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EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force Base

texmaster

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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.


Oh man does this look bad.

Its not altogether right now but how did this go under the radar so long?

FOXNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force Base
 
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Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

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.

Could just be an immigration thing, but still pretty ridiculous.

FWIW, I'd be more concerned by this:

"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."

Let me get this straight: We brought Afghani soldiers over here to train them, giving them ID cards that allowed them to enter secure locations. Over a 2 year period, 17 of them just disappeared. We're just getting around to distributing this information now?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

I don't see why this is so concerning. They probably lived here for a bit and decided "Holy crap this is WAY better than that ****hole we came from. I'M STAYING F YOU GUYS."
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

WELCOME TO OBAMALAND AMERICA.

Oh and here, take the Security Passes to our most sensitive installations

Of all the blithering stupidity.

Who is the crass idiot who authorized this?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

WELCOME TO OBAMALAND AMERICA.

Oh and here, take the Security Passes to our most sensitive installations

Of all the blithering stupidity.

Who is the crass idiot who authorized this?

This program is, according to the article, at least 2 years old. Now, who was the president 2 years ago? I wonder....

So, before people turn this into some stupid partisan crap, it's serious. Things went wrong, they went wrong under Bush, they went wrong under Obama. There are more important things than pointing fingers at people who probably did not even know about the program.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

This program is, according to the article, at least 2 years old. Now, who was the president 2 years ago? I wonder....

So, before people turn this into some stupid partisan crap, it's serious. Things went wrong, they went wrong under Bush, they went wrong under Obama. There are more important things than pointing fingers at people who probably did not even know about the program.

Whew. That was close. We almost agreed.

Someone should pay the price now though. I'm not talking about presidents, just whomever was in charge of the information and the security.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Whew. That was close. We almost agreed.

Someone should pay the price now though. I'm not talking about presidents, just whomever was in charge of the information and the security.

Yes, right. Mistakes where made, and those mistakes will have to be rectified, and some one at some point made a stupid decision and it needs to cost. Since we are dealing with the military, that is almost certain to happen. My immediate concern however is finding the 17 people.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Is it a large scale terrorist plot or people not wanting to go back to the waste bin that is Afghanistan?

They didn't factor in culture shock when they brought the Afghans over did they? Maybe they're doing some form of Rumspringa.

Hope they get found, and soon.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

While problematic, I don't see a huge security threat. Common Access cards are merely a root certificate of trust, they don't get you into a secure facility unless you have been specifically cleared for that location. Human errors were obviously made, but the system itself is still intact.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Yes, right. Mistakes where made, and those mistakes will have to be rectified, and some one at some point made a stupid decision and it needs to cost. Since we are dealing with the military, that is almost certain to happen. My immediate concern however is finding the 17 people.

Well of course finding the people is the immediate conscern....

Oh SH@#

a_61.jpg
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

These guys are all working at Wal-Mart or something and happily munching on cheeseburgers while watching HBO. I'm not particularly concerned about a security threat. These guys are our allies, remember?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

These guys are all working at Wal-Mart or something and happily munching on cheeseburgers while watching HBO. I'm not particularly concerned about a security threat. These guys are our allies, remember?

Then why don't they step forward?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Then why don't they step forward?

At a guess, because they would be escorted out of the country. The article suggests that this may be an immigration thing, that is, the Afghani's don't want to leave, so they go AWOL. Of course, until they are found, we cannot assume that, since there is a real security risk with them.
 
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Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Then why don't they step forward?

...that would end the cheeseburger and HBO part.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Now the idea of finding just 17 guys out of a pool of what? some 20,000,000 illegal immigrants? No problem right?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

While problematic, I don't see a huge security threat. Common Access cards are merely a root certificate of trust, they don't get you into a secure facility unless you have been specifically cleared for that location. Human errors were obviously made, but the system itself is still intact.

You don't see a security threat?

17 Afghan citizens borught to the US to be taught military operations. That is not a security threat?

How do you figure that one?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

You don't see a security threat?

17 Afghan citizens borught to the US to be taught military operations. That is not a security threat?

How do you figure that one?

He was referring to their ability to get into secured military facilities.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

He was referring to their ability to get into secured military facilities.

That, and these guys were on our side. People go AWOL because they don't want to fight anymore, not because they want to attack the country they're AWOL from. These guys weren't random grunts, they were training to be pilots.
 
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Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

That, and these guys were on our side. People go AWOL because they don't want to fight anymore, not because they want to attack the country they're AWOL from. These guys weren't random grunts, they were training to be pilots.

That makes an assumption that is not necessarily true. The potential exists, however small, that they are AWOL planning some nefarious act. They are probably AWOL in an attempt to stay in the US, but it's best to not assume that.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

That makes an assumption that is not necessarily true. The potential exists, however small, that they are AWOL planning some nefarious act. They are probably AWOL in an attempt to stay in the US, but it's best to not assume that.

My point is that there's no particular need to freak out about these guys.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

My point is that there's no particular need to freak out about these guys.

Not for you or I, no. The government should be putting a significant effort into finding them however. Freak out, no, be concerned, yes.
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

My point is that there's no particular need to freak out about these guys.

Any more than the need to freak out over those guys who came to the US to initially learn how to handle aircraft?
911 ring a bell?

It would be kind of ironic if a Bush action in having these guys do training within the US, resulted in something very similar.
 
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Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

Of the 13 Afghans who have been found, one is a conditional resident alien and four have removal proceedings from the U.S. pending, Smith said. Two others are permanent residents in Canada and six have pending refugee claims, also in Canada, he said.

This is a little confusing.

One is a "conditional resident alien," meaning that somehow he's gained some form of documentation from our immigration system despite being AWOL from the base? Similarly, four others were picked up in unrelated matters and had removal proceedings pending, but the government never put two and two together and figured out that they were part of the AWOL group? Moreover, without papers, how did eight of them get to Canada?
 
Re: EXCLUSIVE: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force B

This program is, according to the article, at least 2 years old. Now, who was the president 2 years ago? I wonder....

So, before people turn this into some stupid partisan crap, it's serious. Things went wrong, they went wrong under Bush, they went wrong under Obama. There are more important things than pointing fingers at people who probably did not even know about the program.

Pssh, shows what you know.

Obama was in charge on these things way before he was president.
Crazy liberals. :2razz:
 
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