The Afghan man accused of shooting two members of the US military in downtown Washington DC once worked alongside the CIA in Afghanistan, officials have said.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove thousands of miles from the west coast to launch an “ambush-style” attack on two West Virginia members of the National Guard on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
He shot Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, at close range just a few blocks from the White House, officials said, and they both remain in a critical condition in hospital.
Mr Lakanwal came to the US in 2021 under a programme that offered special immigration protections to Afghans in the wake of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He helped guard US forces at Kabul airport as thousands scrambled to escape Afghanistan before the Taliban took power, a former military commander who served alongside him told the BBC.
The father of five had been recruited to Unit 03 of the Kandahar Strike Force, nine years earlier.
His unit was known locally as Scorpion Forces, operating initially under the CIA but eventually for the Afghan intelligence department known as the National Directorate of Security.
Mr Lakanwal was a GPS tracker specialist, the former commander told the BBC, describing him as a “sporty and jolly character”.
His whole unit was moved from Kandahar to Kabul five days before the Taliban entered the capital. They continued to protect the airport for another six days, before they too were airlifted out to the US.
At a press conference on Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Mr Lakanwal’s connection to US forces, saying the suspect “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces”, before moving to the US.
I don’t think that it’s that crazy to say that this was planned by the CIA.
But that could just be complete paranoïa.
Or that these people are just dropped once they arrive in the USA.
Here’s my theory: I think there’s a lot of things the CIA has always done to influence public opinion in the U.S. and abroad, and they’ve never been above doing some fucked up and unethical things to manipulate the public.
I guess around the time of the patriot act, the president was given the power to pick who leads the CIA during their presidential term (which seems like an all around terrible fucking idea, and it’s kind of crazy we don’t talk about this more often).
So while you’ve always had the CIA doing the kind of stuff we’re seeing them do currently in the U.S. and in Venezuela, for the last ~25 years, it was happening under leadership with fluctuating levels of competency reflective of the president. Maybe it’s just because this guy looks so much like him, but I just keep thinking Trump seems to have placed Michael Scott in charge of directing the CIA.
It’s definitely not that I think Trump is the first president/Ratcliffe is the first CIA director, willing to do some really unethical and harmful things to innocent people as part of a larger political strategy.
It’s just that subtlety is not a strength of anyone working in this administration. You have the hubris and unchecked authority of the Trump administration working with the hubris and unchecked authority of the CIA, and there’s nobody around to pump the brakes and suggest that maybe you tone it down a bit because you’re being way too obvious.