I will update this post with news about the shooting of two National Guardsmen.
They are Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, from West Virginia.
We know the suspect is an Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who worked with the U.S. in the country.
Lakanwal came to the U.S. under “Operation Allies Welcome” during the Biden administration, following the disastrous withdrawal.
The DOJ inspector general (IG) issued a report about the Afghan refugee vetting system in June.
What did the office find? “No systemic failures.” From Fox News:
A fact sheet published by #AfghanEvac, an umbrella group of nonprofits that helped settle Afghan refugees after the withdrawal, noted the independent federal review confirmed vetting worked as designed.The OIG’s comprehensive report reviewed the vetting, screening, and admission processes used during and after the Afghanistan evacuation, finding U.S. agencies followed required procedures, including FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, State Department and intelligence community components.”Biometric and biographic screening worked as intended, including fingerprints, iris scans, facial recognition, and watchlist checks,” according to the report. “Information-sharing was effective, and where data gaps existed, agencies used all available tools consistent with U.S. law and policy.”#AfghanEvac added post-arrival continuous vetting has remained in place, ensuring ongoing monitoring of national security information.
Honestly, we need to concentrate on Lakanwal. Something happened between the time he came here to Wednesday.
Lakanwal worked with NDS-03, an elite CIA counterterrorism unit.
The unit works directly with “U.S. intelligence and military support.” More from Fox News:
Lakanwal’s unit operated in Afghanistan’s southern region — in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan — out of the former compound of the late Taliban leader Mullah Omar, commonly referred to as “Mullah Omar’s house” and by U.S. forces as “Camp Gecko.”NDS-03 was one of about five paramilitary groups working with the CIA. They were commonly called “Zero Units” due to the numbers following their National Directorate of Security (NDS) or Afghan intelligence service designation.The Afghan members of the units were highly vetted and trained by the CIA and carried out some of the toughest counterterrorism missions against the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others. They were very trusted and brave, according to those who worked with them.
The CIA does its own vetting “through a variety of databases, including the National Counterterrorism Center database.” That helps locate any known ties to terrorist groups.
Officials said that Lakanwal’s background check came back clean:
The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital was “clean on all checks” in a 2021 background check before he came to the U.S., a senior U.S. official told Fox News.29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal entered the U.S. through former President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. During that transition, officials say Lakanwal would have undergone a vetting check by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).“In terms of vetting, nothing came up,” the official said. “He was clean on all checks.”
Here’s the other thing. The official who spoke to Fox News said that America continues “an annual vetting process for Afghan evacuees even after they arrived in the U.S., an effort that was redoubled after a foiled terror plot in Oklahoma last year that was linked to another Afghan national.”
This does not look good for anyone.
Gary Beckstrom, the father of Sarah Beckstrom, says his daughter has a mortal wound:
The father of Sarah Beckstrom, one of the wounded National Guard members, said his daughter was unlikely to recover. “I’m holding her hand right now,” Gary Beckstrom said when reached by phone. “She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery.” He declined to talk further. Beckstrom and the other wounded Guard soldier, Andrew Wolfe, are in critical condition, officials have said.
The Trump administration has started reviewing all asylum cases under the Biden administration.
However, remember, as stated below, the Trump administration gave Lakanwal asylum in April.
From The New York Times:
Biden administration officials insisted then that Afghan nationals who came through the program had been properly vetted and screened, though an inspector general report later found significant flaws in the process.“The screening and vetting process involves biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals,” the agency said in a statement in September 2021, days after the evacuation of Americans and allies as the Taliban took control.Homeland Security Department officials said that people who failed the checks would not be allowed to fly into the United States and that if Afghans who had already arrived and received further checks had any concerning information they could be turned back.
Reuters reported that the FBI started searching properties associated with Lakanwal in San Diego, CA, and Washington state:
The FBI searched multiple properties in Washington state and San Diego on Thursday in what officials said was a terrorism probe into an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard members, who remained in critical condition in hospital.Investigators seized numerous electronic devices from the suspect’s house in Washington state, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, FBI director Kash Patel told a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Sources told Fox News that the CIA vetted the suspect in Afghanistan:
The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C., was vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan and was granted final asylum approval under President Donald Trump’s administration, multiple sources told Fox News Digital.CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed earlier Wednesday that the alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, worked for the CIA in Afghanistan out of a base in Kandahar. Multiple sources tell Fox that prior to that work, Lakanwal was vetted by the National Counterterrorism Center.During the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the CIA and U.S. military airlifted many so-called Afghan allies out of the country. Priority was given to those who had badges and a history of working with the CIA, such as Lakanwal.While further vetting took place for most Afghans who were airlifted out, sources say having a CIA badge would have placed Lakanwal in the “vetted” category. Sources said there was nothing in Lakanwal’s history to suggest he had links to terrorism prior to his entry to the U.S. in September 2021.Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024 and reportedly received approval in April, under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told the media that she will charge Lakanwal with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Pirro also said that if the guardsmen die, she will pursue the death penalty.
Pirro identified the two guardsmen who were only sworn in a day before the shooting: Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, from West Virginia.
Both remain in critical condition.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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