ISIS-K has been exposed for being behind a thwarted Election Day terror attack by an Afghan migrant as questions remain about how he got into the U.S. without proper vetting.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, who was employed by the CIA as a security guard in Afghanistan, was shockingly arrested last Tuesday along with an unnamed minor.
NBC News first reported that Tawhedi was not a ‘lone wolf’ or a self-radicalized terrorist, but inspired by ISIS-K according to U.S. officials.
The terror group is the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic organization that carried out the Russian concert hall massacre and the 2021 Afghanistan Abbey Gate suicide bombing that left 13 U.S. service members dead.
They were arrested in rural Oklahoma while purchasing automatic assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition while allegedly planning an alleged massacre scheduled for Election Day, the Justice Department revealed last week.
But lawmakers have heard hardly any details about the plot from the FBI or Department of Homeland Security (DHS), prompting them to grow frustrated with the lack of clarity on the terrorist plot that could’ve proved disastrous.
Afghan arrested for terror plot Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told investigators after his arrest last week that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a juvenile co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents
Further exacerbating the secrecy around the ISIS-inspired incident has been DHS Sec. Mayorkas’ refusal to reveal further details.
Mayorkas initially refused to answer questions about Tawhedi last week at a White House briefing.
‘Your persistence in questioning can be matched by my persistence in answers,’ he said while stonewalling a journalist probing for more information on the Afghan.
Mayorkas later admitted the Tawhedi was screened three times, Fox News reported.
First for his CIA job, then his humanitarian parole to enter the U.S. in 2021 and finally when he was screened in a third country. His status reportedly has yet to be finalized.
Importantly, Tawhedi was brought to the U.S. days after the Biden-Harris administration’s deadly military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 through a rushed Special Immigration Visa (SIV) process.
It remains unclear whether he was radicalized by ISIS-K while in Afghanistan or while living in the U.S.
‘The catastrophic Biden-Harris Afghanistan withdrawal weakened America’s position on the world stage and created a national security crisis at home,’ House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘House Republicans have been sounding the alarm for years that the vetting process for those fleeing Afghanistan to the United States was not robust enough and this election day terror plot proves that.’
‘The America Last foreign policy of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is solely responsible for the failed Afghanistan withdrawal and all of the threats created as a result,’ Stefanik continued.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma has children and a wife that were sent away before the FBI thwarted the attack
Taliban security personnel take part in a military parade to celebrate the third anniversary of the Taliban government takeover, in Bagram, Afghanistan, 14 August 2024. The Taliban seized control of Kabul on 15 August 2021, following the collapse of the US-backed government amidst the chaotic withdrawal of foreign troops
Soldiers secure the perimeter near Abbey Gate where 13 U.S. service members were killed
In total over 88,000 Afghans arrived in the U.S. as a part of DHS’ Operation Allies Welcome, which sought to relocate friendly personnel there to the U.S. amid the Taliban’s takeover, according to a 2022 press release.
However, a May 2024 DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) review found that over 97,000 Afghans were ultimately brought to the U.S, meaning the agency had original miscounted.
Of these, just about 80 percent or 77,000 were granted parole to remain in the U.S.
Further an October 2021 letter from Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., indicates that at least 1,800 of these Afghans were sent to Oklahoma immediately after the U.S. military withdrawal.
And Oklahoma lawmakers are particularly concerned about the spoiled ISIS-inspired attack.
The 27-year-old was inspired by ISIS investigators revealed, though it is unclear whether he was radicalized in Afghanistan or in the U.S., a concern of lawmakers
Afghans struggle to reach the foreign forces to show their credentials to flee the country outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 26 August 2021. At least 13 people including children were killed in a blast outside the airport on 26 August
One of those members is Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice, who last week wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him why she was blocked from receiving a briefing about Tawhedi’s plot.
‘When my office requested additional information and a briefing from the Department of Justice on this matter, my request was denied by the administration, Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., wrote.
‘What does the Biden-Harris Department of Justice have to hide here?’
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said in a recent interview, ‘This is real, and we have people that are trying to be able to kill us that are within our own country.’
He added that Americans are ‘on borrowed time’ after the scary plot was foiled in his state.
President Joe Biden has been slammed by Republicans over his plan to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan in August 2021. His top military generals said they advised him other wise when asked under oath before Congress
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin slammed the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Afghan background check process.
‘When you evacuate people that quick, and then you bring them to the United States, the vetting process isn’t really what it should be,’ he said.
But DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas says everything went exactly to plan.
‘If we obtain information subsequently that suggests the individual could be of danger, we take appropriate law enforcement action. That is exactly what we did in this case.’
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