{"id":54382,"date":"2025-11-27T23:33:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/54382\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:33:16","slug":"exclusive-americans-who-helped-resettle-afghan-allies-feel-betrayed-by-suspected-dc-terrorist-who-was-given-safe-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/54382\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Americans who helped resettle Afghan allies feel ‘betrayed’ by suspected DC terrorist who was given safe haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Alleged National Guard attack terrorist Rahmanullah Lakanwal<\/a> betrayed the Americans who worked hard to save him and countless other Afghans from the Taliban and give them a new life in the US, the head of a group that has rescued numerous Afghans told The Post.<\/p>\n

Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of #AfghanEvac, a US nonprofit run by American veterans helping to evacuate and resettle Afghan allies in the US said one man\u2019s monstrous actions are now hurting all Afghans who risked their lives for the US in its 20-year war \u2014 and the shockwaves are hitting the Americans who helped them find safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe betrayed everybody who helped him,\u201d VanDiver said Thursday. \u201cHe betrayed his family. He betrayed every American that helped him get here. He betrayed the United States government. And he deserves to be held fully accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afghan evacuees board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, guided by a U.S. Marine in 2021. U.S. Central Command Public Affairs<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Afghan families did not do this,\u201d he added, pushing back against attacks on other Afghans who have been resettled in the US.<\/p>\n

Americans across the country stepped up beginning in August 2021<\/a>, when Afghans fled the Taliban takeover. Volunteers provided rides to driving classes, helped navigate paperwork, found jobs, and in many cases opened their homes to families with nowhere to go, Van Diver said.<\/p>\n

Now, Americans who helped settle Afghan allies in the US<\/a> are the subject of some online rage for their efforts helping thousands of innocents resettle in America, VanDiver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne deranged man taking insane action does not make a community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An Airman in uniform guides evacuees disembarking a C-17 Globemaster during the Biden administration\u2019s withdrawal of troops in Kabul in 2021. U.S. Central Command Public Affairs<\/p>\n

He added that some political voices are rushing to use the tragedy to vilify Afghan evacuees broadly \u2014 an outcome he says plays directly into the attacker\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople pushing this narrative are doing the shooter\u2019s job for him,\u201d he said. \u201cIf he had been born in Missouri, nobody would be punishing all of Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Afghan community and the volunteers who supported them are now terrified they\u2019ll be blamed for something they had no part in, he said.<\/p>\n

VanDiver is the founder and president of #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit run by American veterans helping to evacuate Afghan allies in the US. Shawn VanDiver<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel like they\u2019re being targeted. They\u2019re being marked for something they didn\u2019t do,\u201d the advocate said. \u201cThey gave so much out of their hearts to help wartime allies. Now they\u2019re scared and grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many volunteers fear the years they spent helping Afghan interpreters, drivers, and other wartime partners \u2014 people the US promised to protect \u2014 will now be erased by a single attacker\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Follow the latest on the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC: <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like in the military, where one person screws up and the whole platoon gets punished,\u201d the advocate said. \u201cThere\u2019s no good reason to do this other than to go after people they didn\u2019t want here in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that the existing vetting system worked \u2014 and that genuine security comes from law enforcement and intelligence<\/a> work, not blanket suspicion.<\/p>\n

Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly gunned down two National Guard troops near the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans are safest when we stand with our allies, not against them,\u201d he said. \u201cAfghan families are our neighbors, classmates, coworkers. They deserve dignity and truth, not fear-mongering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the vitriol, many Americans who helped<\/a> resettle Afghan allies are continuing their work, though they\u2019re shaken by the political firestorm now engulfing them, he said.<\/p>\n

For now, volunteers and Afghan families are united in grief.<\/p>\n

U.S. Airmen and U.S. Marines guide qualified evacuees aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Afghanistan, Aug. 21, 2021. U.S. Central Command Public Affairs<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re as mad as we are. They\u2019re terrified of being blamed for something they had nothing to do with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

VanDiver argued that thousands of families came here seeking safety and stood by the U.S. as wartime partners \u2014 and one man\u2019s betrayal doesn\u2019t erase that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis individual alone is responsible for his crime,\u201d the advocate said. \u201cNot Afghan families. Not the volunteers. And not the community that believed in him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Alleged National Guard attack terrorist Rahmanullah Lakanwal betrayed the Americans who worked hard to save him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29880,874,29881,5435,9,11,10,3980,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-54382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-joe-biden","10":"tag-kabul","11":"tag-national-guard","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-shootings","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}