Noem says National Guard shooting suspect could have been radicalized in US

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that authorities believe the suspected shooter who they say opened fire on National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., last week might have been radicalized after he arrived in the United States.

The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is accused of firing at two National Guard members, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, on Wednesday afternoon.

Lakanwal — an Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the U.S. war in Afghanistan — came to the U.S. after Afghanistan’s government fell to the Taliban in 2021 and was granted asylum in April of this year.

“He was brought into the country by the Biden administration through Operation Allies Welcome. And then, maybe vetted after that, but not done well, based on what the guidelines were put forward by President Biden,” Noem told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday morning. “And now, since he’s been here, we believe he could have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state.”

Noem repeatedly claimed that the alleged shooter was “unvetted” by the Biden administration. Pressed by Karl on whether any vetting had been performed by the Trump administration, which had been in office for several months when Lakanwal was granted asylum earlier this year, Noem said that the information that was used to vet him was collected by the previous administration.

“All the information that was gathered on that vetting process was gathered under the Biden administration. His asylum claim application started under the Biden administration. That information was provided by them, and the responsibility lies with them,” she said. 

Karl asked, “You were simply relying on what had been done under the Biden administration? You did no vetting before granting him asylum?”

Noem responded: “The processes put in place were put in place using information that was gathered during the application process. It happened under Joe Biden, and that has been completely fixed, and new metrics and new processes have been added under President Trump.”

Claims by Noem and other administration officials that the Afghans who resettled in the U.S. after the August 2021 withdrawal were not vetted are disputed by others familiar with the process at the time.

But ABC News contributor and former Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen said under Operation Allies Welcome, those traveling to the U.S. were vetted against classified and unclassified intelligence and submitted biographical and biometric data as part of the process. 

According to Cohen, while there were some delays in vetting — and even instances where individuals boarded planes or arrived at destinations outside the U.S. prior to a full vetting being completed — those individuals had that information collected at processing locations. 

“These people spent anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, in some cases months, at these third-country lilypad sites,” Sam Aronson, a former State Department official who spent 10 days in Kabul at the height of the U.S. withdrawal, said. “That’s where the extensive vetting took place.”

Additionally, ABC News previously reported that a senior U.S. official said that the suspect had been vetted at one point by the National Counterterrorism Center and “nothing came up” during that review. The official added that “he was clean on all checks.” The suspect’s arrangement with the CIA during the war, which was confirmed by the director, would have almost certainly required him to be vetted by the agency at the time. 

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen also pushed back against Noem’s assertion that the Biden administration’s vetting procedures led to Wednesday’s attack.

“We should always review our vetting, but in this case, there’s no evidence that there was something that escaped the vetting,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen criticized the Trump administration’s announcement on Friday that it was pausing all asylum decisions following the shooting.

“I do think it is outrageous and unfair to try to punish an entire class of people for the evil acts of one person. That is collective punishment,” he continued. “These are individuals who worked side by side with America in the fight against the Taliban. And if they were sent back now, the Taliban may likely kill them.”