View Full Version : Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force Base
variablebinary
06-17-10, 18:33
This sounds like the best idea ever playing out
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/17/afghan-military-deserters-missing-air-force-base/
A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned.
The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com.
The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.
"I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute," said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. "They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months."
Each Afghan was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they "could attempt to enter DOD installations," according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.
"The visas issued to these personnel have been revoked, or are in the process of being revoked. Lookouts have been placed in TECS," it reads.
Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), which is shared by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is a computer-based database used to identify people suspected of violating federal law.
Included in the bulletin are photos of the 17 men, accompanied by their dates of birth and their TECS Lookout numbers.
The bulletin requests, "If any Afghan pictured herein is encountered, detain the subject and contact your local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, the FBI or NCIS."
A senior Defense Department official in Washington told Fox News he had no direct knowledge of the 17 men being AWOL. The official added that this is not the first time foreign trainees have gone missing, and said some cases in the past have turned out to be more of an immigration concern than a national security threat.
The FBI and NCIS did not respond to requests for comment. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman referred FoxNews.com to the FBI.
How about putting their faces on TV and putting out a reward? 2 years seems like a long time to be putting out an alert now.
they will blend in well around those parts unfortunately. maybe they will shake down some illegals on the witch hunt. :)
Belmont31R
06-17-10, 19:06
This is as dumb as giving visas and citizenship to a bunch of Iraqis when I was there last in 2006. Every one of them was begging our CO for a letter of recommendation. Even the one terp who ended up in prison for spying on us to the insurgents.
I just love the fact our country is hell bent on importing the entire 3rd world to our country. Id say we might as well not even worry about a border but we already don't apparently.
Whoever is running the show is an idiot.
ICANHITHIMMAN
06-17-10, 21:04
WTF realy??? I am not supprised they where our guest not our prisioners and the fact is to hold an Afghan to our standards is redickulous if not impossable!
Anyone remember when 4 Arabs just walked out of the detention center in Bagram???
Check the local strip clubs, cat houses, and casinos.
Thomas M-4
06-17-10, 21:43
Check the local strip clubs, cat houses, and casinos.
That^^^ :D
It seems like everybody is airing the dirty laundry while the oil spill is going on. Or is it just me.:(
Knowing our government, we probably gave them credit cards.
The politicians in Washington are giving this country away to whoever comes and gets it and that just makes me sick.
rickrock305
06-17-10, 22:46
on the face of it, this seems amazingly stupid.
Call me an optimist but they probably ate some fast food and saw some big titties and didn't want to go back home :D
Don Robison
06-18-10, 16:19
Whoever is running the show is an idiot.,
In my experience the State Department supplies a handler for them; many of the handlers are very good. Some of them border on being the most incompetent people on earth.
Knowing our government, we probably gave them credit cards.
Worse; cash, the ones I have been involved with were given 60-90 days per diem up front. They usually skimp on anything they can to either take as much home with them as possible or to take a "vacation" to visit family in the states. It's the most money they've ever seen. Depending on their location a month's per diem can be equal to a years salary for them. The last guy we had go "missing" was found at home about a month after he went missing. He visited family in the U.S. and Canada and then changed his ticket and flew home. He went missing after he completed training and was waiting the weekend out to fly home. In general, they have no concept of a schedule or time for that matter.
That's what cracks me up, anyone who has been to Afghanistan or Pakistan probably knows that "date of birth" is usually more of a guesstimate, and that's a guesstimate in years or decades, not of months or days. They laugh about it, they think we're the insane ones. Many of the younger people in Pakistan have accurate birth dates, or at least birth years, but 30+, forget about it.
Afghanistan used to issue passports under a system resembling honorary college diplomas.
Apparently they've tracked down 7 of them and only 10 are missing still. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/18/exclusive-undetermined-number-afghan-military-members-awol-air-force-base/
Ten of 17 Afghan military deserters who walked away from a training program on a U.S. Air Force base in Texas remain at large, sources close to the situation told Fox News on Friday, and seven of the men have been accounted for.
The 17 deserters went AWOL from Lackland Air Force Base, where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, according to a "Be-on-the-Lookout" (BOLO) bulletin issued on Wednesday.
Sources said that as of November 2009, one of the deserters was in Canada, one is now a lawful permanent resident in the U.S., one has left the country and another four are in federal custody and in removal proceedings. The other 10 remain unaccounted for.
On Wednesday night, the BOLO bulletin listing all 17 deserters was distributed to local and federal law enforcement officials and joint terrorism task force members across the country.
The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," written by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas and obtained by FoxNews.com.
The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.
"I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute," said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. "They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months."
The most recent Afghan to disappear from Lackland was First Lt. Javed Aryan, who went AWOL in January 2010, Emery told FoxNews.com. The others listed in the NCIS report disappeared at various times last year.
Each of the missing Afghans was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they "could attempt to enter DOD installations," according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.
"The visas issued to these personnel have been revoked, or are in the process of being revoked. Lookouts have been placed in TECS," it reads.
Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), which is shared by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is a computer-based database used to identify people suspected of violating federal law.
Afghans are not the only foreign military who have gone AWOL from Lackland, Emery said.
