The Secretary of Homeland Security may have information that hasn't yet been released to the public. The FBI are still examining his social media and electronic devices, and his contacts in both San Diego and in the community where he lived in the state of Washington. I wouldn't rule out radicalization yet.
Shooting reported near White House
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AZ AZ - Daniel Robinson, 24, remote job site, Buckeye, 23 Jun 2021 #2
- Latest: Bluedreamer
Afghans selected to board American military planes in Kabul did not complete the long- established interagency vetting processes shared across the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instead, much of the vetting is occurring on military bases on U.S. soil.2 Furthermore, the State Department’s inability to facilitate or process SIV applicants on-ground, those that aided American operations in Afghanistan, fails our partners and breaks promises made to those who put themselves and their families at significant risk to aid U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.
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I haven't seen anything in MSM yet but if you search twitter/X for the latest, there's some good news:
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This article has a different take: Fellow Unit Member Says Alleged D.C. Shooter Felt Abandoned by CIA
When I first clicked on the article I was able to read most of it. When I
click now it's behind a paywall.
I didn't close the original window. I'll paste the article. Sounds like it might have been a red tape issue he couldn't get help with, that pushed him over the edge. He needed a work authorization card to get work.
ARTICLE
The alleged shooter of two National Guard members, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was struggling with mental illness, his ability to support his family, and, according to an Afghan veteran who fought with him, his pleas for help to the CIA went unanswered.
Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, served in a CIA-backed Afghan force unit, known as the “Zero Units,” in Kandahar. He is facing first-degree murder charges after Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries following the Wednesday shooting near the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, D.C. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.
Investigators are still working to establish a motive for the attack. Rolling Stone spoke to a former Afghan unit mate who pointed to financial pressure and ongoing apparent mental illness as a contributing factor. He also seems to have felt abandoned by the United States government.
“He’s very sad [depressed],” said Lakanwal’s Afghan unit mate, who is not a native English speaker. “He’s very worried. This problem, like, he’d say, ‘I am working nine years or 10 years with [the] U.S. government. [They] never answer my phone [call].’”
After the Taliban prevailed in America’s longest running war, Lakanwal resettled in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five sons in September 2021. His migration was aided by Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era initiative to resettle vulnerable Afghans, particularly those who worked alongside U.S. forces and faced reprisals from the Taliban.
The struggles to start over, leave the war behind, and find work were ever present. Lakanwal was fired from his job at a laundromat because he lacked a work authorization card despite being approved for asylum and authorized to work by the Trump administration, according to his former unit mate, who fought alongside him for more than a decade.
In September, Lakanwal’s nephew requested the Bellingham housing authority approve a move closer to an Afghan community. The handwritten application, reviewed by Rolling Stone, cited Lakanwal’s isolation, lack of English skills, and the need to find employment in a larger community like Seattle. Lakanwal didn’t feel safe in Bellingham after he was assaulted when a man sprayed something into his eyes requiring hospital treatment, according to the application.
“This experience has caused him stress and fear, and he does not feel comfortable continuing to live in this town,” the nephew wrote. “It is very important for him to be near his community and relatives to feel safe and to have the opportunity to find work so he can support his family.”
About a month ago, Lakanwal told his unit mate that his inability to work due to missing immigration paperwork meant his family couldn’t afford rent or food. He resorted to borrowing money from friends and former unit members, and during the conversation, he broke down in tears from frustration and desperation, his unit mate said.
“Every time, like looking [for] somebody [to] help for documents, somebody [to] help for pay the rent, he’s not going to work,” the Afghan unit mate said.
His unit mate said Lakanwal sought help in June from a CIA program designed to aid Zero Unit veterans with immigration issues. Rolling Stone reviewed a screenshot of the group chat in June where Zero Unit veterans shared information with a CIA representative about ongoing issues. Lakanwal posted messages asking for help. His last post went unanswered and was deleted by the chat’s administrator.
Rolling Stone called the CIA representative in the text chat, who claimed it was a wrong number. A request for comment from the CIA was not returned.
Lakanwal, according to an Associated Press report and confirmed by his unit mate, would swing from “long, dark stretches of isolation,” sometimes going weeks without speaking even to his family, to “manic” episodes, during which he would take off on sudden, weekslong cross-country drives, traveling to places like Chicago or Arizona.
A community advocate, according to the AP, feared Lakanwal was suicidal and asked a refugee organization for help in January 2024. The AP reported that it examined emails sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) detailing the concerns. USCRI reportedly visited Bellingham in March 2024, but Lakanwal and his family refused their assistance, according to the AP report.
Following the shooting in D.C., President Donald Trump called it a “terrorist attack” and announced a full review of all Afghan nationals admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Vice President J.D. Vance, and FBI Director Kash Patel then collectively laid blame on former President Joe Biden, claiming Lakanwal and other refugees were “unvetted” or subject to “zero vetting,” often citing that the shooting suspect was “mass paroled into the United States.”
