Evening Edition: Foiled Terror Plot Underscores Border Security Concerns
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I'm Steve Ducey. I'm Dana Perino. I'm Tyrus. And this is the Fox News Rundown. Friday, October 18th, 2024. I'm Eben Brown. An Afghan man who was evacuated during the U.S. withdrawal on the basis he aided the CIA and brought to this country for safety. He is now charged with plotting Election Day terror.

the matter reignites fears that lax immigration policy is dangerous. There's a lot of questions for people who have had concerns about vetting. Was he fully radicalized when he came here or was he radicalized before? This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition.

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Federal prosecutors in Oklahoma are now building their case against Nasir Ahmad Tawhidi, who they say plotted a mass attack for Election Day on behalf of the Islamic State terror syndicate. Tawhidi did not slip past Border Patrol in Texas. Rather, he was invited and transported to the United States by the U.S. government.

Tawhidi previously worked under contract for the CIA, among other entities in Afghanistan, and he was evacuated along with his family when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in September of 2021.

Was he always a jihadist waiting for a time to strike? Investigators don't think so. But the question remains as to why, despite his work history with U.S. intelligence, was he not seen as risky? And did current immigration policy mean he slipped past cracks?

It's brought to light a lot of concerns that have been bubbling since the 2021 evacuation where, you know, it was over 90,000 people from Afghanistan were brought to the U.S. in a very quick amount of time.

Adam Shaw is a reporter with Fox News Digital. His stories on this and on immigration matters appear on FoxNews.com. And there were concerns from the beginning from some sectors about the vetting process. Since then, there has been multiple DHS, OIG reports that have also flagged concerns about screening, vetting. Also just broader concerns from people saying, you know, how can you vet people?

people from Afghanistan, especially once the Taliban have taken over and what databases are you vetting against. Of course, DHS and the Biden administration have said that they have a multi-layered vetting process that works across multiple databases. And they are looking at this as something that has worked. They're saying he was vetted multiple times, he was vetted by the CIA to work as a contractor.

He was vetted when he was brought out of Afghanistan. He was vetted again in August. And the current belief is that he was radicalized a couple of years after coming here. And, you know, DHS Secretary Mayorkas was on the shows at the weekend saying, you know, this is vetting that worked. Once he was radicalized and once he started doing something, it popped up.

He was caught, he was prevented, but of course, you know, maybe that is the case, but it raises a lot of questions for people who have had concerns about vetting. You know, was he fully radicalized when he came here or was he radicalized before? And if that's the case,

Why wasn't he stopped? And is the vetting process enough? It might raise more than one eyebrow to suggest that a man from Afghanistan who was recruited by the CIA for help in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other

Jihadist entities had operated with aplomb that he comes to the United States as an evacuee and gets radicalized here.

I mean, this is where he changes his mind to adopt a radical, dangerous, violent mindset that he would try to commit some kind of attack against Americans, against the country that rescued him from the Taliban. I think a lot of people might not buy that story. It seems implausible.

Yes, and according to the court complaint, his intention was to... he had liquidated his assets, or was in the process of liquidating his assets, and he was planning on flying his family back to Afghanistan to live, I believe the phrase was a pure Islamic life, which of course, as you say, that would suggest a very strong turnaround if you come to America

leaving a very Islamic country to then go back to it. So it would definitely, as you say, it would raise some eyebrows. Also, we've had news this week that at least one relative of his has been arrested as well in France. The information there is still a little murky, but if there are family ties as well, that raises concerns.

you know, additional questions as to whether is this just a recent radicalization or is this something that's been there for a long time, but of course

You know, there's a lot more information still to come out there. Our guest is Adam Shaw of Fox News Digital. You can find his work at Fox News dot com. He is reporting on the case of an Afghan national brought to the U.S. after the Afghan withdrawal in 2021, who is now charged with plotting terrorism on Election Day on the Fox News Rundown. Evening edition. We'll have more straight ahead.

In your article on Fox News dot com, you have a quote from Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma who is saying, look, you know, this person was who would be next time if this is going to happen again? It could be any terrorist organization out there. And with regard to border security, I mean, we are seeing a lot of people from the Middle East and from other nations, even outside the Middle East, but with radical Islamist policies.

We'll call them finding finding their way into our country and in some ways unregulated or unwatched. And that is something that a lot of members of the Congress have been have been railing about for some time. But that that alarm seems to tick up because of this incident. Right.

Right. I mean, it comes into a broader conversation about people entering the country, whether that is through a parole program or across the southern border. There's been a number of concerns about terrorism. There was an arrest over the summer of eight nationals from Tajikistan, believed to have been part of some sort of ISIS plot.

or who at least had ties to ISIS. There was an operation to get those. There was a smuggling ring that had ties to ISIS. And it just taps into a broader question about vetting. And again, DHS have said repeatedly they have full confidence in their vetting system. But

But I've been to the southern border, I've spoken to Border Patrol agents and other colleagues both on Fox News Digital and on Fox News Channel will have had the same conversations. And Border Patrol agents will say, "Yes, we vet people who we catch or who we encounter."

but who what are we vetting them against you know what is the documents we're using what are the databases we're checking against how can we know that these people are who they say they are and of course at the southern border as well there's the additional issue of the gotaways where there are people who evade capture altogether from border patrol and of course those people have no vetting whatsoever done against them so you know you're not sure who is entering the country

And so, you know, this latest case all brings those concerns together. And, you know, obviously the plot was an election day terror attack and when,

We're less than a month away from the election, and that has people wondering, was this a close shave? And as you said, there's people concerned now about, could there be more people who are in the country who have similar ideas? And if so, will they be caught in time?

And the concept that they might not be caught in time, I'm sure that is probably going to call for a lot of redoubling of efforts to secure polling places and whatnot really around the country. This person's case was focused in Oklahoma, which is out in the middle of the country, so it didn't necessarily involve a city like New York or Los Angeles or Washington or Dallas or whatnot. But these attacks could happen anywhere, and...

for the radicals, whether it's ISIS or the Taliban or Hamas or whoever, you know, whatever they can do is a win. I mean, they don't have to get a massive, large-scale attack to succeed. They could have a small-scale attack and still consider it a win. And that, I think, is the scary part, probably for our lawmakers. What about, you know,

Is there, I guess, any further discussion, whether it's Capitol Hill or within the administration departments, whether it's Homeland Security or FBI, Department of Justice, about what they're going to do between now and then to redouble those efforts? I can tell you from conversations I've had that there are lawmakers on the Hill who are

you know, very concerned about this and they want answers to this immediately. And they have long had concerns about vetting. So there will be significantly increased pressure on the administration to double down on any vetting to make sure that things happen. There was a...

case on a related parole program using humanitarian parole to bring in nationals from four countries, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. And I reported exclusively for Fox News Digital that they had stopped that program, stopped issuing travel authorizations for that program because they

They had found fraud within the vetting of sponsors for those people. DHS subsequently confirmed they'd done that, and they have since restarted issuing those travel authorizations after they have put in additional screening, additional vetting. And I wouldn't be surprised to see government agencies going back and double-checking on

vetting on processes, seeing if there's gaps, if there's holes, you know, if they've identified any, not to say that they may have identified any. Again, DHS says it has done its job in this case. But there will, of course, be increased pressure to make sure that everything is very, very tight.

All right, Adam Shaw with Fox News Digital. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Well, thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate being on.

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