The Justice Department announced charges Tuesday against an Afghan immigrant who allegedly appeared in a TikTok video threatening a suicide attack to kill Americans.
Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, 30, was caught on the video delivering a diatribe against “infidels,” saying he would build a bomb to kill Americans in the Dallas area, the FBI said.
He specifically threatened to kill two men he was communicating with in the video. Then, when one of them asked why he came to the United States in the first place, he said it was to carry out a suicide attack on Americans.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Mr. Alokozay was admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration.
His arrest follows the shooting ambush last week on two National Guard troops patrolling near the White House. That has been blamed on an Afghan migrant who was part of the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 airlift.
One of the two guard troops has died, while the other remains in the hospital, though his condition is improving.
The shooting spurred calls for stricter vetting of migrants from certain countries, as well as demands to crack down on the tens of thousands of Afghans who arrived in the U.S. during the Biden administration.
Ms. Bondi said the new arrest fuels worries about who made it into the U.S.
“The public safety threat created by the Biden administration’s vetting breakdown cannot be overstated – the Department of Justice will continue working with our federal and state partners to protect the American people from the prior administration’s dangerous incompetence,” Ms. Bondi said Tuesday.
An FBI agent, in court documents, said Mr. Alokozay gestured “angrily” and spoke in Dari, a common language in Afghanistan, as he delivered his threats. He was using a smartphone with a camera while sitting in a vehicle.
He is heard speaking with two other men in a TikTok group video.
The FBI agent said Mr. Alokozay said he would build a car bomb to carry out an attack and specifically referenced a “particular yellow cooking oil container” that was popular among Taliban insurgents for building improvised explosive devices.
“Alokozay claimed the Taliban were dear to him,” Special Agent Justin Killian said in the criminal complaint.
Mr. Alokozay also said in the video that he was not afraid of being deported.
Agent Killian interviewed Mr. Alokozay last week and said the Afghan man admitted to being the person in the video, captured on Nov. 23. He said he learned the next day that it had been shared on social media. He then tried to delete the TikTok app from his phone.
He is charged with making a threatening communication through interstate commerce.
“Thanks to public reports of a threatening online video, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force apprehended this individual before he could commit an act of violence,” said Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office.