“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and servicemembers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”
But Lakanwal, who went by “Shafiq” during his time fighting for the CIA, underwent more vetting than most Afghans. No one just joined the CIA’s Zero Units. Soldiers had to be recommended by a close family member or friend. The CIA then vetted each member before even offering a probationary period. The vetting process was so successful that Zero Units never suffered an insider attack — when Afghan soldiers turned against U.S. advisers.
Slots in the Zero Units were coveted because of better pay, better training, and the chance to work alongside elite U.S. operators. In later years, there were also opportunities to immigrate and resettle in the U.S. after at least one year of service and U.S. government approval.
In the final days of the war in 2021, roughly 81,000 Afghan immigrants — including almost 10,000 members of the Zero Units, along with many of their families — were evacuated by the CIA and resettled across the U.S., according to reports. After arriving in the United States, the Zero Unit veterans were vetted again before receiving Special Immigrant Visas, meant for Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked for the U.S. government.
For the past year, I’ve been working on a documentary film about the Zero Units. For this story, I spoke to members of the community who didn’t feel comfortable going on the record for fear of reprisals. All of them condemned Lankanwal’s actions and struggled to understand why he would allegedly attack Americans. The Zero Unit soldiers protected CIA officers on missions and at their forward bases, so attacking American servicemembers was antithetical to their code. Now they feared his actions will make living in the United States harder.
The Afghan Zero Unit community is tight-knit. At one point, during a trip to Texas last year, I watched as a group of veterans took over a shisha restaurant with more than 20 sitting at one table, laughing and smoking. Bonded by combat and the pain of losing their country, they are part of a lost generation of Afghans who believed America’s promise of democracy and sacrificed everything for it.
But most of all Zero Unit veterans were heartbroken by Ratcliffe’s comments that they should never have been allowed to come to the United States because after fighting shoulder to shoulder with the CIA for almost 20 years, they are the next sacrifice on the altar of expediency. The only certainty in U.S. foreign policy from the last helicopter out of Saigon in 1975 to the Kurds after the Gulf War in 1991 to the 2020 Doha Accords and the Afghan evacuation in 2021 is that American loyalty comes with an expiration date.
When I first clicked on the article I was able to read most of it. When I
click now it's behind a paywall.
I didn't close the original window. I'll paste the article. Sounds like it might have been a red tape issue he couldn't get help with, that pushed him over the edge. He needed a work authorization card to get work.
ARTICLE
The alleged shooter of two National Guard members, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was struggling with mental illness, his ability to support his family, and, according to an Afghan veteran who fought with him, his pleas for help to the CIA went unanswered.
Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, served in a CIA-backed Afghan force unit, known as the “Zero Units,” in Kandahar. He is facing first-degree murder charges after Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries following the Wednesday shooting near the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, D.C. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.
Investigators are still working to establish a motive for the attack. Rolling Stone spoke to a former Afghan unit mate who pointed to financial pressure and ongoing apparent mental illness as a contributing factor. He also seems to have felt abandoned by the United States government.
“He’s very sad [depressed],” said Lakanwal’s Afghan unit mate, who is not a native English speaker. “He’s very worried. This problem, like, he’d say, ‘I am working nine years or 10 years with [the] U.S. government. [They] never answer my phone [call].’”
After the Taliban prevailed in America’s longest running war, Lakanwal resettled in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five sons in September 2021. His migration was aided by Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era initiative to resettle vulnerable Afghans, particularly those who worked alongside U.S. forces and faced reprisals from the Taliban.
The struggles to start over, leave the war behind, and find work were ever present. Lakanwal was fired from his job at a laundromat because he lacked a work authorization card despite being approved for asylum and authorized to work by the Trump administration, according to his former unit mate, who fought alongside him for more than a decade.
In September, Lakanwal’s nephew requested the Bellingham housing authority approve a move closer to an Afghan community. The handwritten application, reviewed by Rolling Stone, cited Lakanwal’s isolation, lack of English skills, and the need to find employment in a larger community like Seattle. Lakanwal didn’t feel safe in Bellingham after he was assaulted when a man sprayed something into his eyes requiring hospital treatment, according to the application.
“This experience has caused him stress and fear, and he does not feel comfortable continuing to live in this town,” the nephew wrote. “It is very important for him to be near his community and relatives to feel safe and to have the opportunity to find work so he can support his family.”
About a month ago, Lakanwal told his unit mate that his inability to work due to missing immigration paperwork meant his family couldn’t afford rent or food. He resorted to borrowing money from friends and former unit members, and during the conversation, he broke down in tears from frustration and desperation, his unit mate said.
“Every time, like looking [for] somebody [to] help for documents, somebody [to] help for pay the rent, he’s not going to work,” the Afghan unit mate said.
His unit mate said Lakanwal sought help in June from a CIA program designed to aid Zero Unit veterans with immigration issues. Rolling Stone reviewed a screenshot of the group chat in June where Zero Unit veterans shared information with a CIA representative about ongoing issues. Lakanwal posted messages asking for help. His last post went unanswered and was deleted by the chat’s administrator.
