening and spot-checking process. If we subsequently obtain information suggesting that the individual might be in danger, we take appropriate enforcement action, which is exactly what we did in this case,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CBS News over the weekend. Asked about his radicalization, Mayorkas said he would not talk about it because it was an “ongoing investigation.”
Fox News reported Monday that two Oklahoma senators had received briefings from the DOJ, but that Rep. Stephanie Bice had not received it and had complained about a lack of information. Tawhedi was arrested in Oklahoma.
After the briefing, both senators expressed concern about the threat of another attack.
Afghan national charged with election day terror plot reignites oversight concerns
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, criticized left-wing media and suggested they were covering up for the Biden administration regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal. (Fox News)
“There remained a vulnerability that could have been exploited by, in this case, ISIS. It could be the Taliban next time. It could be any other terrorist organization. And what I fear… is just one of probably dozens, I wouldn’t say hundreds, but dozens of additional individuals who are in the same situation,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Fox News.
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“It’s real. And we have people trying to kill us in our own country and planning,” Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, told Fox News. “An open border is a danger. We’ve seen it before, we’re living on borrowed time right now.”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.
