A new report claims that the Afghan national arrested on Monday for planning an Election Day terrorist attack previously worked as a security guard for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan.
According to NBC News, 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi was arrested in Oklahoma on Monday and faces charges for plotting to kill U.S. citizens with an assault rifle on Election Day in the name of ISIS.
Court documents obtained by NBC News claim that Tawhedi donated to an ISIS charity in March and accessed the terrorist organization’s online propaganda; however, officials have not yet determined whether the Afghan national was radicalized before or after relocating to the United States as part of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed to NBC News that the 27-year-old suspect worked as a security guard for the CIA in Afghanistan before coming to the United States. According to NBC News, an anonymous senior administration official said counterterrorism officials believe that Tawhedi was radicalized at some point over the past three years while living in the United States. Meanwhile, a senior law enforcement official indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is still investigating the matter.
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Sources familiar with the suspect’s work as a CIA guard in Afghanistan told NBC News that the Afghan national would not have had much interaction with Americans and confirmed that he was not a member of the “Zero Units” paramilitary force or a CIA informant.
According to NBC News, court documents show that the Afghan national came to the United States in September of 2021.
“Every Afghan resettled in the U.S. undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting process no matter which agency they worked with,” an official told NBC News. “That process includes checking against a full range of U.S. records and holdings.”
An anonymous senior administration official told NBC News that Tawhedi went through two rounds of vetting. Additionally, the Justice Department claimed that Tahedi came to the United States on a Special Immigrant Visa “and is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigrant proceedings.”
On the other hand, two U.S. officials indicated to NBC News that the Justice Department’s claim is not correct and that the Afghan national came to the United States on humanitarian parole, which typically involves a less thorough vetting process.
