The Blog

2021-

2021-08-25 d
GOOD NEWS IV
(They caught these. How many more are there?)

Up to 100 Afghan evacuees flown out of war-torn Kabul are on intelligence agency watch lists, US official warns, as it's revealed one passenger flown out to Qatar has potential ties to ISIS

• The Afghans are potential candidates for Special Immigration Visas (SIV)
• They were flagged as possible matches to intelligence agency watch lists by the Defense Department's Automated Biometric Identification System
• The Afghan who has potential ties to ISIS was detected by security screeners at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after they were evacuated from Kabul Airport
• The Afghan evacuees are being screened against law enforcement databases using biometric data including facial recognition, iris scans and fingerprints
• The evacuees are being screened by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

As many as 100 Afghan evacuees flown out of war-torn Kabul are on intelligence agency watch lists, a United States government official warned on Tuesday as it was revealed one passenger flown out to Qatar has potential ties to ISIS.

The Afghans, potential candidates for Special Immigration Visas (SIV), were flagged as possible matches to intelligence agency watch lists by the Defense Department's Automated Biometric Identification System, an official with the U.S. government told Defense One.

The Afghan who has potential ties to ISIS was detected by security screeners at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after they were evacuated from Kabul Airport, another official told the outlet. There have been 6,000 Afghans taken to the air base.

'Intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals are conducting screening and security vetting for all SIV applicants and other vulnerable Afghans before they are allowed into the United States,' a State Department spokesperson told DailyMail.com.

'We are surging resources to evaluate each case and process these as efficiently as possible to protect homeland security.'

The State Department declined to confirm to DailyMail.com whether any immigrants have been flagged for having ties to ISIS, and it is unclear if they were processed before or after leaving Kabul.

The Afghan evacuees are being screened against law enforcement databases using biometric data including facial recognition, iris scans and fingerprints by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

Officials told Defense One there 'certainly' have been some Afghans who triggered alerts - but, in most cases, they have already been cleared after further screening.

However, the CBP agents are facing challenges in screening the incredible number of SIV applicants such as using old vetting systems that 'could not integrate' with the Defense Department's biometric database information, Defense One reported.

'CBP on the ground has old tech and they don't know how to use it, integrate it. And there's not enough people to process' all of the evacuees,' an official said.

The technology can take up to an hour for the system to determine whether someone is a potential security risk - and officials maintained that the system is working, but slowly.

The officials who spoke with Defense One noted that most of the security alerts have been flagged at Al Udeid, but that they 'can't rule it out' that alerts are happening at other temporary bases. (read more)

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