1
00:00:04,879 --> 00:00:07,160
Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to

2
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,640
this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon

3
00:00:09,679 --> 00:00:12,519
to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you

4
00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,719
want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

5
00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,719
my daily show prep with all of the links, become

6
00:00:18,719 --> 00:00:22,359
a patron, go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you

7
00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:24,920
hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right

8
00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:27,320
to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so

9
00:00:27,399 --> 00:00:30,480
much for your support. All Right, So I was on

10
00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:36,520
vacation last week, but I was following, obviously the news

11
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:41,439
about the two National guardsmen that were shot in Washington,

12
00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:45,719
d C. One of whom passed away Army specialist Sarah Beckstrom.

13
00:00:46,039 --> 00:00:51,280
This was the day before Thanksgiving. The other victim, air

14
00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:55,840
Force staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf. I think I saw the

15
00:00:55,920 --> 00:01:01,320
latest report yesterday was that he that he was awake,

16
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:07,400
He is in critical condition, he remains hospitalized, and so

17
00:01:07,519 --> 00:01:12,640
that's good news. The suspect, a fellow by the name

18
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:18,400
of Rachmana la lacha laawah. I think is how he

19
00:01:18,439 --> 00:01:26,480
pronounces all of that, lakhanwa, lakanawa, lachanwaw Lackenwow, there we

20
00:01:26,519 --> 00:01:31,760
go that's probably yeah, that's probably it. He He was

21
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,439
charged with murder as well as assault with intent to

22
00:01:34,519 --> 00:01:38,560
kill while armed. He's twenty nine years old. He's been

23
00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,319
ordered held without bond. During an initial court appearance that

24
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,840
happened yesterday, he appeared virtually he was not there in

25
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,840
the courtroom because he's still in the hospital because he

26
00:01:49,959 --> 00:01:54,840
got shot by law enforcement that was responding to his

27
00:01:55,560 --> 00:02:00,519
murdering of Army Specialist Ecstrum, twenty years old, and the

28
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:05,239
attempted murder of Air Force Sergeant staff Sergeant Wolf. The

29
00:02:05,439 --> 00:02:09,680
magistrate judge that's overseeing the initial appearance said, or that

30
00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:12,280
did oversee the initial appearance, said that the government's case

31
00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:18,680
was quote exceedingly strong. According to the charging documents in

32
00:02:18,759 --> 00:02:23,840
the District of Columbia Superior Court, lock Awhall allegedly yelled

33
00:02:24,759 --> 00:02:29,120
a Loha snack bar or something that sounded something like that.

34
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,080
It could be a llahu akbar, could also be that,

35
00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:40,560
in which case we may never know the motive. It's

36
00:02:40,719 --> 00:02:47,360
just a it's an enigma wrapped in a mystery, embedded

37
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,280
in a riddle as to what may have motivated this guy.

38
00:02:53,159 --> 00:02:59,560
As he was screaming, Allahu akbar, this is from CBS

39
00:02:59,599 --> 00:03:03,680
news dot com and they helpfully point out that the

40
00:03:03,719 --> 00:03:10,120
phrase allahau wak bar is Arabic for God is great, see,

41
00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:12,719
and that's really all you need to know about that phrase.

42
00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:19,879
There's no other uh, no other uh context provided nothing

43
00:03:19,879 --> 00:03:23,639
else here from this uh you know Firefighter of Democracy

44
00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:27,800
that's reporting the story at CBS News. Uh. This has

45
00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,400
been going on for twenty five years, almost twenty five years,

46
00:03:31,439 --> 00:03:37,400
since nine to eleven, and since the latest phase, you know,

47
00:03:37,479 --> 00:03:42,479
bringing the Jihad to to the American shores. All of

48
00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,520
a sudden, we started hearing this phrase, a lahuak bar,

49
00:03:45,599 --> 00:03:50,159
a lahuac bars. People were, you know, beheading other people

50
00:03:50,879 --> 00:03:55,520
at the workplace or driving their vehicles through crowded streets

51
00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:00,039
during a parade. A lahaak bar, a lahauac bar. And

52
00:04:00,879 --> 00:04:05,039
we always got this same explanation and it has not changed.

53
00:04:07,439 --> 00:04:11,800
I've talked about this in different ways over the years.

