An Afghan refugee leaving Germany to come to the U.S. was detained this week after authorities found explosive materials inside his luggage, according to United States officials.
The male refugee was stopped from flying to the United States after security screens at the Ramstein Air Base discovered an igniter switch, blasting caps, and other things inside his bag, Just the News has reported.
The Washington Examiner later found out that the refugee did counterterrorism work for the United States government and was not a terrorist suspect.
Officials believe the person, who is described as an American ally, might have forgotten that these materials were in his bag as he left Afghanistan. This equipment was described as things which are easily available for purchase that would not put other people in danger.
The man, identified simply as an Afghan citizen who was born in the early 1990s, was added to the “red list” and will not go to the United States, according to a TSA memo detailing the event.
“TSA advised about the physical search of the baggage that a German military member found a suspicious item inside the baggage,” the memo stated.
Screeners found the five blasting caps, one igniter switch, a “def cord,” and what is called a shock tube inside the man’s bag. The materials were removed from the area, and the man was taken out of the flight schedule, according to a memo.
The Defense Dept. — along with the FBI, TSA, Border Protection, and the Dept. of Homeland Security — is investigating the event.
News of this event comes as some GOP lawmakers push back against the Biden White House’s processing of Afghanistan refugees, saying that officials are not doing their part to guarantee that terrorists are kept out of the United States.
“It is a national security matter, and when I see that before this there was a 14-step process we took, which lasted between 18 and 24 months to fully clear these people, I don’t see how this can be changed into a process that now takes only a couple of weeks’ time,” Montana GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale recently said to reporters.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
