A Department of Defense (DOD) whistleblower is claiming that President Joe Biden and his administration knowingly resettled up to 400 Afghans in the U.S. with potential ties to terror after American troops pulled out of the country in August 2021, Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Ron Johnson wrote Thursday.
The Senators wrote that the whistleblower’s disclosures “may show the Biden Administration’s failure to vet those evacuated from Afghanistan was even worse than the public was led to believe” in a letter to the Acting Inspector General of the DOD. (RELATED: Blinken Admits Most Afghans Were Not Vetted Before Boarding US Evacuation Planes)
The Senators disclosed in the letter that there were already at least 65 Afghan individuals known to the DOD in the U.S. with profiles indicative of potentially significant security risks before the whistleblower came forward. They wrote that the whistleblower revealed more than 320 Afghans were allowed into the U.S. despite American bureaucrats knowing that they had profiles in a DOD national security database. That particular watchlist uses biometric information collected from “threats or potential threats to national security” over the course of the U.S.’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, according to the letter.
The Senators further allege that Biden administration bureaucrats not only permitted the entry of hundreds of potential terror threats, but also actively instructed DOD personnel to take shortcuts while processing the biometric data of Afghans en route to the U.S. homeland via staging bases in Europe. The whistleblower alleges that political appointees instructed DOD personnel to only test one fingerprint per Afghan rather than all ten, according to the Senators.
The letter goes on to allege that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel working to process and vet Afghan refugees have been authorized to delete old biometric data collected over the course of the U.S.’s 20-year war in Afghanistan. (RELATED: Leaked Memo Reveals Biden Administration’s Last Minute Scramble On Afghanistan Withdrawal)
FBI Director Chris Wray says he’s worried about terrorist attacks from Afghanistan after Biden’s botched withdrawal
“I’m worried about the possibility that we will see Al Qaeda reconstitute, that ISIS-K potentially taking advantage of the deteriorating security environment.” pic.twitter.com/g8RPOpYUPB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 4, 2022
“Before anyone who is evacuated from Afghanistan comes to this country, they undergo a rigorous vet from counter-terrorism professionals, homeland security professionals, law enforcement professionals, with the aid and assistance of our intelligence community,” the State Department said through a spokesman last September. Multiple reports have emerged over the past year alleging inadequate vetting of Afghan refugees and their haphazard release into the interior of the U.S.
The Biden DHS announced in June that it would exempt Afghan “individuals who provided… limited material support to a designated terrorist organization” from immigration restrictions as the administration continues to resettle thousands of Afghans across the U.S.