54
00:04:12,319 --> 00:04:16,959
There are there are sort of templates that get written

55
00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:22,920
for stories that particularly for stories that have legs. As

56
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:26,759
we would say in the industry in journalism, a story

57
00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,199
has legs means that you can do a bunch of

58
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,879
different follow up stories to the initial report. Right, So

59
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,279
the story has legs, so it will keep on moving

60
00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:41,639
throughout subsequent news cycles. Right, and so when you write

61
00:04:41,639 --> 00:04:43,959
the first draft of the very first story, you know,

62
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,199
an event happens, and you're writing a story, you're going

63
00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,040
to use a lot of different words and to try

64
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,680
to explain what's happening. Right, You've you probably don't have

65
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:55,839
as much information because it's you know, a discrete event,

66
00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:58,759
and so you're just saying this thing happened, and so

67
00:04:58,839 --> 00:05:01,759
you have more space because you don't have a lot

68
00:05:01,759 --> 00:05:03,399
of details, So you have more space to try to

69
00:05:03,439 --> 00:05:06,319
explain the few details that you do have. But over time,

70
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,519
as the story keeps moving and you keep getting more

71
00:05:09,639 --> 00:05:14,040
additions to the initial story, you end up with sort

72
00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:20,800
of a distilled down boilerplate language template that you can

73
00:05:20,879 --> 00:05:26,199
then use in every other story subsequently. And that's how

74
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:30,720
narratives are calcified. That's how they stick. Okay, the initial

75
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,800
version of a story may take three paragraphs to describe

76
00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:36,480
the event, but by the time you're in week two

77
00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,920
or year four, those three paragraphs have now been distilled

78
00:05:40,959 --> 00:05:44,959
down into one or two sentences, and that becomes the truth.

79
00:05:45,319 --> 00:05:48,920
That's the template, and that is what has occurred with

80
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,920
a lahaakbar, which is the Arabic phrase for God is great,

81
00:05:54,319 --> 00:05:57,720
and that's it. You get no other context when we

82
00:05:57,759 --> 00:06:01,680
all know the context, right, we all understand what that means,

83
00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,240
but they don't want to say it. Well, why doesn't

84
00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:08,160
the media reporter here? Actually there's four reporters on this

85
00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:12,920
story from CBS News, four reporters and all they give

86
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,120
us is God is great and that's what all huakbar means?

87
00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,680
Does it mean anything else? Is there a context in

88
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:22,959
which somebody would be screaming it while they murder people?

89
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:28,000
I know that that is true. They do. There is

90
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:33,959
a connective tissue, if you will, that runs through attacks

91
00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,759
with this phrase. When people are launching attacks against other

92
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,120
people and they're screaming a lat houakbar, it speaks to motive.

93
00:06:43,199 --> 00:06:47,000
There's also another element to the story that I have

94
00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:51,519
not seen anybody reported reporting on. It's not in this story.

95
00:06:51,639 --> 00:06:57,600
Did you see any of the images from the crime scene.

96
00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:01,439
I'm not talking about the victims, talking about the suspect,

97
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,279
lock Awhaw. Did you see the picture of him being

98
00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:13,439
loaded into the ambulance? He was he was naked or

99
00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:15,319
darn close to it, I don't know. He may have

100
00:07:15,319 --> 00:07:18,560
been wearing like some jockeys or something, some briefs, I'm

101
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,319
not sure, but because it was like a drone or

102
00:07:22,759 --> 00:07:25,079
helicopter overhead and they were loading him in and he

103
00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:26,920
had no pants on and he had no shirt on,

104
00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:29,839
and people were like, why is he naked? Now, there

105
00:07:29,839 --> 00:07:33,959
could be an explanation like maybe somebody law enforcement was

106
00:07:33,959 --> 00:07:35,839
there and they wanted to make sure that the guy

107
00:07:35,839 --> 00:07:40,240
didn't have like a bunch of explosives strapped to his body. Now,

108
00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:42,079
why would you make that kind of why would you

109
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,439
leap to that kind of a conclusion, Right, couldn't you

110
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:46,759
just search him, just pat him down, make sure that

111
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:50,439
he doesn't have anything on him? Why would you have

112
00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:54,120
to strip him completely down in order to search for

113
00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:58,360
any weapons? And why would it be explosives per se? Well,

114
00:07:58,399 --> 00:08:00,160
that ties back to the use of the frame is

115
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,720
Allahu ak Bar meaning God is great, and that's all right,

116
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,839
there's something more to it. Or maybe they stripped him

117
00:08:07,879 --> 00:08:10,000
naked because they he had gotten shot and they were

118
00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,360
trying to, you know, perform all sorts of medical interventions

119
00:08:14,399 --> 00:08:17,360
to try to, you know, save his life, because that's

120
00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,040
what we do in the West. We shoot the suspects

121
00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,560
and then try to save their lives. So maybe that

122
00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:27,240
was it. Haven't seen any reporting on it. But there

123
00:08:27,279 --> 00:08:32,440
is another There is another potential explanation. See, when people

124
00:08:32,759 --> 00:08:39,080
yell Allahu akbar during the commission of a murderous rampage,

125
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,759
they believe that. Oftentimes they believe that after they die

126
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:51,480
in the assault, they will go immediately to a paradise

127
00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,360
where they get to have sex for the rest of

128
00:08:54,399 --> 00:08:58,720
their eternity. And so you want to be ready for

129
00:08:58,759 --> 00:09:03,039
when you roll in there. And this is actually pretty standard.

