Dec. 2 (UPI) — Afghan national Mohammad Dawood Alokozay has been charged with federal crimes after allegedly using social media to threaten to build a bomb to kill U.S. citizens.
Alokozay, 30, is a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, and is charged with transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce in the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas. He faces up to five years in prison if he is found guilty.
“This Afghan national came into America during the Biden administration and, as alleged, explicitly stated that he came here in order to kill American citizens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release on Tuesday.
“The public safety threat created by the Biden administration’s vetting breakdown cannot be overstated,” Bondi added.
“The Department of Justice will continue working with our federal and state partners to protect the American people from the prior administration’s dangerous incompetence.”
The Justice Department said Alokozay on Nov. 23 participated in a video call in which he threatened to carry out a suicide attack on other participants in the call, “infidels” and U.S. citizens.
He said he would build a bomb in his vehicle and would use a cooking oil container commonly used by the Taliban to build improvised explosive devices used in Afghanistan in the video call, which was recorded and shared on several social media platforms, according to the DOJ.
Alokozay also expressed support for the Taliban, said he came to the United States to kill Americans and does not fear death or deportation.
He is in custody pending an arraignment hearing before a federal magistrate judge in the case that U.S. Attorney for Northern Texas Vincent Mazzurco is prosecuting.
Alokozay’s arrest occurred after Afghan citizen Rahmanulla Lakanwal, 29, allegedly ambushed two National Guard members from West Virginia on Wednesday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Lakanwal was shot and detained by other National Guard members and is hospitalized and facing a first-degree murder charge and other related charges.
The attack killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and seriously wounded Airman Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, who remains hospitalized.
The attack on the two National Guard members and Alokozay’s arrest prompted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to call for a travel ban on every nation that is “flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.”
Noem said she relayed her request to President Donald Trump, who already halted the processing of all visa applications from Afghan citizens and has proposed reviewing those who were approved after entering the nation during the Biden administration.
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