An Afghan refugee departing Germany to the United States was detained Monday after authorities discovered explosive materials in his luggage, according to U.S. officials.
The male refugee was prevented from flying to the U.S. after screeners at Ramstein Air Base found blasting caps, an igniter switch, and other materials inside his bag, Just the News reported Tuesday.
The Washington Examiner later independently learned the refugee performed counterterrorism work for the U.S. government and is not a suspected terrorist.
Officials believe the man, described as a U.S. ally, might have forgotten the materials were in his bag as he fled Afghanistan. The pieces of equipment were described as items readily available for purchase that alone could not have put others in danger.
The man, identified only as an Afghan citizen born in the early 1990s, was added to a “red list” and will not travel to the U.S., according to a Transportation Security Administration memo detailing the incident.
“TSA advised that during the physical search (full open) of the individuals baggage a German military member identified a suspicious item in the baggage,” the memo said.
Screeners discovered five blasting caps, an igniter switch, a “def cord,” and a shock tube in the man’s bag. The materials were taken from the area, and the man was removed from the queue for the flight, according to the memo.
The Defense Department — along with TSA, the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security — is reportedly investigating the incident.
The Pentagon referred the Washington Examiner to Homeland Security. DHS and TSA, which fall under DHS, were both contacted for comment.
News of the incident comes as some Republican lawmakers push back on the Biden administration’s processing of refugees from Afghanistan, arguing officials aren’t doing enough to ensure terrorists are kept out of the country.
“It is a national security issue, and when I see that, previously, there was a 14-step process that had been established that took anywhere from 18 to 24 months in order to clear these individuals, I don’t see how in the world we can take well over 100,000 people now, and all of a sudden wave a magic wand and condense that vetting period and process into a couple of weeks’ time,” Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale recently told the Washington Examiner.
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The Biden administration has asserted that U.S. counterterrorism operatives and officials are working “around the clock” to vet refugees.
“That process involves biometric and biographic security screenings conducted by our intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals who are working quite literally around the clock to vet all these Afghans before they’re allowed into the United States,” a senior administration official told reporters last month.
