It’s a Gray Area

 

The DC Shooting

On November 26, 2025, an Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal shot two West Virginia National Guardsmen in Washington, DC. One of the soldiers has since died. The other may very well succumb to his wounds. Lakanwal was shot but is expected to recover and be tried for murder.

Let’s take stock of what we actually know about the assailant at this point.

Before coming to the United States, Lakanwal served in an Afghan unit affiliated with the Afghan Intelligence Service and the CIA. There were several of these units during our time in Afghanistan. Their job was to hunt down and kill or capture members of the Taliban fighting U.S. forces.

Embedded in these units were CIA paramilitary officers. These Ground Branch officers are typically drawn from military special operations units. They are seasoned professionals.

Afghans brought into these units were vetted and monitored. Given the nature of the operations of these Afghan units, it was imperative that the Taliban not be able to penetrate them and have warning of their activities. These CIA-led units were highly effective and feared by the Taliban.

When he fled Afghanistan, Lakanwal and his family were brought here as part of an effort to get “friendly” Afghans who had fought on our side in the war to safety. This was known as Operation Allies Welcome. He and his family were issued visas to enter the country. When those visas expired, the family was here illegally for several months until Lakanwal filed for asylum. He was granted asylum in April of this year. His request for permanent resident status in this country is technically still pending.

Lakanwal and his family, along with several hundred other Afghans, were ultimately settled in Washington State. For roughly two months, Lakanwal and his family lived in the private residence of a couple in Washington State. Contemporaneous press reports show the couple took in these Afghans as a gesture of support for a man they believed to be an ally, who had fought alongside our troops in the Afghan war.

At some point, Lakanwal, his wife, and children moved into an apartment in Bellingham, Washington. Press interviews with neighbors since the shooting suggest that Lakanwal had little interaction with the residents of the other apartments in the building. They also indicate that his apartment was very sparsely furnished and that when the windows were open, neighbors could see that Lakanwal and his family slept on couch cushions on the floor.

None of this changes the fact that Lakanwal drove to Washington, DC, and attacked two American soldiers. He should be tried. He should be convicted. He should be put to death forthwith.

It does, however, raise a whole bunch of interesting questions.

CIA has had a long history with resettling assets forced to flee countries abroad and start new lives here. CIA learned a long time ago that this was a complex process. It is one thing to spirit a man out of his country to safety. It is quite another thing for him to adapt, then integrate into American society, and move on with his life. In many cases, the individual who has been resettled becomes, over time, angry and isolated, and begins to feel betrayed by the men with whom he worked. He turns against us.

We know that, or at least we used to know that. Yet, apparently, based on what we understand right now, it appears we brought Lakanwal and, presumably, hundreds more like him into the United States, then cut them adrift, making no effort whatsoever to track them or prevent them from radicalizing and joining the other side.

Why?

We should also keep in mind that Lakanwal and the others from CIA-affiliated units were vetted before they came here. They were known quantities in that sense. Thousands more Afghans were loaded onto planes in the final days of the withdrawal and flown here without even rudimentary background checks.

Where are they now? What are they doing?

The answer is apparently no one knows, and no one is trying to find out. The FBI is now busy in Washington State, interviewing people about a crime that happened days ago. No one, it would seem, is doing anything to stop the crime that may occur tomorrow.

Critics will say that it is impossible to keep even a cursory tab on all these people, that we don’t have the resources. I agree that we have let in far too many individuals about whom we know virtually nothing. I would suggest, however, that if we are strapped for cash, we could start by cutting off the millions of dollars we still send to Afghanistan every month and put it toward preventing the next terrorist attack right here on American soil. We have, in total, sent close to $4 billion to the Taliban in one form or fashion since our withdrawal.

And, in the meantime, how about we get some answers to some fundamental questions, starting with – where are all the rest of these people?

Then/Now

MRSLL, who understands that I have more than a passing understanding of this process, asked me what was going on at Langley these days. She recalls when I dealt with some people not named here who were relocated from Afghanistan to the US after the US involvement there, when the Soviets were sent packing. She also mentioned Viktor Belenko (my best friend was his case officer when he defected in a MiG-25) and his period of acclimation when he arrived in the US, details of which she was familiar with. I explained that the CIA went from quite effective in handling this to a complete clusterfuck under Obama-Biden. Hiring practices changed, and a lot of the people who were worth a shit left.

Repairing the organic damage within CIA will take a generation if it can be repaired. People who still work there and shouldn’t be making hiring decisions are still doing so. Civil service rules and deep state connections make change difficult. That’s me being kind. The Eagles said it best.

 

Bullet Points:

** Al Gore, Call Your Office: We’re only two weeks away from the end of hurricane season, and for the first time in a decade, no hurricanes made landfall in the US, and there have been zero hurricanes in the Gulf. It prompted wags to say that, since Trump returned and renamed it the Gulf of America, even hurricanes are afraid to mess with America.