130
00:09:03,279 --> 00:09:06,879
People will get dressed up very nice or they strip

131
00:09:06,919 --> 00:09:08,840
down because they're like, you know, when I get there,

132
00:09:08,919 --> 00:09:14,639
I'm ready for action. Again, that's the connective tissue here

133
00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:19,440
to the allahuac bar phrase. But CBS doesn't tell you that.

134
00:09:19,639 --> 00:09:22,960
I'm telling you that I'm a giver. Here's a great idea.

135
00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:25,840
How about making an escape to a really special and

136
00:09:25,919 --> 00:09:29,080
secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive

137
00:09:29,159 --> 00:09:31,919
up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

138
00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,320
Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want

139
00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:37,879
to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends

140
00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:40,840
together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has

141
00:09:40,879 --> 00:09:43,639
the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with

142
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,879
your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled

143
00:09:46,919 --> 00:09:49,879
within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga

144
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,480
National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the

145
00:09:53,519 --> 00:09:56,639
heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville

146
00:09:56,639 --> 00:09:59,120
and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

147
00:09:59,279 --> 00:10:03,320
It's the perfec balance of seclusion and proximity to all

148
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:08,080
the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs,

149
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,840
Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables and your own private covered porch.

150
00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:16,159
Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas and a

151
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,279
great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville

152
00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,519
has the ideal spot for you for any occasion and

153
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,879
they have pet friendly accommodations. Call her text eight two eight, three, six,

154
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,879
seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is

155
00:10:30,919 --> 00:10:34,279
to offer at Cabins Offashville dot com and make memories

156
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,879
that'll last a lifetime. All right, back to the CBS

157
00:10:37,879 --> 00:10:41,519
story here about the National Guard shooting suspect who's now

158
00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,559
charged with murder. Being held without bond. Attorney General Pam

159
00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:51,039
Bondi said she's considering the death penalty for lock Amwall. Which, oh,

160
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:53,159
by the way, I did get a text from j

161
00:10:53,399 --> 00:10:57,879
T who says, Pete, you get ninety nine percent of

162
00:10:57,919 --> 00:11:01,639
these pronunciations correct. The one that I think you need

163
00:11:01,639 --> 00:11:04,960
a little help with, though, is mom dummy or at

164
00:11:05,039 --> 00:11:09,759
least I think that's correct. That's good to know, Thank you, JT.

165
00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:16,559
I appreciate that. After the shooting, sources told CBS News

166
00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:21,200
that Lockenwall served on a CIA backed operations team for

167
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:26,399
about eight years in Afghanistan and said he suffered from PTSD.

168
00:11:27,159 --> 00:11:31,279
He and his family fled Taliban threats in Afghanistan and

169
00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:34,080
were brought into the United States in twenty twenty one,

170
00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:39,000
and his asylum case was approved earlier this year. Over

171
00:11:39,039 --> 00:11:43,399
the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noms suggested that he

172
00:11:43,399 --> 00:11:47,519
could have radicalized after he came to the US. Emails

173
00:11:47,559 --> 00:11:52,559
obtained by CBS also indicate that Lockenwal's mental health had

174
00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:55,759
deteriorated in recent years, and that he had become more

175
00:11:55,840 --> 00:12:00,360
isolated and detached from his family. The Trumpet Minute stration

176
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,519
has cited the attack as reason to further expand its

177
00:12:03,559 --> 00:12:08,519
ongoing immigration crackdown, halting all visa and immigration processing for

178
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:13,240
Afghan nationals and ordering a review of green card cases

179
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:20,519
for immigrants from nineteen different countries. This from The New

180
00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:28,120
York Post. A leading national refugee agency, was warned multiple

181
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:37,120
times that this shooter was spiraling into mania and mental illness,

182
00:12:37,759 --> 00:12:43,519
beginning in twenty twenty three. Despite this, and an alleged

183
00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:48,240
failure to maintain his mandated contact with state social services,

184
00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:55,120
he still managed to win asylum in April of this year. So,

185
00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:59,200
once again, as Brett Winterbole would say, the system failed.

