Noem says suspect in National Guard shooting may have been radicalized in US.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said authorities believe the suspected shooter who they say opened fire on members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., last week may have been radicalized after arriving in the United States.

The alleged gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is accused of shooting two National Guard members, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, on Wednesday afternoon.

Lakanwal, an Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the US war in Afghanistan, came to the United States after the Afghan government fell to the Taliban in 2021 and was granted asylum in April of this year.

“The Biden administration brought it into the country through Operation Allies Welcome. And then, maybe it was vetted after that, but it wasn’t done right, based on the guidelines proposed by President Biden,” Noem told ABC News’ “This Week” co-host Jonathan Karl on Sunday morning. “And now, since he’s been here, we believe he may have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state.”

Noem repeatedly claimed that the alleged shooter was not “authorized” by the Biden administration. Pressed by Karl on whether the Trump administration had conducted any background investigations, which He had been in office for several months when Lakanwal When he was granted asylum earlier this year, Noem said the information used to investigate him was collected by the previous administration.

“All of the information that was collected about that investigation process was collected under the Biden administration. Their asylum application began under the Biden administration. That information was provided by them, and the responsibility lies with them,” he said.

Karl asked: “Were you just relying on what had been done under the Biden administration? You didn’t do any research before granting him asylum?”

Noem responded: “The processes in place were put in place using information that was collected during the application process. It happened under Joe Biden, and that has been completely fixed, and new metrics and new processes have been added under President Trump.”

Claims by Noem and other administration officials that Afghans resettled in the United States after the August 2021 withdrawal were not vetted are disputed by others familiar with the process at the time.

But ABC News contributor and former Homeland Security undersecretary of intelligence John Cohen said that under Operation Allies Welcome, those traveling to the United States were screened with classified and unclassified intelligence and submitted biographical and biometric data as part of the process.

According to Cohen, while there were some delays in vetting, and even cases where people boarded planes or arrived at destinations outside the US. before a full investigation was completed, those individuals had that information collected at processing locations.

“These people spent anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, in some cases months, in these third-country lilies,” said Sam Aronson, a former State Department official who spent 10 days in Kabul at the height of the US withdrawal. “That’s where a thorough investigation took place.”

Additionally, ABC News previously reported that a A senior U.S. official said the suspect had been examined at one point by the National Counterterrorism Center and “nothing came up” during that review. The official added that “it was clean in all controls.” The suspect’s agreement with the CIA during the war, confirmed by the director, would almost certainly have required the agency to examine him at the time.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen also rejected Noem’s claim that the Biden administration’s vetting procedures led to Wednesday’s attack.

“We should always review our background investigation, but in this case, there is no evidence that there was anything that escaped the background investigation,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen criticized the Trump administration’s announcement Friday that it would suspend all asylum decisions after the shooting.

“I think it’s outrageous and unfair to try to punish an entire class of people for the evil acts of a single person. That’s collective punishment,” he continued. “These are individuals who worked closely with the United States in the fight against the Taliban. And if they were returned now, the Taliban would probably kill them.”