SEATTLE - The Afghan man recently arrested on charges of planning an attack during Election Day, worked as a CIA guard, a new report revealed.
Court documents showed that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, had ties to ISIS, having contributed to a related charity in March and accessed online propaganda posted by the terror group. Tawhedi worked as a security guard in Afghanistan for the CIA, according to accounts from two sources with knowledge of the matter and reported by NBC News.
In the summer of 2021, as the United States withdrew its military and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans that had worked with the U.S. were offered a Special Immigrant Vista to help relocate them.
Between July 2021 and January 2022, as part of the Operation Allies Refuge (OAR), the program helped relocate more than 79,000 Afghan nationals and their immediate family members. Once their security vetting was complete, they were allowed entry to the U.S.. Tawhedi was one of them, as he entered the country in September 2021.
One senior administration official said counterterrorism officials assess that Tawhedi became radicalized during the three years he lived in the U.S., while a senior law enforcement official said the FBI is still investigating that question.
"Every Afghan resettled in the U.S. undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting process no matter which agency they worked with," the official said. "That process includes checking against a full range of U.S. records and holdings," the official said.
The official added that Tawhedi was first screened before he entered the U.S. in September 2021, about 10 days after the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan. He was vetted again while living in Oklahoma City when applied for a Special Immigrant Visa, however, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News that the document is incorrect, as Tawhedi entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole, which entails far less screening than a SIV.
After Tawhedi was arrested, authorities revealed in an interview that he confirmed the attack was intended to target large gatherings and he expected to die in the episode. Authorities say he planned the attack along with a juvenile co-conspirator, described as an Afghan citizen with legal permanent resident status.
The two individuals with alleged ties to ISIS were arrested after they met two confidential human resources and an undercover FBI agent, who posed as business partners, at a rural location in the Western District of Oklahoma. Tawhedi and his co-conspirator were going to buy rifles, 10 magazines and ammunition for the planned attack.
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