186
00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,960
A system failed, right, that's going to be the explanation

187
00:13:03,039 --> 00:13:05,799
for this. And I know right now there are you know,

188
00:13:05,879 --> 00:13:09,679
people trying to blame Joe Biden. Other people are trying

189
00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:13,399
to blame Donald Trump because you know, the guy fled

190
00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:18,960
Afghanistan during the calamitous fall as we as we left

191
00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:21,240
and we were trying to get everybody out and we

192
00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:26,279
couldn't vet everybody sufficiently. And they're like, this is on Biden.

193
00:13:26,759 --> 00:13:29,879
And then the Biden defender's like, nah uh, Trump drew

194
00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:34,919
up the plan and then h uh, he was here

195
00:13:34,919 --> 00:13:39,000
in America and he got his asylum approved in this

196
00:13:39,159 --> 00:13:43,679
year a couple months ago in April. So it's on Trump.

197
00:13:43,799 --> 00:13:48,039
So everybody's trying to blame like the President for this

198
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:53,159
guy being here and for his actions. But the mental

199
00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,159
health part of this is real, and I'm not saying

200
00:13:56,159 --> 00:13:59,200
that as like this guy, you know, if they put

201
00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:00,960
you know, they put him to death. Like I'm not

202
00:14:01,039 --> 00:14:04,480
going I'm not going to shed any tears for him

203
00:14:06,159 --> 00:14:08,639
because like the stuff that I've come across so far

204
00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:15,759
indicates that, yeah, like he he he was not assimilating.

205
00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:19,879
And I'm going to get into the CIA connection here

206
00:14:19,919 --> 00:14:23,919
as well. So he was supposed to be staying in

207
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:30,080
contact with state social services and he wasn't. He had

208
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,320
his his his handlers, the people that were here that

209
00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,879
were like helping him assimilate, an integrate or whatever, giving him,

210
00:14:37,919 --> 00:14:40,240
you know, access to the services and you know, lining

211
00:14:40,279 --> 00:14:43,639
them up with jobs to take and stuff that. Like

212
00:14:43,679 --> 00:14:46,200
they got emails that were like this guy is he's

213
00:14:46,279 --> 00:14:49,159
you know, the the cheese is sliding off the cracker

214
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:54,559
with this guy, but he still gets asylum. Why his

215
00:14:54,639 --> 00:14:58,879
behavior was so disturbing that a local community advocate reached

216
00:14:58,919 --> 00:15:02,440
out to a refugee organization for help. According to emails

217
00:15:02,799 --> 00:15:07,799
that the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants had and

218
00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:10,480
were apparently seen by the Associated Press. This is called

219
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:14,639
the us CRI, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

220
00:15:15,799 --> 00:15:19,840
One of the emails said, rachman Aha has not been

221
00:15:19,879 --> 00:15:24,120
functional as a person, father and provider since March of

222
00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:26,759
last year. This so that would have been twenty twenty three,

223
00:15:28,519 --> 00:15:30,159
So this has been going on for over a year.

224
00:15:30,919 --> 00:15:33,600
He quit his job that month and his behavior has

225
00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,919
changed greatly, said one community member. In January of twenty

226
00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:41,679
twenty four, the community member said he feared that Lackenwaal

227
00:15:41,919 --> 00:15:48,039
had become suicidal. He reportedly struggled to assimilate. He failed

228
00:15:48,039 --> 00:15:50,759
to hold down a steady job. He did not commit

229
00:15:50,799 --> 00:15:54,320
to learning English. He would go through periods of dark

230
00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:59,159
isolation and what they called reckless travel. He would spend

231
00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:04,000
weeks in a darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not

232
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:08,519
even his wife or his older children. If only there

233
00:16:08,559 --> 00:16:11,879
were signs, you know. Stories are powerful. They help us

234
00:16:11,919 --> 00:16:15,639
make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us

235
00:16:15,679 --> 00:16:18,600
to the people of our past while transcending generations. They

236
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,480
help us process the meaning of life, and our stories

237
00:16:21,519 --> 00:16:25,279
are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with

238
00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:28,440
Creative Video, started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill,

239
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,159
North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this

240
00:16:31,279 --> 00:16:35,519
valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality

241
00:16:35,559 --> 00:16:39,559
produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and

242
00:16:39,639 --> 00:16:42,279
dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of

243
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:46,279
the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed.

