US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday that roughly 2,000 Afghan nationals who entered the United States following the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan are suspected of having links to terrorist organisations, raising renewed questions about the vetting process used during the large-scale evacuation effort. Her remarks added to an ongoing debate in Washington over national security risks tied to the resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans after the collapse of the former Afghan government.
Gabbard’s statement followed testimony delivered a day earlier by senior counterterrorism officials before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. During the hearing, Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, said authorities had identified approximately 2,000 individuals among Afghan evacuees whose backgrounds warranted further scrutiny for possible ties to extremist groups. The individuals entered the country under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme launched to resettle Afghans who fled the country as US forces withdrew.
Kent told lawmakers that the 2,000 individuals were part of a broader group of about 88,000 Afghans brought to the United States after 2021. He said the cases remain under active review and that federal agencies are working jointly to assess potential risks. According to Kent, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are involved in investigations aimed at determining whether the suspected connections pose a threat to US security.
In his testimony, Kent also said that US authorities have identified roughly 18,000 individuals who entered the country during former President Joe Biden’s administration and who are believed to have some form of connection to militant or extremist organisations. He described this group as representing the most significant terrorism-related concern currently facing the United States, though he did not specify how many of those individuals were Afghan nationals.
The NCTC director warned lawmakers that terrorist organisations, including Islamic State and Al Qaeda, continue to benefit from instability in regions such as Afghanistan and Syria. He said these groups are exploiting ungoverned spaces to establish safe havens while relying heavily on online platforms and encrypted communication tools to recruit followers and plan potential attacks beyond their immediate areas of operation.
Kent also criticised policies implemented during the Biden administration, linking them to specific security incidents. He cited the November shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., alleging that policy failures contributed to the attack. The suspect in that case, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, according to officials.
The comments by Gabbard and Kent have intensified scrutiny of the emergency evacuation and resettlement process carried out after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. While officials emphasised that the majority of Afghan evacuees pose no threat and were admitted for humanitarian reasons, the disclosures have prompted calls from some lawmakers for tighter screening measures and enhanced oversight to address potential national security vulnerabilities.
