I think you would be hard pressed not to find a pretty clear consensus among most Americans that we owe a duty to the Afghan citizens who helped us over the last twenty years.  Overall, I think we welcome those journalists, translators, guides and military men who risked not just their lives, but the lives of their families to aid us.  In this crazy, upside-down, Orwellian world we seem to live in these days, I am glad we might agree on one thing at least.  But Biden’s plans to exempt some Taliban-era Afghan civil servants from US terror-related entry restrictions harbors huge risks that this administration seems ill equipped to manage.  Much less acknowledge.

According to the article:

“The Biden administration is planning to allow some Afghan civil servants who were employed by the 1996-2001 Taliban government to be exempt from terror-related bans on entering the United States, according to a draft document obtained by Fox News. The administration continues to bring in tens of thousands of Afghans as part of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

The same day these plans have hit the news, the fate of one of the Boston Bomber brothers is being debated by the Supreme Court.

“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s guilt was not at issue in Wednesday’s hearing. He was convicted in the deaths of a graduate student from China, Lingzi Lu, a restaurant manager named Krystle Campbell, and 8-year-old Martin Richard of Boston. The only question was whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or put to death.”

Granted, Dzhokhar and his dead brother, Tamerlan, were Soviet-born terrorists, not from Afghanistan.  But back in 2013, USA Today wrote about the bombers:

“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told law enforcement officials that the two had acted on their own and that they were motivated by opposition to U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said that Tamerlan had frequently visited jihadist websites. Both the CIA and FBI had flagged Tamerlan in 2011 after Russian security officials raised questions about Tamerlan’s suspected terrorist ties, and the FBI interviewed him, but no further action was taken.”

Given how the CIA and FBI overlooked flags raised on these men prior to the bombing, it seems even less likely today that we have the capability or will to address risks brought about by the influx of Afghan refugees.  In fact, back in 2019 House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Eliot Engal had plans to shutter the committee’s terrorism panel. In this new age of “woke-ness” can we even call someone other than a concerned parent at a school board a terrorist?

The rational for Biden’s move is unclear.  My guess is that with an estimated 95,000 Afghan refugees sitting around waiting to get processed after the abrubt and chaotic pull out from Afghanistan, they need to speed things along and lower the vetting thresholds.  Such as they are.  According to the report:

“The draft U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) planning document, reviewed by Fox News, outlines how the Department of Homeland Security is planning on issuing a memorandum to allow Afghan civil servants who worked during the Taliban regime to be exempted from terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG) if they fulfill other background and screening requirements.

“Many individuals who worked in civil service positions before the declaration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996 continued to do so after the declaration,” the document says in justification of the application. “Some did so under duress or other situations of hardship.”

While that all sounds somewhat reasonable, there is literally zero evidence that the State Department has or will properly vet these people.  See Ted Cruz grill Secretary of State, Antony Blinken:

It is unsurprising that Ted Cruz is the person most vested in uncovering what the vetting process might look like.  He is watching our southern border evaporate as Central American, Mexican and Haitian illegals cross over while Biden puts ever more obstacles in place from stopping them. Many of these AFghan refugees are being held at Fort Bliss in El Paso.  There is no jurisdiction for the Army to hold these people.  Some just call an Uber, never to be seem or heard from again.  Who are these people?  Are they good guys?  Are they bad guys?  Who the hell knows!

https://twitter.com/warriors_mom/status/1432474170277912576

What we do know is that sometimes the face of a civil servant isn’t always what it seems.  In 2015, an environment inspector and his wife, living in San Bernadino, CA terrorized their community, killing 14 and seriously injuring many others.   From Wikipedia:

“According to the FBI’s investigation, the perpetrators were “homegrown violent extremists” inspired by foreign terrorist groups. They were not directed by such groups and were not part of any terrorist cell or network. FBI investigators have said that Farook and Malik had become radicalized over several years prior to the attack, consuming “poison on the internet” and expressing a commitment to jihadism and martyrdom in private messages to each other. Farook and Malik had traveled to Saudi Arabia in the years before the attack. The couple had amassed a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition, and bomb-making equipment in their home.”

In just 10 short months, Biden has proved that he has the reverse Midas touch to everything he puts his hands on.  What fresh hell might this new policy bring to our country in time?  It might not be tomorrow, but there is ample reason to fear another terrorist attack on our doorstep.

Featured Image from Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay, cropped and modified