At least 100 Afghan refugees who were set to enter the US have been flagged for terrorist ties, NBC News reports, and will now be sent to Kosovo where they will undergo additional screening and review.
Specifically the 100 were “flagged for possible ties to the Taliban or terror groups.” NBC detailed that “of more than 30,000 evacuees from Afghanistan to the U.S., about 10,000 needed additional screening as of Friday, said the sources, and of those about 100 were flagged for possible ties to the Taliban or terror groups.”
These were discovered coming into the D.C. area – among the major hubs that serve as a reception point for the tens of thousands evacuated from Kabul international airport over the past two weeks.
Alarmingly, some of the arrivals were also found to have been prior deportations based on criminal offenses: “Other evacuees who are currently being evaluated in the D.C. area were found to have been deported from the US previously for past criminal offenses, said two sources briefed on the data,” the NBC report continues. “The Department of Homeland Security is now deciding what to do with the individuals.”
A senior law enforcement official was cited as saying, “A lot of people were moved very quickly and the intelligence community has been working hard to evaluate whether any of them pose a threat.”
During the initial days’ frantic rush of Afghans piling on US military transport planes as the Americans had struggled to gain security control of the airport, it appeared there wasn’t any proper vetting whatsoever. The NBC report suggests the vetting process is lagging behind even by the time evacuees arrive on US soil.
The law enforcement official cited in the report explained further that “Some of the vetting occurs while they are overseas, and some of it occurs here … We are not going to allow people to intentionally be released into the community if they have unresolved derogatory information.”