WASHINGTON \u2014 A Marine Force Reconnaissance soldier who served eight tours in Afghanistan told The Post Friday that some locals who fought the Taliban were \u201cdisloyal\u201d to the US forces they partnered with \u2014 and that it \u201chappens a lot more than people suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chad Robichaux, 50, in an exclusive interview noted that said he\u2019s been sounding the alarm about the risk of Afghan evacuees ever since the Biden administration\u2019s botched bugout from the Middle East nation in 2021 \u2014 and how the US faces an elevated threat of terrorism as a result of poor refugee vetting.<\/p>\n
Issues related to the August 2021 withdrawal of US forces and refugees have resurfaced this week as an Afghan national is facing charges for shooting two National Guard members \u2014 and killing one of them \u2014 in Washington, DC, on Thanksgiving eve as part of a suspected terror attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, served for at least a decade alongside US forces fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS as part of an elite, CIA-backed paramilitary group known as the Kandahar Strike Force, according to US officials.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you talk about someone that\u2019s, like, worked with the CIA or worked with special operations, just works through our troops,\u201d Robichaux said, \u201cyou have to understand, like, when you go work in another country with local nationals, there\u2019s an inherent risk to that. You have to depend on these people.\u201d<\/p>\n Chad Robichaux, who served eight tours as a Marine Force Reconnaissance soldier in Afghanistan, told The Post Friday that some locals who fought the Taliban were \u201cdisloyal\u201d to the US forces they partnered with. Marine Corps Installations West<\/p>\n \u201cThe vetting\u2019s fast. You have to utilize local nationals.\u00a0So there\u2019s always gonna be a segment of the population that\u2019s gonna be disloyal\u00a0and \u2026 turn on you,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it happens a lot more than people suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n As a Marine in Afghanistan and later the leader of a \u201ccoalition effort\u201d that evacuated locals from the nation amid the US pullout, Robichaux saw firsthand how quickly some of the US-backed Afghans were willing to sell them out \u2014 or \u201cturn on\u201d them and \u201cshoot everybody in their team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn my program, we had CIA-trained guys,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI slept on the side of mountains with this guy \u2026 and one other Afghan numerous times. I trusted him with my life.\u00a0He turns on us, has a vehicle bomb driven into my house, has 12 of our teammates rolled up, captured and killed, and I got abducted by a foreign intelligence agency because of this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe vetting\u2019s fast. You have to utilize local nationals.\u00a0So there\u2019s always gonna be a segment of the population that\u2019s gonna be disloyal\u00a0and \u2026 turn on you,\u201d Robichaux said. Universal History Archive\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cJust because someone worked with the CIA or special operations unit doesn\u2019t automatically mean they should be allowed to come to the United States,\u201d he added. \u201cThe State Department still has to have their immigration process for that and do due diligence to vet them out.\u201d<\/p>\n CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that \u201cthe Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation.\u201d<\/p>\n National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent posted on X<\/a> Friday that Lakanwal \u201cwas only vetted to serve as a soldier to fight against the Taliban, AQ, & ISIS IN Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that \u201cthe Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including [the] CIA.\u201d REUTERS<\/p>\n \u201c[H]e was NOT vetted for his suitability to come to America and live among us as a neighbor, integrate into our communities, or eventually become an American citizen,\u201d Kent added.<\/p>\n A senior US official also said that while Lakanwal had been \u201cvetted to fight\u201d for the US from 2011 to 2021, the Biden administration solely used that vetting to allow the Afghan entry to the US \u2014 a \u201clow standard [that] has never been used before.\u201d<\/p>\n The only other intelligence-related checks on the shooter were done to screen for ties to terror groups before letting Lakanwal emigrate to Washington State, where he settled with his wife and five children in September 2021.<\/p>\n As many as 85,000 Afghans came into the country that year as part of former President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cOperation Allies Welcome\u201d program. AP<\/p>\n As many as 85,000 Afghans came into the country that year as part of \u201cOperation Allies Welcome,\u201d and of those, 10,000 who were part of the same CIA-backed \u201cdeath squads\u201d that Lakanwal fought with settled near Seattle<\/a>. <\/p>\n Lakanwal applied for a special immigration visa but was never granted lawful permanent residence. He also applied for asylum in December 2024 and was granted it the following April by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is part of Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n The department\u2019s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has blamed the Biden administration\u2019s \u201chumanitarian parole\u201d program for letting the Afghan evacuee remain in the US.<\/p>\n DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed the Biden administration\u2019s \u201chumanitarian parole\u201d program for letting the Afghan evacuee remain in the US. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cBiden signed into law that parole program, and then entered into the 2023 Ahmed Court Settlement, which bound USCIS to adjudicate his asylum claim on an expedited basis,\u201d McLaughlin said in a statement.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has since \u201cstopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols\u201d any immigration requests \u201crelating to Afghan nationals,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration, which failed to vet these applicants on a massive scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Alleged DC National Guard shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, served for at least a decade alongside US forces fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS as part of an elite, CIA-backed paramilitary group. REUTERS<\/p>\n At the time of the evacuation, US officials\u00a0\u201cdid not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees\u201d from Afghanistan, according to a 2022 DHS Office of Inspector General\u2019s\u00a0report<\/a>.<\/p>\n USCIS would have reviewed Lakanwal\u2019s background, done biometric vetting and an in-person interview to assess potential risks and determine whether he was eligible for asylum, according to #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group by American veterans helping resettle Afghan allies in the US.<\/p>\n The senior US official disputed this, saying that \u201cnone of the checks done on the shooter from 2011 to now checked his suitability to live here.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of the evacuation, US officials\u00a0\u201cdid not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees\u201d from Afghanistan, according to a 2022 DHS Office of Inspector General\u2019s\u00a0report. EPA<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to Biden it took 18 months or longer for someone to be granted a Special Immigrant Visa, including the applicant needing to flee to a third country so the US government could interview and vet them,\u201d the official noted. \u201cBiden threw all of this out and applied tactical war time vetting to people seeking entry into the homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n Robichaux, who served as part of a Joint Special Operations Command task force in Afghanistan, claimed that the number of nationals \u201cflown straight from Kabul to the United States\u201d may have been as high as 100,000 \u2014 and that \u201cthey were let go into the American population\u201d with \u201czero vetting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t know who was on those planes. He could have worked for the CIA. He could have worked for the Taliban,\u201d he said, sharing about how he had partnered at the time with a non-governmental organization to get up to 17,000 Afghans out of their home country.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t know who was on those planes. He could have worked for the CIA. He could have worked for the Taliban,\u201d Robichaux claimed. Instagram\/Chad Robichaux<\/p>\n