This Might Be Legitimate, But It Is Still Scary

Yesterday Just the News reported that an Afghan refugee at Ramstein Air Base in Germany boarded a plane headed for America with blasting caps and other explosives materials in his carry-on luggage. The article explains that he was not a terrorist–he was working as contractor for the U.S. government when he was evacuated, and officials believe the materials were related to his work and not terrorism. Okay, but how did he get the explosive materials into Ramstein Air Base?

The article reports:

“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 TSA memo stated. The explosives were taken outside the hangar, an ordinance team was summoned and the man removed from the entry line from the flight, the memo stated.

Though the man wasn’t suspected of ill intent, the incident is a poignant reminder that the rushed evacuation and processing of refugees from a country with significant terrorist sympathies poses risks, although officials stressed the pre-flight screening did in fact work as it should.

It was not immediately clear how the man got the explosive materials inside Ramstein, but officials said they were working on the hypothesis that he had brought them with him from Afghanistan during his evacuation.

Officials said the Pentagon was taking the lead investigating since the episode occurred on a U.S. military installation. The FBI, Customs Border Protection, TSA and Homeland Security were assisting the investigation.

This really defies logic. We evacuated thousands of Afghans from Afghanistan without vetting them thoroughly, while according to some sources leaving behind many of the people who helped us. We really have no idea who we evacuated, and it’s not like we can call up the Afghan government and ask about the people we are not sending to America. To say that the entire operation of ending the war in Afghanistan was botched is a great understatement. The people who planned the evacuation need to be unemployed quickly.