Afghan national arrested for allegedly plotting ISIS-inspired Election Day terrorist attack

The FBI arrested a man from Afghanistan who was allegedly planning an Election Day terrorist attack in the U.S.

Federal prosecutors charged Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi with planning the attack in support of ISIS. He was arrested Monday in Oklahoma City. According to court records, he made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday, but did not enter a plea. He remains in custody.

According to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, Tawhedi and unnamed co-conspirators — including a juvenile who is Tawhedi’s brother-in-law — were followers of ISIS and took steps to carry out their attack in the U.S., including by trying to sell their family home, relocate their families abroad and purchase firearms and ammunition.

“Their ultimate aim was to stage a violent attack in the United States in the name of and on behalf of ISIS,” prosecutors wrote. 

Twenty-seven-year-old Tawhedi traveled to the U.S. in September 2021, days after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, and the criminal complaint said he is “currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings.”

The complaint also said that Tawhedi came to the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa, but on Wednesday, a Department of Homeland Security official said that contrary to the information in the complaint, he did not have this visa.

Instead, Tawhedi was paroled into the country, like most Afghan evacuees, and allowed to live in the country temporarily under that immigration authority, the official said. He did apply for an SIV, available to those who assisted American forces, and had his case approved initially, though he never received a green card or permanent U.S. residency. His green card application is pending. The green card application is likely to be denied due to his criminal arrest and charges. If he’s found guilty and is released from federal criminal custody in the future, he’d face deportation as a national security threat — a priority for removal under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Tawhedi was initially paroled into the U.S. on Sept. 9, 2021, and currently has a pending application for lawful permanent resident status based upon an approved petition for an Afghan SIV, according to the DHS official.

The U.S. offers Special Immigrant Visas to individuals who worked with the U.S. armed forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter in either Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

CBS News has asked the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department for clarification about Tawhedi’s immigration status.

Electronic records accessed by the FBI showed Tawhedi allegedly viewed ISIS propaganda and contributed about $540 in cryptocurrency to a charity in Syria “which fronts for and funnels money to ISIS.”   

Federal investigators allege Tawhedi searched for access to surveillance and security cameras in Washington, D.C., and checked webcams showing the White House and Washington Monument in late July. They also believe Tawhedi was seeking out places in which gun laws were more lax. 

Federal investigators said they sent a confidential human source and later an undercover FBI agent to secretly interact with the men as they sought to sell their home and other possessions on Facebook and purchase weapons.

In a Sept. 21 message to a person allegedly associated with terrorist activity, Tawhedi said he had purchased two kalashnikov rifles and ordered 500 bullets. 

“What do you think, brother? Is it enough or should we increase it,” the Telegram message said. 

In subsequent messages, Tawhedi said his father-in-law’s house had sold for $185,000, and they would receive the funds by Oct. 15. He also asked for help in resettling his family, which included his mother-in-law, wife, their young daughter and five of his wife’s siblings, in Afghanistan. Tawhedi purchased one-way plane tickets for the family to travel to Kabul on Oct. 17. 

“After that we will begin our duty, God willing, with the help of God, we will get ready for the election day,” Tawhedi wrote. 

According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi and his brother-in-law received two AK-47 rifles on Monday, shortly before their arrest.

Tawhedi told investigators during a post-arrest interview that they had purchased the weapons to carry out an attack on Election Day and target large gatherings of people, during which they “expected to be martyred,” the complaint says. 

In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was “proud of the men and women of the FBI who uncovered and stopped the plot before anyone was harmed.” 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people.”

National security and intelligence officials have for months warned of a more complex and dangerous threat landscape. Last year, Wray told Congress, “The terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level.” 

An attorney for Tawhedi did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment on the charges. 

Camilla Schick

contributed to this report.