An American trapped in Afghanistan said the U.S. government sent out thousands of blank visas that have now landed in the hands of the Taliban.
David Fox, who runs a marketing firm in Kabul, said he received a lookalike visa paper from the State Department last week. The form is blank, with no serial number or bar code. That same form was sent to thousands of Afghan citizens, he said.
“What do you think happened when these people received a document like this that has no name? Of course, they printed out a thousand copies,” Fox said.
“You have tens of thousands of Afghans who now have this kind of ridiculous, bogus document that the State Department created,” he continued. I don’t know how else to explain something like this except for brain worms. I mean, it’s absurd. What were they thinking?”
Because the forms are blank, it is impossible for U.S. officials to tell which ones are legitimate and which ones were photocopied, a former FBI special agent told the Washington Examiner.
“When you provide blank visas without specific names already on them and without going through the vetting process, don’t be surprised when you end up with ISIS or al Qaeda showing up with those visas in hand,” Kenneth Gray said.
Gray said these blank visas raise concerns about the U.S.’s ability to thoroughly vet Afghan refugees seeking access to the U.S.
“It’s the entry of al Qaeda and Islamic State in the groups of refugees that are being taken out of Afghanistan and possibly to the United States because of the lack of vetting procedures that would normally go on to expedite getting all of these people out of Afghanistan,” he said.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed that it had sent out travel documents to Afghan citizens but did not address concerns that they had gotten into the hands of terrorists.
