House Chairman Green demands answers on DHS, FBI failure to vet alleged Afghan terror suspect

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, following a report from Just the News about the recent arrests of two Afghanistan nationals who were charged with planning an election day terror plot. 

One of the suspects, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested by the FBI on Monday and charged with multiple crimes including conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to the Justice Department announcement. 

Just the News reported that Tawhedi was granted special parole permission to enter the country during Operation Allies Refuge following the withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. The unsealed criminal complaint confirms that Tawhedi was granted a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). 

“The Committee is seeking information about the recently reported arrests of two Afghan nationals living in Oklahoma City, who allegedly plotted an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack for Election Day,” Chairman Green wrote in his letter. 

“According to the unsealed criminal complaint, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national, entered the United States on a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) on September 9, 2021, days after the Biden-Harris administration’s catastrophic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.” 

You can read Green’s letter below:

Sources told NBC News on Wednesday that Tawhedi was working as a security guard for the CIA in Afghanistan before the United States’ withdrawal from the country, but that his radicalization in support of ISIS likely occurred during his three-year stay in the United States. 

The court documents filed earlier this week show Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 in the immediate aftermath of the chaotic withdrawal. 

Those charging documents allege that Tawhedi attempted to purchase semiautomatic firearms and ammunition in order to carry out the attack, and even had plans to resettle his family overseas ahead of the planned Nov. 5 attack. At least one co-conspirator was also referenced, but was not identified because they were a minor, Just the News reported. 

“These recent arrests raise serious concerns about the ongoing threat that ISIS and its fanatical supporters pose to U.S. national security, as well as the shortfall in the Biden-Harris administration’s screening and vetting capabilities,” Green wrote.