US official says shooting suspect was vetted by intel agencies and “clean on all checks”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal began working with the CIA around 2011, a senior US official told CNN.
At the time, the CIA would have done its own vetting of him through a variety of databases, including the National Counterterrorism Center database, to see if he had any known ties to terrorist groups. The CIA did its own vetting before he started working with them and kept the identities of those they worked with secret, the official said.
NCTC would have vetted him again during Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 for any ties to terrorism before he was allowed into the US. He was clean then as well and did not show any ties to terror organizations, per the senior US official.
“In terms of vetting, nothing came up,” according to a senior US official. “He was clean on all checks.”
The official added that the US government had been doing continuous, annual vetting of individuals since the Afghans’ arrival in the US, especially in the wake of the failed terror plot disrupted before the election last year in Oklahoma which involved an Afghan evacuee.
The vetting of people overseas by US intelligence agencies is different than what domestic agencies are expected to do once individuals arrive and are seeking asylum, a second official noted.
