Exclusive: Afghan terror suspect flagged before arrest as border records conflict with DOJ story

Nasir Ahmed Tawhedi, the Afghan refugee charged last week in Oklahoma with plotting an Election Day terror massacre was previously flagged by U.S. Customs Border and Protection this summer, weeks before his arrest, during a re-evaluation of his 2021 entry into the country, immigration records reviewed by Just the News show.

Those records conflict with the Justice Department portrayal of Tawhedi, 27, in the criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City.

Immigration records state that the Afghan refugee was let into the country on humanitarian parole on Sept. 9, 2021, and not with a "special immigration visa" reserved for foreigners who worked for U.S. agencies as federal prosecutors told the court.

Tawhedi “was negative for any derogatory information at that time and was admitted under the Port Parole Operations Allies Refuge,” the CBP immigration records stated. 

The records show he was assigned an “A#” consistent with humanitarian parole.

A senior U.S. official told Just the News that the State Department has no record of him receiving a special immigration visa  

"Humanitarian parole" vs. "Special Immigration Visa"

During a routine CBP "Operation Allies Welcome" program re-evaluation this summer of his original entry, Tawhedi was placed on a watch list, referred to Homeland Security Investigations for further probing and flagged by the FBI, the records show.

“On 08/26/2024, TAWHEDI populated the Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) arrival hotlist,” the records state. “TAWHEDI is the subject of a silent hit entered by the Oklahoma Federal Bureau of Investigation to be notified if the subject is encountered.”

The records added, “DEROG FOUND REFERRED TO HSI.”

Law enforcement officials said the records suggest that either the CBP review of Tawhedi found some terror nexus or that the FBI investigation of the Afghan refugee had already begun and alerted border officials to concerns.

The immigration records conflict with the criminal information filed in federal court on Wednesday, which stated that Tawhedi “entered the United States on September 9, 2021, on a special immigrant visa and is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings.”

There have been reports that Tawhedi worked for the CIA before fleeing to the United States during the Biden-Harris administration’s bungled withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021 that led to a bloody Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. 

Congressional concern

Some members of Congress have publicly expressed concerns about how Tawhedi got in the country, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who wrote a letter late last week to FBI Director Christopher Wray citing earlier reporting by Just the News on Tawhedi’s parole status.

“As you are aware, for years I’ve raised serious concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s sweeping failures to properly vet Afghan evacuees and have taken issue with FBI’s improper classification of data regarding assessments and investigations into them. This improper classification has prevented the American public from knowing important information,” Grassley wrote.

You can read that letter here.

Grassley asked the FBI to disclose to Congress when it became concerned about Tawhedi, especially given that lawmakers have been told in briefings that 50 or more Afghan refugees were resettled into the United States despite being flagged for “potentially significant security concerns.”

Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles, who helped train Afghan forces after 9-11, told Just the News he fears there are more than just Tawhedi who may have slipped through vetting or who became radicalized after arriving in America because they were frustrated that fellow Afghan citizens who helped the U.S. military were left behind.

“This Afghan withdrawal was one of the most tragic events in not only the Biden administration, but in, in, I'm going to say, the last 100 years of American history,” Charles told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. “It was doing everything wrong. 

"Salt in the wounds"

"There are three or four other terrorist groups that we knew were operational there,” he added. “…Reality is they brought them into this country, and they continue to present, currently, today, a security threat to this country, as that arrest illustrates," he added. 

Charles said the leaving behind of many Afghan allies as put "salt in the wounds" of those who escaped and that dynamic might make them more angry at the United States and more amenable to being radicalized since they arrived to America. "We also left 20,000 visa holders of Afghan families who were the people who had worked directly with the United States military for 20 years and or the State Department at enormous personal risk. They left those people there," he said.

The charging document against Tawhedi and a 17-year-old high school accused of being his accomplice provide chilling details of the terror plot.

The FBI found pro-ISIS propaganda on Tawhedi’s devices and email account, as well as communications with the accomplice where Tawhedi stated “after that we will begin our duty, God willing, with the help of God, we will get ready for the election day.”

Tawhedi and his co-conspirator purchased two AK-47s and ten magazines from an FBI asset before they were arrested, the court records also allege. Newsweek reported that Tawhedi "liquidated" his assets and purchased one-way airline tickets to send his wife and daughter back to Afghanistan by October 17 in preparation for the planned November 5 attack, citing authorities.

Just the News was unable to identify or contact an attorney representing Tawhedi for comment. Tawhedi will most likely be tried in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Oklahoma.