Kinda wish I was still up on Capitol Hill on the House Armed Services Committee, we would be having a hearing on this. It is a breach of our security and poses a very disconcerting threat.
As Written By Allen B. West:
I remember during my time in the military attending my professional schooling we always had officers from foreign nations. I was even the sponsor for a Jamaican officer and his family at the Army Command and General Staff College. Of course, he and his wife were not real happy when Angela and I beat them at dominos, considering the fact I’d never played. I believe it’s very important we offer our training and schooling to troops, officers and enlisted from other countries. At Ft. Bragg, we hosted an entire platoon of airborne paratroopers from one of our European allies as part of an exchange program. Now I will tell you, there were some instances where these foreign officers were not exactly the finest. At Ft. Sill artillery school, for example, often times some of these fellas found their way to a place called Copacabana Club, LOL.
In Afghanistan, I met several officers that had attended our Staff College and other training centers; that is a good thing. However, as with those foreign artillery officers at Ft. Sill, there is a downside. As reported by Fox News:
Nearly four dozen Afghan troops training in the U.S. have vanished in less than two years, officials confirmed Thursday.
At least 44 Afghan troops have left their assigned bases since January 2015, calling into question their training programs’ screening processes. Of those 44, 25 were reported Absent Without Leave, or AWOL, in 2015, and 19 have gone AWOL this year.
At a press briefing Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said 32 of the missing Afghans had been located.
One of the eight Afghan students who disappeared in September of this year turned up at the Canadian border, the Pentagon reported. Police caught the student. FoxNews.com has reported that many Afghans who go AWOL from training in the U.S. have made their way through a pipeline running from Texas to Toronto.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the frequency of Afghan troops disappearing from military training was truly concerning and “out of the ordinary.”
The Defense Dept. “is assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria for training in ways that will reduce the likelihood of an individual Afghan willingly absconding from training in the U.S. and going AWOL,” Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told Fox News.
The network helping Afghans move along the pipeline from the U.S. to Canada includes the students’ relatives, women living in the U.S. illegally who transport the Afghans to bus stations or airports, and an Iranian taxi driver who shuttles them across the Canadian border, FoxNews.com has learned.
Yes, I think you know the obvious assessment and statement I’m about to make. How in the heck do Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton believe that they can “properly” vet hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees when they’re too inept to have in place systems to vet and track a platoon’s number, 44, Afghan soldiers? I mean, really? What systems are in place — or, more to the point, not in place — that allows these individuals to freely roam and go missing in our country? Heck, I guess when one considers Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl being lost in the shuffle, I suppose this isn’t very surprising.
I can’t recall any time in my military career hearing of a foreign military student going AWOL — maybe late for a formation because of a little too much fun the previous evening, but never AWOL. One thing for certain, they mostly knew they were representatives of their Nation. Some of the foreign exchange officers I encountered were not exactly the sharpest tools, but they gave great effort. I remember a Major in our CGSC staff group from Mongolia who had a bit of a problem with English, but he never shirked his duties and did what he could to assist in group operational planning projects — he was willing to learn.
The fact that our Department of Defense is so incompetent it cannot adequately assess the backgrounds of these Soldiers from Afghanistan is disturbing. Perhaps if it was not so focused on transgender policies and handbooks, we’d have better eligibility criteria for foreign exchange soldiers from countries where Islamic terrorists operate.
And why do they head north to Canada? We know ISIS has said it would infiltrate the Syrian refugees, and they indeed have, as proven with attacks in Paris, Brussels and Germany. Could it be that Islamic jihadists are seeking to infiltrate the military exchange program? And isn’t it cause for concern that there is a sort of “underground railroad” capable of quickly moving these AWOL soldiers out of the United States into Canada?
And what’s this excuse that the DoD is “assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria” — meaning, it did not have strong criteria up to this point?Unconscionable. This is our security these folks are playing with; they could be potentially letting the enemy right onto our military bases.
In my assessment, how possible could it be for our men and women here in the United States to be gunned down in a “green on blue” shooting as we have experienced oft times in training environs in Afghanistan — are these Soldiers allowed access to our weapons and ammunition in live fire exercises? When we had platoon-level exchanges, each individual Soldier had a host battle buddy, someone personally responsible. We did not allow these exchange Soldiers to just take off on their own, not that they were being tracked, or monitored, but it was also for their safety.
Kinda wish I was still up on Capitol Hill on the House Armed Services Committee, we would be having a hearing on this. It is a breach of our security and poses a very disconcerting threat. If this network exists for these Afghan Army soldiers…then what type of Islamic terrorist network exists…or are they potentially operating in parallel, or one in the same?
Maybe this issue will come up in the presidential debate Sunday evening when folks ask the question about illegal immigration and Syrian refugee resettlement. If we cannot develop eligibility criteria and keep track of a mere 44 individuals, certainly 100,000 is out of the question — and think, we already have 10,000 Syrian refugees here. Just gotta tell you, when someone from the Obama administration tells me it is sunny outside, I am taking my umbrella. They tell us not to worry about vetting…Ladies and Gents, here is a prime example that this reincarnation of the keystone cops are incapable of securing us….
Full Story Here:
If I were still on Capitol Hill, we’d be having a HEARING on this… – Allen B. West – AllenBWest.com