Militants who left fingerprints on IEDs meant to kill Americans in Afghanistan and a prisoner freed by the Taliban were among more than 65 terrorists allowed to enter the United States after the catastrophic pullout.
Most of them could still be wandering around the country and the government cannot find them.
The damning revelations made in a new book add to the long list of Biden administration blunders during and after the disastrous evacuation of Kabul in August 2021.
Two years have passed since the two weeks of carnage at Hamid Karzai International Airport that left 13 US service members dead, hundreds of Afghans and thousands left behind.
Yet the evidence of the US government’s disastrous handling of troop departures after 20 years and the evacuation of allies continues to come to light.
Sixty-five people identified as a “national security risk” were allowed to enter the United States within 12 months of the withdrawal, Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson write in Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End.
Militants who left fingerprints on IEDs meant to kill Americans in Afghanistan and a prisoner freed by the Taliban were among more than 65 terrorists allowed into the US after the catastrophic pullout, a new book has revealed
The book also reveals how the Biden administration missed two opportunities to prevent the Kabul suicide bombing and the disastrous impact of putting the Taliban in charge of security.
Dangerous individuals admitted to the United States included several men whose DNA was found on explosives defused by US forces.
Another was a prisoner “liberated” by the Taliban as they rioted through the war-torn country on their way to Kabul.
Despite assurances that the Taliban would not take power and that the US-backed Afghan government would hold, the capital collapsed as the Western army left.
An Afghan-American interpreter even identified many Taliban fighters on the tarmac, ready to board flights to the United States.
Many have been allowed to travel unchecked due to alarming flaws in the vetting process and severe staff shortages dealing with the estimated 82,000 evacuees being taken to the United States.
About 70% of those who came from Afghanistan were not U.S. citizens, green card holders or under the Special Immigrant Visa Program (SIV), according to a congressional memo released in the aftermath.
The dangerous suspects boarded flights destined for American citizens and allies.
Thousands of people were left behind when the last US soldier left Kabul after 20 years – and many are still trying to get out if they managed to evade capture by the Taliban.
Many have been allowed to travel unchecked due to alarming flaws in the vetting process and severe staff shortages dealing with the estimated 82,000 evacuees being flown to the US A photo inside an evacuation plane US military in August 2021
For their book, Dunleavy and Hasson interviewed several service members, senior intelligence officials, and high-ranking members of Allied governments.
The harrowing accounts of Americans and Afghans abandoned by the government paint another damning picture of the failures of the Biden administration.
Sixty-five people identified as “at risk to national security” were allowed to enter the United States within 12 months of the withdrawal, write Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson in Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End
They also reveal the daring stories of veterans who launched operations in Afghanistan to help bring out allies and performers who fought alongside the U.S. military.
One of them was Gulum, an American interpreter of Tajik descent, who was on the front line at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
He served the commanding generals and remained until the last evacuation flight departed.
During the chaos, he intercepted two men with long hair and trimmed beards, whom he knew to be Taliban fighters on the American side of the airport.
Another telltale sign was that they had no wives or children with them, in stark contrast to the desperate families trying to get to safety.
Gulum warned commanders and said they should be questioned before boarding a plane.
The couple could not provide the proper documents and visas and were kicked out of the airport.
When they left, they met a Taliban commander who greeted them by name and got into a truck.
Although they were intercepted before they could board an evacuation flight west, several others escaped undetected.
A prisoner managed to make it to the United States, even though his record was flagged when he was disembarked and checked in a third-country “shelter”.
‘Derogatory’ information about his background was shared with Customs and Border Protection, but a supervisor let him continue his journey.
He was in the United States for three weeks before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tracked him down and removed him from the country.
Damning revelations made in new book add to long list of Biden administration blunders during and after Kabul’s disastrous August 2021 evacuation
Two years have passed since the two weeks of carnage at Hamid Karzai International Airport that left 13 US service members dead, hundreds of Afghans and thousands left behind.
Many more have completed the journey, arrived in the United States, and may still be here.
“As of February 2022, the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) had identified at least fifty Afghan male evacuees of military age – none of whom were SIV candidates – who had been flagged as significant security risks by the Ministry of la Défense”, a damning passage reads.
“By August 2022, that number had risen to sixty-five.
“The NGIC identified them by matching their admission files with biometric data stored on MoD servers.
“Individuals identified by the NGIC included men whose fingerprints were found on IEDs defused by US troops.
“None were flagged during the initial screening process because the administration only matched evacuee profiles against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) databases.
One of the suspected terrorists freed was a prisoner “liberated” by the Taliban as they rioted through the war-torn country on their way to Kabul. Pictured is Bagram airfield in the summer before the withdrawal
CBP databases only contain records of individuals who have been apprehended at US borders.
Men who had lived in Afghanistan all their lives were not included.
And even though these individuals have been flagged as huge security threats, the US government has no way of tracking them down.
CBP also failed to collect the fingerprints of approximately 1,300 evacuees who entered the United States and
“At least 417 first names of evacuees were listed as ‘unknown’ and the surnames of another 242 were also missing.”
The records of 11,110 other evacuees listed their date of birth as January 1.
These rare details were only recorded for those who went through the verification process.
A damning report from the Department of Homeland Security on the evacuation said “untold numbers” of people who left Afghanistan entered the United States unscreened.
They also often lacked basic details such as names, dates of birth or ID numbers of evacuees.
In September 2022, despite the glaring problems, the State Department relaxed its rules to let in more Afghan applicants – even if they had worked for the Taliban.
If these people could prove that they were just government officials or provided limited material support, their applications to enter the United States would be granted.