244
00:16:46,519 --> 00:16:48,440
Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be

245
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,720
ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your

246
00:16:50,759 --> 00:16:56,559
loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays,

247
00:16:56,639 --> 00:17:00,440
or just your family stories, all told through images. That's

248
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,720
what your photos and videos are. They are your life

249
00:17:03,879 --> 00:17:06,480
told through the eyes of everyone around you and all

250
00:17:06,519 --> 00:17:08,680
who came before you, and they will tell others to

251
00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:13,400
come who you are. Visit creativideo dot com. So the

252
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:18,880
New York Post reporting that the gunman who murdered a

253
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:22,880
National guardsman and attempted to murder a second the day

254
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,519
before Thanksgiving up in Washington, d C. Had all sorts

255
00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:31,680
of mental health problems. These periods of dark isolation, reckless travel,

256
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,200
as it was described, he would just take off driving

257
00:17:35,279 --> 00:17:38,480
during these manic episodes, he would take off in the

258
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:41,599
family car, drive non stop, leaving for up to two

259
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,279
weeks at a time on his own, going as far

260
00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:49,400
as Chicago or Arizona. The shooter also failed to stay

261
00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,279
in contact with the Washington State Department of Social and

262
00:17:52,319 --> 00:17:57,200
Health Services, which was required of him by the terms

263
00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:02,000
of his entry into the US. They did say that,

264
00:18:02,079 --> 00:18:04,680
you know, he would, for you know, a short period

265
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:06,240
of time, a couple of weeks, he would, you know,

266
00:18:06,319 --> 00:18:09,839
do the right things, but then he would descend again

267
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:14,799
into these manic episodes. In these emails that the Associated

268
00:18:14,799 --> 00:18:17,960
Press obtained, his when his wife would leave him with

269
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,000
the kids for a week while she traveled to visit relatives,

270
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:25,519
his children would go to school unwashed and in dirty clothes,

271
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:30,240
without having eaten well. The children's school raised concerns about

272
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,119
his behavior, and the family even faced eviction at one

273
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:36,599
point in twenty twenty three after months of not paying

274
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:47,039
the rent. Now the USCRI this the immigration relocation folks.

275
00:18:47,759 --> 00:18:49,799
They tried to visit him and his family back in

276
00:18:49,839 --> 00:18:54,680
March of twenty four, but it's unclear whether anybody reported

277
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,920
the mental distress to immigration authorities or to law enforcement.

278
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,599
Right so, there were all of these signs. Now, this

279
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,319
guy got into America along with his family because he

280
00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:12,240
worked with the CIA during the war in Afghanistan. He

281
00:19:12,279 --> 00:19:15,079
was a member of what is called a zero unit.

282
00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:21,759
I had never heard this term before, the zero unit.

283
00:19:22,559 --> 00:19:25,839
I'll tell you what that is here in a minute.

284
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:30,680
The Washington Post, they reported that he appeared to struggle

285
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:33,799
to adapt to his new circumstances and refused to take

286
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,839
many of the entry level jobs available to him as

287
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:42,000
a recent immigrant. These guys were elite soldiers who had

288
00:19:42,039 --> 00:19:44,920
a career and homes in Afghanistan, but when they came

289
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,000
here they lost everything. They're told, you need to work,

290
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,680
but they don't have the skills. This according to a

291
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,759
former senior Afghan commander now living in the US who

292
00:19:54,759 --> 00:19:58,240
did not know the shooter personally, but has extensive contacts

293
00:19:58,519 --> 00:20:02,319
in the Afghan refugee commute unity, including with other former

294
00:20:02,759 --> 00:20:07,279
zero unit fighters. This guy said quote, they're not ready

295
00:20:07,319 --> 00:20:15,119
to just integrate themselves into the community. Okay, well, I

296
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:19,039
feel like that's part of the deal though. Right, you're

297
00:20:19,039 --> 00:20:21,960
worried that you worked with the CIA, you worked with

298
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:26,039
the Americans, and so now you're worried that when the

299
00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:30,720
American When America leaves and the Taliban takes over again,

300
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,039
now you're worried that they're going to come after you

301
00:20:34,759 --> 00:20:39,720
in retribution for you going after them, right, so you flee.

302
00:20:40,319 --> 00:20:42,119
But part of that deal is that when you come

303
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:47,960
to America, you integrate into America. I don't know, like,

304
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:50,519
what did you think you were going to do when

305
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,240
we brought you here, that you were just going to

306
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,640
live on the dole not after work, or maybe like

307
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,559
continue to do these nighttime raids on behalf of the

308
00:21:02,599 --> 00:21:06,480
CIA against Americans or something like what exactly what were

309
00:21:06,519 --> 00:21:16,039
your expectations. They're just not ready to integrate into the community.