** I’ve noticed an uptick in UFO (now UAP) reports on Fox News. Musk said he has 5,000 satellites currently in orbit and hasn’t had any indication of otherworldly presence. When the USGOV wants the public distracted (see Tucker), it trots out an expert who has had access to classified information about UFOs but “can’t talk about it.”  I think that it’s bunk, but that’s just me.

** Make a profession of bull riding in Mexico!

** What about your life? What does your future hold? Explained here.

** Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter) introduced a new feature that reveals the nation or region where each account is located. For most of us, that’s no big deal, and it was initially supposed to be visible only to account holders. But on Friday night, whether by mistake or on purpose, it was made public, and suddenly users could see the locations of every account. It was as if someone switched on a kitchen light and sent hundreds of cockroaches scurrying for cover.

** The EBT attitude.

** (Bloomberg) Does the UK belong to the Red Chinese, or to Islam? (h/t Claudio) I don’t have an answer to the question. Is the UK a reliable ally to the USA? That’s a far stickier question, and my gut reaction is that there’s no way they can be. 007 died a long time ago.

** It’s the holiday season. Self-deport and spend the holidays with your own people.

** Nearly 100% of recent NGO grants, often linked to Ukraine, allegedly flowed back to politicians via consulting fees, board seats, and campaign contributions, with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) citing Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian dealings as a prime example.

** Kazakhstan’s general population does not share the same feeling of mutual support and goodwill as the authorities. Kazakh people have already expressed dissatisfaction with the intensified economic and political relations between Kazakh and Chinese officials, with fears of land acquisition, financial dependency, labor stratification, political influence, and concerns over the treatment of their ethnic kin in China.

** What if we had sucked it up and picked our own cotton?

** World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Chinese Communist Stooge) suggested in remarks on Tuesday to African and European leaders that “sudden and unplanned” spending cuts following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the U.N. agency were an “opportunity” for poorer countries to pursue sovereignty with the Red Chinese assisting them in their bid for freedom from oppression. There’s a mouthful.

** Sometimes it’s the one you don’t see coming.

** The Shooter in DC screamed “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire on the National Guard in front of the White House. He and his family were brought here after we fled Afghanistan, where he was working alongside our troops. He, his wife, his five kids, were transported here, fed, clothed, sheltered on the taxpayers’ dime, and this is what we get. 2 ACTUAL American servicemen on life support, just doing their duty in the Nation’s capital. I dunno about anyone else, but I have had it with this bullshit. Raise the drawbridge and let’s sort our own shit out. DEPORT anyone here illegally – it’s a no-brainer. ESPECIALLY if they are Islamists.

** Transport American career criminals to Uganda and leave them there to serve their sentences.

 

Somalia – Fun Facts

Nearly half of the Somali population is married family members, the national average IQ is 67, they’ve been in civil war for 40 years & the country is overrun with fraud, gangs, and tribal militias. Somalia consists of a web of clan-based divisions, as tribal militias and fraud networks run rampant in a country that has been at war with itself for nearly four decades. These are the refugees who have been resettled in Minnesota and are concentrated in Ilhan Omar’s district (also from Somalia). It would explain why Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) found nothing wrong with engaging in sexual congress with family members and marrying her brother.

About 49% of marriages in Somalia involve first- or second-cousins, meaning family members are having children with each other. This inbreeding is linked to a high risk of genetic disorders. Widely cited figures place Somalia’s average IQ at 67-68, falling below the 70 threshold for intellectual disability (retards). Fact-checks say environmental factors like malnutrition and war trauma contribute to the low IQ; however, the data persists in global assessments, raising concerns about Somalia’s economic self-sufficiency and its traditional education systems.

 

Frigates

Since the USN scrapped the Constellation Class Frigates (we will build the two we’ve started) based on the FREMM design, there is rampant speculation that the USN will adopt the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) Chungnam Class, with construction taking place primarily (initially) in the ROK.

The first half-dozen made in South Korea will likely be cookie-cutter copies, with some US systems replacing ROK systems in the construction. Hulls completed in the US would likely be variants. There are some significant advantages in doing this. Chungnam Class ships are being built in Korea now, and the lead time to deployment will be shorter than for the highly modified FREMM ships (Constellation Class). Personally, I prefer the Korean design, with its 126 mm gun. The newer designs coming out of the US may include more missile cells and other advantages, but having the Koreans make them for us gives us a jump start and helps the ROK.

Will the ROK swap for nuclear weapons and tech? Ah, the plot thickens. They do want their own nukes. I’ve talked to some very serious senior ROKN officers, and they REALLY wanted nukes under their own national command authority. Would they target Japan? The ROKs hate the Japanese for what the Japs did to them during WW2. They have a long memory. I spent time with the ROK SEALs – Squadron 56 in the old days, and the thought then was that while North Korea was a threat, they were Koreans. The Japanese, on the other hand, presented a butcher’s bill that was not fully addressed.

