Afghan CIA fighters face stark reality in the U.S.

0:00To understand how the Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers wound up living in the U.S. and struggling to start a new life, you need to go back almost a quarter of a century. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. That's President George W. Bush speaking to the country on October 7, 2001. The United States began a bombing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was in response to the September 11th attacks. Given the nature and reach of our enemies, we will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes, by meeting a series of challenges with determination and will and purpose.

0:51Over the next two decades, the U.S. would continue to fight in Afghanistan. Under both Republican and Democratic presidents, the U.S. military, along with its diplomatic corps, would try to help Afghanistan build a democratic government. Kabul celebrated Afghanistan's first national elections on Saturday. A free society for men and women and a strong military. Here's then U.S. Army trainer Major Kevin McCormick speaking with NPR in Kandahar in 2016. It takes a long time. It's not a short process. These skills are perishable. So they require continuous training, continuous mastery to be proficient.

1:33The U.S. effort alongside Afghans would go on until August 2021. That's when, over the course of about a week, the Afghan military and government fell to the Taliban. The government of Afghanistan has fallen. The Taliban are now in control. The airport in Kabul is a mob scene. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of Afghans are trying to get out from there. U.S. forces were supposed to leave Afghanistan the following month, but the timeline was accelerated. Their exit was chaotic and deadly. 14 service members, more than 100 Afghan civilians, died in an attack at a checkpoint outside the Kabul airport.

2:15Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan. That's then-President Joe Biden speaking from the East Room of the White House on August 16, 2021, as U.S. forces were trying to leave. Biden promised to help Afghans who had worked with U.S. forces. In the coming days, the U.S. military will provide assistance to move more SIV-eligible Afghans and their families out of Afghanistan. Rahmanullah Lakinwal was one of the Afghans. He'd worked with an elite group operated by the CIA known as a zero unit, and he was evacuated to the U.S. in 2021. Two families are shattered and destroyed and torn apart as a result of the actions of one man.

3:06That's U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro. Lakinwal is also the man accused of gunning down two National Guard members this Thanksgiving Eve. Consider this. In the week since the National Guard shooting, NPR's Brian Mann has reported that Lock and Wall's time with the Zero Unit and his feelings of abandonment after seeking asylum in the United States left him struggling with trauma. Coming up, we hear from one of those fighters.

3:39From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

3:50It's Consider This from NPR. They survived some of the Afghanistan war's most grueling and treacherous missions. They regularly battled the Taliban in nighttime raids, in urban gun battles. But once they evacuated to the U.S., many Afghan fighters who served in zero units found themselves spiraling. Because for them, they saw bureaucratic neglect and abandonment by the U.S. government, the very people they'd been helping. NPR's Brian Mann spoke to people involved in zero units and learned some have struggled with mental health since coming to the U.S. At least four have died by suicide. Here's Brian's reporting.

4:31When a former Afghan soldier named Daoud, who lived in Kabul, first signed up for a CIA-led zero unit, he says he was carefully vetted. You needed somebody to recommend you in the unit. And after two, three months, you know, background check and vetting process, you would get a call. Dawood agreed to talk to NPR only if we identified him by his first name. He fears for the safety of his family still living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He says his service with the CIA led to years of fighting against some of the Taliban's toughest units. Groups like Human Rights Watch have accused zero-unit soldiers of brutal tactics, including torture and illegal killings.

5:10People think we were a death squad, we were an execution squad. No, we were out there, going out there, because we needed to bring these folks alive. If you bring a target alive, you get more information from him. According to Dawood, those missions led him to believe he was part of a brotherhood with the U.S. military. He describes one firefight where an American CIA agent saved his life. He said grenade and he grabbed me from my body armor, pulled me back. It was a crazy fight. Bullet went through my body armor, but I was fine. This was the kind of American-led Afghan unit that also employed Lackenwall, who pleaded not guilty last week to murder and other charges in the National Guard shooting.