310
00:21:16,319 --> 00:21:20,119
So the zero units thousands of Afghans. This is, by

311
00:21:20,119 --> 00:21:23,079
the way, a story from NBC News back in twenty

312
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:28,519
twenty three. Okay, thousands of Afghans who fought under the

313
00:21:28,519 --> 00:21:32,160
command of the CIA for years and provided security for

314
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:38,160
American intel officers say they face a debilitating legal limbo

315
00:21:38,519 --> 00:21:41,759
in the US and are appealing to Congress and the

316
00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:47,119
Biden administration for help again twenty twenty three. August twenty ninth,

317
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,839
twenty twenty three, about ten thousand to twelve thousand members

318
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:56,920
of the Afghan National Strike unit, a clandestine force known

319
00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,400
as the Zero Units. They were evacuated from Afghanistan when

320
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:03,960
the US military withdrew from the country in August of

321
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,359
twenty twenty one, but their two year work permits in

322
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,680
the US are due to expire within days or weeks,

323
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,759
and these veterans worry they will no longer be able

324
00:22:15,839 --> 00:22:18,680
to support their families, and some worry that the work

325
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,559
they did for the CIA may even be hurting their

326
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:27,799
chances of getting green cards. So we brought them over

327
00:22:27,839 --> 00:22:31,279
here and just gave them a two year work permit.

328
00:22:32,799 --> 00:22:41,000
That's that was the plan. Nasir Adar, a veteran of

329
00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:45,200
the force, said his comrades are struggling with depression as

330
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,880
the clock ticks on their work permits. Quote, some of

331
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:51,640
them are feeling hopeless. They don't know what to do.

332
00:22:54,279 --> 00:22:57,640
This was two years ago. At least two veterans from

333
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,599
the CIA trained force have taken their own lives since

334
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,839
arriving in the US, according to Andar and other advocates

335
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:09,599
at Famil or Femil, the nonprofit that's trying to help

336
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:15,599
these Afghan veterans since they arrived. Most of the veterans

337
00:23:15,599 --> 00:23:19,960
of the force have not received special immigrant US visas

338
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:24,279
which were created for Afghans and Iraqis who worked for

339
00:23:24,319 --> 00:23:28,319
the US government. Without those visas, the veterans cannot apply

340
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:34,319
for Green cards, leaving them in a legal gray zone.

341
00:23:34,559 --> 00:23:43,640
So yet another way that the pullout of Afghanistan was botched. Like,

342
00:23:43,759 --> 00:23:48,640
that's what this is obviously telling me is that this

343
00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:51,920
is yet another example of how the Biden administration screwed

344
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,319
this up. Seriously, you were supposed to get one kind

345
00:23:55,319 --> 00:23:57,279
of visa, and you didn't get that kind of visa,

346
00:23:57,519 --> 00:23:59,799
so they just handed out work permits. And to be fair,

347
00:24:00,039 --> 00:24:02,519
the Biden administration was handing out work permits to like

348
00:24:02,599 --> 00:24:04,880
millions of people. So maybe they're just like, look, we

349
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:06,559
got all these extra work permits, We're just going to

350
00:24:06,599 --> 00:24:09,400
give them to you, you know. But the problem is

351
00:24:10,279 --> 00:24:13,559
that if you go to apply for the Green card

352
00:24:13,599 --> 00:24:17,599
and you start answering the questionnaire. One of the questions

353
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,240
is have you ever received any type of military, paramilitary

354
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:26,799
or weapons training? And you answer yes from your CIA,

355
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:34,319
and now your application just it just dies like nothing happens.

356
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,799
This is what they were saying. When they answer yes

357
00:24:36,839 --> 00:24:40,440
to that question and similar questions, their applications never seem

358
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:45,079
to advance through the bureaucracy. Advocates for the Afghan veterans

359
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:48,880
say the bureaucratic process has proven frustrating and that standard

360
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,799
questions for green card applications do not take into account

361
00:24:51,799 --> 00:24:58,359
their unusual circumstances having been drained by the CIA as operators, right,

362
00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:08,000
these are veterans. According to Geta Bekshi, a former CIA

363
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,599
officer who worked with the National Strike Unit in Afghanistan, said,

364
00:25:12,759 --> 00:25:15,559
these are veterans who should be celebrated in America. I

365
00:25:15,559 --> 00:25:18,400
could never have imagined that they'd be so disadvantaged by

366
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:25,279
our bureaucratic processes. Really, you never thought our bureaucracy at

367
00:25:25,279 --> 00:25:31,519
America would disadvantage people. This is America, like this is

368
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:36,319
It's pretty far for the course, I would think. Advocates

369
00:25:36,319 --> 00:25:38,720
for the Zero Unit veterans say they were heavily vetted

370
00:25:38,759 --> 00:25:42,359
before they even joined the force for any possible terrorism links,

371
00:25:42,519 --> 00:25:46,319
and regularly underwent security checks, a level of screening that

372
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,519
interpreters for the US military and other Afghan employees were

373
00:25:49,559 --> 00:25:55,839
never subjected to. And this raises there's a question about

374
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,359
you know, well, is this an example of what you

375
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,720
may remember was called green on blue attacks, where you

376
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,839
know people that were trained up by the US military

377
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,759
to be part of the Afghan army, and then they would,

378
00:26:09,799 --> 00:26:14,039
you know, go and attack the Americans green on blue attacks.

