‘NBC’s assertion that CBP knowingly released an individual on the terrorist watchlist is inaccurate,’ DHS said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that it does have a suspected Afghanistan terrorist in custody, but disputed an NBC report on Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) initially released him knowing who he was.
“NBC’s assertion that CBP knowingly released an individual on the terrorist watchlist is inaccurate and entirely inconsistent with our practice at the border,” said a DHS spokesperson in an email late Friday to The Epoch Times. Several other media outlets ran stories based exclusively on the NBC report.
The DHS spokesperson said the report cannot be true because the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had no records on him at the time of his initial apprehension.
“At the time of the initial encounter, the information in the record could not have provided a conclusive match,” she said. “As soon as there was information to suggest that this individual was of concern, he was taken into custody by ICE. Law enforcement has been tracking the matter closely to protect against public safety risks.”
The DHS official also confirmed that the alleged terrorist 48-year-old Afghanistani Mohammad Kharwin remains in U.S. custody and did not dispute his reported ties to the group Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an offshoot of Hezb-e-Islam, which translates to the Party of Islam.
According to the National Counterterrorism Center, HIG is responsible for a number of terrorist attacks including the 2015 attacks in Kabul, one against a NATO convoy and another in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, which claimed the life of a U.S. soldier.
In 2013, HIG members drove a car filled with explosives into a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing two U.S. soldiers, four U.S. civilian contractors, and eight Afghans including two children.
The DHS confirmed to The Epoch Times that Mr. Kharwin was initially apprehended last March in California after entering the U.S. illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border and was processed for release under ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program (ATD).
The program is described by ICE as one that ensures “compliance with release conditions and provides important case management services for non-detained noncitizens.”
