CIA says alleged National Guard shooter worked with agency’s paramilitary units in Afghanistan

The gunman who is alleged to have ambushed and wounded two National Guard troops near the White House worked with CIA-backed paramilitary units during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Director John Ratcliffe revealed Thursday.

Officials have identified the alleged suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, and said the Afghan national was let into the United States by the Biden administration in August 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a rushed evacuation operation later criticized for failing to properly vet those brought into the country.

"In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation," Ratcliffe said in a statement distributed to news media.

"The individual—and so many others—should have never been allowed to come here," the director added. "Our citizens and service members deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures."

Officials said the alleged gunman worked with several U.S. agencies during the war, including a CIA-backed paramilitary unit in Kandahar that fought the Taliban.