379
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,319
But according to this report, in the entire twenty year war,

380
00:26:20,319 --> 00:26:24,279
members of the zero Units never launched an attack on

381
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,119
their US advisors. They have no reported incidents of that

382
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,599
occurring with these Zero Unit guys. Such Green on Blue

383
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:36,279
attacks against Americans became frequent occurrences among Afghan recruits to

384
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,920
the army and to the police force, but never the

385
00:26:40,039 --> 00:26:42,920
Zero Units. All right, if you're listening to this show,

386
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:44,519
you know I try to keep up with all sorts

387
00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:46,559
of current events, and I know you do too, And

388
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,079
you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources.

389
00:26:50,559 --> 00:26:53,839
Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which

390
00:26:53,839 --> 00:26:56,759
is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's

391
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,319
an app and it's a website, and it combines news

392
00:27:00,319 --> 00:27:02,240
from around the world in one place so you can

393
00:27:02,319 --> 00:27:05,680
compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out

394
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:10,279
at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete. I put

395
00:27:10,319 --> 00:27:13,279
the link in the podcast description too. I started using

396
00:27:13,279 --> 00:27:16,200
ground News a few months ago and more recently chose

397
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,200
to work with them as an affiliate because it lets

398
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,799
me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.

399
00:27:22,079 --> 00:27:25,000
The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored

400
00:27:25,079 --> 00:27:28,000
by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check

401
00:27:28,079 --> 00:27:32,559
Dot Ground, dot News slash Pete. Subscribe through that link

402
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,519
and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use

403
00:27:35,559 --> 00:27:38,680
the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

404
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,640
Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it

405
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,839
also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape

406
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:51,920
more transparent. The Zero Units in Afghanistan, these guys were

407
00:27:52,039 --> 00:27:55,359
They were locals, They were Afghans. They were trained in

408
00:27:55,400 --> 00:28:00,519
the overseen by the CIA. They operated under a veil

409
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,440
of secrecy. During the war. They would conduct combat operations

410
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,960
and secure intelligence outposts. According to NBC News story from

411
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,960
two years ago, even now, US officials cannot explicitly acknowledge

412
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,440
the connection between the CIA and the Zero Units because

413
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:26,279
it's all still classified the force. The Zero Units played

414
00:28:26,279 --> 00:28:28,680
a crucial role in the US led effort to weaken

415
00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:32,160
al Qaeda after the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand

416
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,720
and one, and as its troop presence was scaled back,

417
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:40,119
the US increasingly relied on these Zero Units to safeguard

418
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,759
US and coalition personnel, including at the Kabl Airport in

419
00:28:44,799 --> 00:28:49,359
the final days of the twenty year US presence, So

420
00:28:49,519 --> 00:28:53,359
they were helping to provide the security at the airport

421
00:28:53,519 --> 00:28:57,480
that was then attacked and we lost thirteen service members. Right,

422
00:28:58,839 --> 00:29:03,920
the Zero Units have faced scrutiny over their operations. Human

423
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,359
rights organizations accused these troops of committing abuses and maybe

424
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:13,279
war crimes, including extra judicial executions, as well as at

425
00:29:13,319 --> 00:29:18,839
tax on medical facilities. However, Afghan veterans of the force,

426
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,799
as well as former CIA officers who worked with the

427
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,279
Zero Units, they say that's not true. They say the

428
00:29:25,359 --> 00:29:28,160
Zero Units were trained in the laws of armed conflict

429
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:33,119
and that each operation was carefully vetted beforehand. But some

430
00:29:33,319 --> 00:29:37,799
former CIA officers are worried that the allegations of abuses

431
00:29:38,079 --> 00:29:41,200
could undermine or delay the effort to resolve the legal

432
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,640
status of the Afghan veterans. So this has been going

433
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:50,319
on for four years. Right, These people who became part

434
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:57,599
of the CIA Zero Unit operators, they've been trying to

435
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,720
get their paperwork in order to remain and they've been

436
00:30:01,799 --> 00:30:06,960
unable to do so because of the federal government bureaucracy.

