An Afghan migrant who planned to carry out an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on election day used to work for the CIA, an explosive report reveals.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, an Afghan national whose arrest was announced earlier this week by the Justice Department, used to work as a security guard for the CIA in Afghanistan. NBC News reported for the first time.
The CIA did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Tawhedi was arrested along with an unidentified minor, the Justice Department wrote in a news release Tuesday, stating that he “conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to carry out a violent attack on the ground.” on behalf of ISIS.”
The plot by the Afghan and his accomplice to buy automatic assault rifles, hundreds of cartridges and several magazines was stopped after authorities broke up the deal.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month.
Authorities previously announced that he liquidated his family’s assets and purchased one-way tickets for his wife and son to travel to their home in Afghanistan.
“Terrorism remains the FBI’s number one priority and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Tuesday.
After his arrest, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators that he had planned an Election Day attack targeting large gatherings of people.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
He faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for providing support to ISIS and 15 years for obtaining a firearm to commit a felony or federal terrorism offense.
“Following the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than 77,000 Afghans were granted humanitarian parole, with little to no investigation and no intention of knowing their whereabouts,” Huse Republican Chairman Mike Johnson wrote earlier this week when the arrests.
“Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, the terrorist who was planning an election day attack, was one of them.”
“Whether through its open border policies or its failed foreign policy, this administration continues to risk American lives by allowing terrorists, murderers, rapists and other violent criminals into our homeland.”
Afghan Taliban security officials stand guard while screening people and vehicles at a checkpoint, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 13, 2024.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
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In testimony before Congress about the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, many witnesses over the years have denounced the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to leave the country.
The United States famously handed over the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where dozens of ISIS prisoners were held.
That base also reportedly had sensitive areas used by the CIA.
After the evacuation, the Bagram prisoners were freed and some of the recently abandoned discovered American military equipment and intelligence left at the site.
An FBI affidavit does not reveal exactly how Tawhedi came to investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months that demonstrates his determination in planning an attack.
The Afghan National Army stands guard after U.S. forces abandon Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, Afghanistan, July 5, 2021. Foreign forces abandoned Bagram Air Base after nearly 20 years.
A convoy of Taliban security personnel seen moving through the streets as they celebrate the third anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, in Herat on August 14, 2024.
Taliban security personnel take part in a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the takeover of the Taliban government, in Bagram, Afghanistan, August 14, 2024. The Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, 2021, following the collapse of the US-backed government amid the chaotic withdrawal of foreign troops
A July photograph included in the affidavit shows a man identified by investigators as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text describing the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”
“According to the charges, the Department of Justice foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent attack on behalf of ISIS on American soil on Election Day,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to the national security of the United States, and we will identify, investigate and prosecute individuals who seek to terrorize the American people,” he continued.
“I am deeply grateful to the public servants of the FBI, the Division of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma for their work in thwarting this attack and for the work they do every day to protect our country.”
According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi entered the United States on September 9, 2021 on a special immigrant visa.
Afghans struggle to reach foreign forces to show their credentials and flee the country in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021. At least 13 people, including children, were killed in an explosion outside from the airport on August 26. The explosion occurred outside Abbey Gate and follows recent security warnings about attacks ahead of the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops.
Taliban soldiers celebrate the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul on a street near the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 15, 2023.
Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at a perimeter at Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. Tawhedi was in the U.S. less than a month after this photo was taken.
He said a “confidential human source” from the FBI contacted Tawhedi after he recently announced the sale of his family’s personal property on Facebook.
The FBI source said he needed a computer for a gun business he was starting, and Tawhedi expressed interest in purchasing two AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, according to the complaint.
On Monday, Tawhedi and the minor met with “FBI assets” in rural Oklahoma and purchased two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines and 500 rounds of ammunition, he said.
