Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, several countries have been running evacuation flights for their citizens and passport holders. While the world is applauding this humanitarian help, some people might be misusing it for selfish reasons.
Now, United States government officials have warned that nearly 100 Afghan evacuees are on intelligence agency watch lists and may be related to terrorist groups like Islamic State.
Security screeners at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar have detected that at least one of the Afghans who was evacuated from Kabul Airport has potential ties to ISIS, a U.S. official confirmed to Defense One.
Moreover, the Defense Department’s Automated Biometric Identification System has flagged up to 100 of the 7,000 Afghans evacuated as prospective recipients of Special Immigration Visas as potential matches to intelligence agency watch lists, a second official said.
The US government claims that all Afghan evacuees are being screened by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) using facial recognition, fingerprint, and iris scanner and being matched with the law enforcement databases.
However, some media reports have also stated that the CBP is struggling to keep up with the incoming number of evacuees. “CBP on the ground has old tech and they don’t know how to use it, integrate it. And there’s not enough people to process’ all of the evacuees,” an official told a western media house.
But while we evacuate terrorists Americans are left behind!
Since Aug. 14, more than 70,000 people, including American citizens, NATO personnel, and Afghans at risk, have been evacuated from Kabul, Biden said on Tuesday. Biden has said the United States will evacuate any U.S. citizen who wants to leave and officials have said they will evacuate as many at-risk Afghans as possible.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon believes it has the ability to get all Americans who want to leave out by Aug. 31 and U.S. officials say 4,000 Americans have been evacuated so far, but they do not know how many are still in the country, as not all registered with the U.S. embassy.