"In 2009, the Defense Language Institute English Language Center reported two other students from countries other than Afghanistan went missing," he told FoxNews.com. "They include one Iraqi who requested asylum in Houston and one Djiboutian whose status is unknown. To date in 2010, one student from Tunisia and one from Guinea Bissau have gone AWOL in addition to the Afghani student [Aryan] who went AWOL in January.
"To put these numbers in perspective," Emery said, "more than 3,400 international students entered training at DLI in 2009, including 228 from Afghanistan."
A senior law enforcement official said Friday that the Afghans' disappearance was more of an immigration violation than a security threat, saying there are no "strong indications to any terrorism nexus or impending threat."
"A number of these guys have already been located or accounted for by now," the official said. "Some are in removal proceedings to be deported already. (Authorities) still need to locate the others, and that is why the bulletin went out."
The official said the information is "kind of old" -- up to two years -- but added, "It is important in the sense that some people look to come to the U.S. and will take advantage of invitations to train or attend a conference or to study, etc. But their real intention is to get to the U.S. and start a new life. It is not completely rare for this to happen....
"Although we are vigilant and need to work toward not allowing this to happen," the official said, this alert should "not necessarily" be described as "a national security threat, more of a 'hey these guys violated our laws and we need to find them.'"
Fox News has obtained an excerpt from internal emails within law enforcement community relating to the AWOL Afghan soldiers. One email says, in part:
"I just talked to [a special agent] who explained the list was created by him and [another agent]. Both agents compiled the list to identify to the intelligence community the small number of Afghans that have deserted after attending the Defense Language Institute, which is often known as DLI, in San Antonio. They hoped to ensure that anyone who encountered these individuals would be properly notified. The list was created from those who came to the U.S. as far back as 1999, so they did not come in one group. None of the people on this list was identified as having any derogatory information regarding being a national security threat. It is suspected that a small number of those who come to the [DLI] decide to try to make a better life for themselves here so they desert."
Included in the bulletin are photos of the 17 men, accompanied by their dates of birth and their TECS Lookout numbers.
Click here for the names of the 17 Afghan military members named in the alert.
The bulletin requests, "If any Afghan pictured herein is encountered, detain the subject and contact your local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, the FBI or NCIS."
On Friday, ICE released this statement:
“A routine bulletin was created to inform the U.S. law enforcement community about 17 Afghan soldiers who have deserted in recent years while attending language training at the Defense Language Institute facility in Texas. There is no information that any of these individuals pose a national security threat. Previous indications are that such foreign military deserters typically do so solely for prospects of a better life. This type of bulletin serves to identify foreign military deserters, request investigative leads, and enable ICE to take appropriate enforcement action.”
"When a DLI student goes missing," Emery said, "officials report the incident to the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the sponsoring service branch. Invitational Travel Orders, passports, driver licenses, and airline tickets are revoked in order to hamper travel opportunities for the missing students."
On Friday, Texas Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to the secretary of the Air Force demanding answers on the current status of the AWOL Afghans, which he called a breach of national security. Cornyn, a Republican, asked Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley for an immediate report on the status of the missing men and an assessment of the potential threat to citizens of Texas. He demanded to know why he was not informed about the missing Afghans over the course of the last two years.
The FBI and NCIS did not respond to requests for comment. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman referred FoxNews.com to the FBI.
thopkins22
06-26-10, 11:16
Fox News is reporting that these guys are on Facebook and up in Canada.
It's up to 46 AWOL now, 21 last year alone, and one of them hopped the wire last Thursday (no, that isn't a typo). Maybe we can get some of them back over here as Escape and Evasion instructors?
"FoxNews.com has learned that five of these Afghan deserters remain at large; eight are in custody; at least 18 are in Canada and one has been granted conditional U.S. residency. The most recent to disappear fled the Texas base just last Thursday, hours after his graduation ceremony."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/07/exclusive-number-of-awol-afghans-reaches-46/?test=latestnews
I might be missing something, but what is the point of flying all those people here to learn English?
Seems like it would be cheaper to fly an English teacher there.
I might be missing something, but what is the point of flying all those people here to learn English?
Seems like it would be cheaper to fly an English teacher there.
But then the teacher might take their per diem money and escape from the base to go live a life of luxury in Afghanistan. :D
I clearly did not think this through, which is why I need the Obama administration to think for me.
ChicagoTex
07-10-10, 02:15
I might be missing something, but what is the point of flying all those people here to learn English?
Seems like it would be cheaper to fly an English teacher there.
Not really, as that english teacher would have to be housed, fed, and secured on the government's dime.
Someone's gotta be flown halfway across the world either way, but the American Arabic instructor has higher standards of living and expectations of pay (particularly for traveling and staying halfway across the world).
I might be missing something, but what is the point of flying all those people here to learn English?
Seems like it would be cheaper to fly an English teacher there.
They have been doing this for decades. They have been running English language programs for friendly militaries for decades and the Afghans are just the next in line to take part in the programs.
When traveling (driving the whole day) a few weeks ago I listened to a book on CD about a guy in the Vietnamese Air Force back in the late 60s and early 70s. He came to the US to Texas to one of these schools back in that time to learn English with a group of Vietnamese military.
They have the facilities, faculty, etc all there in one place. And part of the learning, based on what this Vietnamese guy said, was immersion. They would take field trips to various places around town, the state, etc and get English immersion. Probably works a lot better than sending some one there.
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