437
00:30:08,279 --> 00:30:11,799
CIA spokesperson said that there's a false narrative that exists

438
00:30:11,839 --> 00:30:14,799
about these forces that has persisted over the years due

439
00:30:14,799 --> 00:30:22,519
to a systemic propaganda campaign by the Taliban, which makes sense, right,

440
00:30:22,559 --> 00:30:26,200
if that's true, that makes sense. The Taliban would be

441
00:30:26,319 --> 00:30:29,319
very angry at the zero Units because the Zero Units

442
00:30:29,319 --> 00:30:32,359
were working with the CIA to take out the Taliban,

443
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,880
So that does make some sense. And of course anybody

444
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:41,519
who opposes, you know, the Afghan war, they would also then,

445
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,200
you know, want to believe that these allegations are true.

446
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:46,680
I don't know if they're true or not. I have

447
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:48,759
no idea how many zero units there are. All that

448
00:30:48,799 --> 00:30:51,960
stuff is classified, and the CIA is saying no, no, no,

449
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:54,240
they never did any of these abuses, nothing like that

450
00:30:54,279 --> 00:30:59,240
ever happened. And yeah, but you're the CIA, so like,

451
00:30:59,319 --> 00:31:02,160
I'm not really, I'm not really going to believe what

452
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:06,240
you tell me because you're the CIA. You guys are

453
00:31:06,319 --> 00:31:11,160
trained specifically to lie about things and to misdirect stuff.

454
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,000
So I don't know if that's true either. However, I

455
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:18,079
will point out against all of this backdrop that beginning

456
00:31:18,519 --> 00:31:25,279
December first, teachers and staff and even volunteers in North

457
00:31:25,319 --> 00:31:31,519
Carolina private schools are now allowed to conceal carry at

458
00:31:31,559 --> 00:31:35,359
the schools. This is a new state law that supporters

459
00:31:35,359 --> 00:31:39,119
say will enhance security. Critics say it'll endanger students. It

460
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,279
could endanger them. House Bill one ninety three became law

461
00:31:42,319 --> 00:31:46,960
back in July after the legislature overrode the governor's veto

462
00:31:47,119 --> 00:31:49,960
on this. This is not for public schools. This is

463
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,480
only for private schools. Right. The bill went into effect

464
00:31:53,559 --> 00:31:58,960
on Monday. The measure allows private schools to permit employees

465
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,839
and volunteers to carry concealed on campus. Proponents of this

466
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,920
bill said, look, these are small schools, they're private schools.

467
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,799
They cannot afford security, and so this is the only

468
00:32:11,839 --> 00:32:14,400
way that they're going to be able to provide armed

469
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:20,559
security on campus. Think in you know, Jewish schools, for example,

470
00:32:20,759 --> 00:32:24,920
might want to consider, you know, having some armed guards

471
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,200
at the school. It's very expensive. So if you can

472
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,279
get people to volunteer and theyre concealed carry permit holder

473
00:32:31,799 --> 00:32:36,119
and you put them through some extra training, right, You've

474
00:32:36,119 --> 00:32:38,720
got to have written authorization from the school's board of

475
00:32:38,759 --> 00:32:42,000
trustees or administrative director. You have to have a valid

476
00:32:42,039 --> 00:32:45,160
concealed handgun permit. You have to complete eight hours of

477
00:32:45,279 --> 00:32:50,119
annual training in gun safety and appropriate firearm use. And

478
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,000
that is in addition to what is already required to

479
00:32:53,079 --> 00:32:57,799
obtain the concealed carry permit. Right, and so this is

480
00:32:57,839 --> 00:33:01,200
a way that people said, look, we want to allow

481
00:33:01,279 --> 00:33:04,680
schools to provide this kind of security, and so this

482
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,160
was the way they went about doing it. A lot

483
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:10,200
of schools they're small, they only have a couple dozen students,

484
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,680
they don't have the money to hire professional security. The

485
00:33:13,759 --> 00:33:19,039
volunteer approach allows schools to enhance security without additional cost. Then,

486
00:33:19,079 --> 00:33:23,480
of course the gun control advocates, or as the WC

487
00:33:23,599 --> 00:33:26,319
and C report calls them, gun safety advocates, they say

488
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,519
there could be unintended consequences. Well, yes, as with all laws,

489
00:33:30,559 --> 00:33:33,759
I assume there could be. All Right, that'll do it

490
00:33:33,799 --> 00:33:36,440
for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I

491
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,599
could not do the show without your support and the

492
00:33:38,599 --> 00:33:41,680
support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, So

493
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:43,799
if you'd like, please support them too and tell them

494
00:33:43,839 --> 00:33:45,799
you heard it here. You can also become a patron

495
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:50,119
at my Patreon page or go to vpetecalanershow dot com. Again,

496
00:33:50,359 --> 00:33:52,880
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything

497
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:58,599
while I'm gone,