Given the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, when the alleged shooter was 5 years old, one has to wonder when he began his CIA career? Honestly, I could see the CIA using him as a minor. A child.
The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.
The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US. He was granted asylum in April this year, under the Trump administration, Reuters reported.
Lakanwal’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency, which worked alongside US special forces in Afghanistan, were confirmed by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to media outlets.
The New York Times reported that the shooting suspect had worked for several US government agencies in Afghanistan, including CIA-backed units in the southern province of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, said those CIA-backed units included counterterrorism squads known as the “Zero Units”, which were involved in combat missions to seize or kill suspected terrorists.
“The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA,” Ratcliffe told Fox News digital, adding that Lakanwal’s involvement with the agency was “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation”.
The two wounded guard members have been named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both are members of the West Virginia national guard and are listed in critical condition.
They had both been sworn into service less than 24 hours before they were ambushed at a bus stop by the suspect.
Other national guard members at the scene had engaged and neutralized the suspect, she said.
The suspect is under arrest and being treated at a hospital.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, told the news conference the agency is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Law enforcement agencies had executed search warrants at the suspect’s home in Washington and in San Diego, California.
“This is a coast-to-coast investigation,” Patel said.
Patel also confirmed the suspect’s relationship with US forces in Afghanistan. The investigation, he said, would include any known associates of the suspect overseas and in the US.
Patel said the suspect was in the US “for one reason and one reason alone – because of the disastrous withdrawal (from Afghanistan) by the Biden administration and the failure to vet this individual and countless others”.
The suspect was in the US because he was an ally of the US and tied to the CIA- that’s why he was in the US
12 years ago- Hamid Karzai wanted to curb CIA operations in Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai is determined to curb CIA operations in Afghanistan after the death of a US agent and 10 Afghan children in a battle he believes was fought by an illegal militia working for the US spy agency.
The campaign sets the Afghan leader up for another heated showdown with the US government, and will reignite questions about the CIA’s extensive but highly secretive operations in the country.
Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said the CIA controlled large commando-like units, some of whom operated under the nominal stamp of the Afghan government’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), but were not actually under its control.
“Some of them are said to be working with the NDS, but they are not armed by the NDS, not paid by the NDS, and not sent to operations by the NDS. Sometimes they only inform the NDS minutes before the operation,” Faizi said. “They are conducting operations without informing local authorities and when something goes wrong it is called a joint operation.”
Woodward said the unofficial commando units were known as counter-terrorism pursuit teams, and described them as “a paid, trained and functioning tool of the CIA”, authorised by President George W Bush.
They were sent on operations to kill or capture insurgent leaders, but also went into lawless areas to try to pacify them and win support for the Afghan government and its foreign backers. Woodward said the units even conducted cross-border raids into Pakistan.
In the wake of the Kunar battle, Karzai has also ordered his security officials to step up implementation of a presidential decree issued in late February abolishing “parallel structures”. Faizi said this order was aimed primarily at dismantling CIA-controlled teams.
“The use of these parallel structures run by the CIA and US special forces is an issue of concern for the Afghan people and the Afghan government,” he said.
The use of parallel structures run by the CIA and US special forces is very likely an issue of concern, or should be an issue of concern, to the American people.
Strategy of Tension vibe. Gladio. The Years of Lead