Afghan accused of plotting terror attack worked as CIA guard, officials say

Source: NBC News

Oct. 9, 2024, 7:53 PM EDT


An Afghan man arrested on charges of planning a terrorist attack on Election Day worked as a security guard in Afghanistan for the CIA, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested on Monday in Oklahoma and accused of plotting to kill Americans with an assault rifle on behalf of ISIS. Court documents said he had contributed to an ISIS charity in March and accessed online ISIS propaganda, but they did not say whether he was radicalized before or after he came to the U.S. in 2021. A senior law enforcement official said the FBI is still investigating that question. The CIA declined to comment.

A U.S. official said that Tawhedi, like other Afghans who resettled in the U.S., would have gone through robust security screening in other countries before arriving in the U.S. Court documents say Tawhedi entered the country in September 2021, about a month after the U.S. military completed its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

“Every Afghan resettled in the U.S. undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting process no matter which agency they worked with,” the official said. “That process includes checking against a full range of U.S. records and holdings,” the official said.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/afghan-accused-plotting-terror-attack-worked-cia-guard-officials-say-rcna174783