Rolling Stone called the CIA representative in the text chat, who claimed it was a wrong number. A request for comment from the CIA was not returned.
Lakanwal, according to an Associated Press report and confirmed by his unit mate, would swing from “long, dark stretches of isolation,” sometimes going weeks without speaking even to his family, to “manic” episodes, during which he would take off on sudden, weekslong cross-country drives, traveling to places like Chicago or Arizona.
A community advocate, according to the AP, feared Lakanwal was suicidal and asked a refugee organization for help in January 2024. The AP reported that it examined emails sent to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) detailing the concerns. USCRI reportedly visited Bellingham in March 2024, but Lakanwal and his family refused their assistance, according to the AP report.
Following the shooting in D.C., President Donald Trump called it a “terrorist attack” and announced a full review of all Afghan nationals admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Vice President J.D. Vance, and FBI Director Kash Patel then collectively laid blame on former President Joe Biden, claiming Lakanwal and other refugees were “unvetted” or subject to “zero vetting,” often citing that the shooting suspect was “mass paroled into the United States.”
“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and servicemembers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”
But Lakanwal, who went by “Shafiq” during his time fighting for the CIA, underwent more vetting than most Afghans. No one just joined the CIA’s Zero Units. Soldiers had to be recommended by a close family member or friend. The CIA then vetted each member before even offering a probationary period. The vetting process was so successful that Zero Units never suffered an insider attack — when Afghan soldiers turned against U.S. advisers.
Slots in the Zero Units were coveted because of better pay, better training, and the chance to work alongside elite U.S. operators. In later years, there were also opportunities to immigrate and resettle in the U.S. after at least one year of service and U.S. government approval.
In the final days of the war in 2021, roughly 81,000 Afghan immigrants — including almost 10,000 members of the Zero Units, along with many of their families — were evacuated by the CIA and resettled across the U.S., according to reports. After arriving in the United States, the Zero Unit veterans were vetted again before receiving Special Immigrant Visas, meant for Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked for the U.S. government.
For the past year, I’ve been working on a documentary film about the Zero Units. For this story, I spoke to members of the community who didn’t feel comfortable going on the record for fear of reprisals. All of them condemned Lankanwal’s actions and struggled to understand why he would allegedly attack Americans. The Zero Unit soldiers protected CIA officers on missions and at their forward bases, so attacking American servicemembers was antithetical to their code. Now they feared his actions will make living in the United States harder.
The Afghan Zero Unit community is tight-knit. At one point, during a trip to Texas last year, I watched as a group of veterans took over a shisha restaurant with more than 20 sitting at one table, laughing and smoking. Bonded by combat and the pain of losing their country, they are part of a lost generation of Afghans who believed America’s promise of democracy and sacrificed everything for it.
But most of all Zero Unit veterans were heartbroken by Ratcliffe’s comments that they should never have been allowed to come to the United States because after fighting shoulder to shoulder with the CIA for almost 20 years, they are the next sacrifice on the altar of expediency. The only certainty in U.S. foreign policy from the last helicopter out of Saigon in 1975 to the Kurds after the Gulf War in 1991 to the 2020 Doha Accords and the Afghan evacuation in 2021 is that American loyalty comes with an expiration date.
Last edited:
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Death of Afghan commander, financial stress surface in National Guard shooting investigation: Sources
The death of the commander -- whom Rahmanullah Lakanwal is said to have revered -- had deeply saddened the suspect, sources said.
Additionally, multiple sources said that investigators are looking into the impact of the recent death of an Afghan commander, who allegedly worked with the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
The death of the commander -- whom Lakanwal is said to have revered -- had deeply saddened the suspect, sources said.
This may have compounded on Lakanwal’s financial burdens, including not being employed, having an expired work permit and allegedly struggling to pay rent and feed his children, sources said.
The FBI, Homeland Security and intelligence officials are also investigating the possibility that the attack was directed by or inspired by international terrorists. But thus far, authorities have not publicly released any specific evidence tying Lakanwal to a terrorist organization and no terror charges have been filed.
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From your link:
"Lakanwal was fired from his job at a laundromat because he lacked a work authorization card". How was he hired then?
" In September, Lakanwal’s nephew requested the Bellingham housing authority approve a move closer to an Afghan community."
"Lakanwal didn’t feel safe in Bellingham after he was assaulted when a man sprayed something into his eyes (...)
It is very important for him to be near his community and relatives to feel safe"
So, he has family in the US???
" (...) sometimes going weeks without speaking even to his family, to “manic” episodes, during which he would take off on sudden, weekslong cross-country drives, traveling to places like Chicago or Arizona." With what money and to do what???
"USCRI reportedly visited Bellingham in March 2024, but Lakanwal and his family refused their assistance, according to the AP report." I wonder why?
MOO JMO
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