5:52Gita Bakshi, a former CIA agent who served in Afghanistan, says zero-unit fighters like Dawood and Lackenwall were essential to America's war effort. These guys were the tip of the spear. They were out on the front so that American personnel didn't have to be. They were the ones that were facing the maximum danger on the battlefield and taking the maximum risk due to their affiliation with U.S. intelligence. After the Taliban swept to power in 2021, the Biden administration evacuated thousands of zero-unit fighters, offering them a chance to start new lives in the U.S. But NPR has learned that many of these soldiers found themselves mired in America's complex immigration system.

6:35Despite vetting and background checks by the CIA, Daud says he and many other soldiers struggled for years to gain permanent asylum and necessary work visas. We asked the agency, could you please share our information? So when we submit our forms for our green cards, they know who we are. We are with it. We have worked with you guys. They said, oh, no, we can't share this. It's classified. And I was like, then how would they know who we are? NPR reported last week that Lackenwald, too, struggled with his immigration status. He only received asylum protection from the Trump administration in April of this year, nearly four years after coming to the U.S.

7:16A refugee resettlement volunteer who worked with Lackinwall shared emails with NPR written in 2024 indicating that Lackinwall appeared to suffer a personal crisis after failing to find stable employment. The volunteer spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety after working to support Lackinwall and other Afghan refugees. Dawood says this kind of emotional distress became widespread among former soldiers. We had worse cases than Lackinwall. Daoud says he knows of at least four former zero-unit fighters who became so desperate and hopeless they took their own lives.

7:53He described one crisis involving a friend who ultimately survived. He was in a very stressful situation. He was like, I'm going to go kill myself. That's how bad it was. And I was very worried for him. Bakshi, the former CIA agent, now runs an organization called FAMIL USA that advocates for zero-unit soldiers. She says her group tried to warn the Biden administration as early as 2023 of this growing problem. Individuals from the zero units unfortunately suffer death by self-harm. We raised this issue to the Biden administration, and it was one that we were very concerned about. Again, we saw a direct connection to prolonged immigration delays.

8:35NPR sent detailed questions to the CIA and to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but they declined to comment on the record. But Bakshi and Dawood aren't alone in raising concerns about the welfare of former Afghan Special Forces soldiers now living in the U.S. Thomas Kaza served with the Green Berets in Kabul alongside Afghan soldiers who specialized in clearing landmines and IEDs. In the span that Americans would do one deployment, These guys are doing three, four, five, right? So you have to kind of be cognizant of the impact that's going to take. Kazas says despite the Lackenwald case, he doesn't think former Afghan soldiers pose a security risk in the U.S., but he thinks many Afghan soldiers are struggling with trauma compounded by their uncertain asylum status.

9:21The Afghans were providing the exact same services even more, right? But no one's going to thank them for the service. And with that service also goes with kind of the side effects that are incumbent upon this profession. all the PTSD, and that has never been something provided for the Afghan population. Uncertainty for Afghan soldiers has only grown since the D.C. attack. President Trump says Afghans brought to the U.S. by the Biden administration may be dangerous. He's frozen asylum claims, and officials are re-evaluating the legal status of Afghan refugees. The same as a trustee reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country.

10:02For the most part, we don't want them. In a statement, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also suggested America's zero-unit allies may now be unwelcome. This individual and so many others should have never been allowed to come here, Ratcliffe said. Daoud, the Afghan who fought alongside CIA agents, said those comments sent waves of fear through his community. I was very shocked with the head of the CIA's comment. I felt so betrayed. Dawood says despite years of frustration, he and many of his fellow Afghan fighters now view the U.S. as their home and their only safe refuge. We're part of this nation at this time.

10:38You don't want to send these folks back to Afghanistan. You're sentencing them to death. Some U.S. veteran groups that fought with Afghan allies are now scrambling to convince the Trump administration to soften its stance on refugees who served with American military and intelligence services. But so far, Trump has maintained his fierce rhetoric. In a speech in Philadelphia, he objected again to taking in asylum seekers from what he described as hellholes like Afghanistan. Brian Mann, NPR News. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or in crisis, Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

11:20That's 988. This episode was produced by Erica Ryan and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Alina Hartunian and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. Thank you to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and who help keep public radio strong. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors and unlock bonus episodes of Consider This. You can learn more at plus.npr.org.

11:58It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.