 

Nuclear Power Generation

There are many sorts of nuclear generators with different kinds of fuel (enriched uranium, natural uranium -possibly Thorium) and moderators – graphite, liquid sodium, deuterium, light water, etc. What about a natural uranium breeder reactor with a beryllium moderator?

This research explored a novel reactor design capable of hyper-breeding, potentially exceeding the performance of any previously evaluated design (fast or thermal). Reactor breeding estimates at power were predicted to exceed 1.55 (Hayes, 2006) using only natural uranium, making it of substantial interest for achieving a high-burnup fuel cycle. It has also been shown to operate only on natural uranium (NU) fuel, making it highly attractive from a non-proliferation and small modular reactor (SMR)/microreactor perspective. The breeding capability also allows for partial refuelling with depleted uranium (DU) with a new core burnup capability >3 GW yr (Hayes, 2007, 2008). Previous scoping calculations demonstrated great promise, having evaluated only metallic, unclad slab fuel geometries without accounting for material performance after irradiation or the thermal hydraulics of such a system. This work reviews the technical basis for a neutron economy, demonstrating how reactor physics considerations show that a heterogeneous configuration enables apparently drastic changes in reactor performance. These changes subsequently create the potential for application in SMR/microreactor technology, such that high-enriched, low-assay uranium (HALEU) and its associated inherent limitations may no longer be necessary. In addition, novel non-proliferation technology is considered, which could further mitigate closed fuel cycle models for this reactor concept by providing passive monitoring capabilities, thereby incorporating multiple layers of safety and security. Overall, the technology here argues for a novel set of technologies that make for passively non-proliferation-safe nuclear reactors. (more at the first link above)

 

Tiananmen Blowback

Some years following the Tiananmen Square insurrection in Beijing, I visited Red China as a foreign expert. Things were thawing, and while the People’s Liberation Army was STILL recovering from the disaster (in their eyes), China started to open to the West. I’ve discussed this on VM before, more than once, and don’t want to rehash my experiences in full or bore you, dear readers. My good friend, Claudio, brought up the issue of General Xu Qinxian in connection with the insurrection, so I’ll touch on it. As you will recall, Xu declined to mobilize the 38th Group Army, and the Party’s hardliners confronted a possibility more destabilizing than any street protest: that the most prestigious unit in the Beijing Military Region might refuse orders en masse or even fracture under moral pressure. The urgency with which Deng Xiaoping replaced him reflected not only strategic necessity but the recognition that a single hesitation from the wrong officer can unravel a political plan. Although the 38th ultimately participated in the operation, its prestige suffered a long, unspoken downgrade.

When I was in Beijing ten years later, the Public Security Bureau leadership showed me what they had built to prevent another Tiananmen Square uprising. They bought one million cameras from the Germans and placed them strategically around the city (The British Metropolitan Police in London later did the same thing). Monitoring a million cameras was a task, and they built a huge center in Beijing to handle that task. They showed it to me with great pride. They said that I was one of the first outsiders to see what they built.

In the photo (left), you see me standing in the command center on the third story, overlooking a vast array of screens behind me. I’m standing with senior PSB officers with their secret and uniformed heads on either side.

In addition to the cameras, they built garrisons for the People’s Liberation Army, which were spotted throughout the city. No longer would the army be expected to “march into Beijing” to restore order. They were organically spread around the city under separate commands. If a slaughter of dissidents was ordered, the shot callers in the Politburo expected the slaughter to take place.

Xu’s case was studied both inside and outside the Workers’ Paradise for the same reason. It is an indicator of PLA cohesion, highlighting potential fracture points in future crises involving Taiwan, internal unrest, or contested borders. Xu’s legacy forces strategists to consider that loyalty within the PLA is not monolithic but influenced by personal networks, institutional pressures, and individual judgment.

Even the fine details surrounding him carry weight. His replacement’s famous remark—that history would determine the cost of restoring order—suggested internal disagreement rather than triumph. Internal PLA documents that warn “not another Xu Qinxian” reveal how the system codifies its fears. In underground forums, he is remembered as “the general who did not fire,” a quietly circulating figure in Hong Kong in the 1990s who survives in places where the state cannot fully control memory.

The System views Xu Qinxian not as a rebel but as a reminder. His refusal illustrates that, within a system calibrated for perfect obedience, a single act of conscience becomes a strategic rupture. The PLA may dismiss him from its official narrative, but the possibility he revealed remains. His story shows that even in the most centralized and disciplined military structures, the most consequential word is sometimes a quiet and solitary “no.”

In addition to Xu, you will also recall the man carrying groceries who stopped a platoon of tanks. The Chinese tankers were ordered to roll over him and grease their treads with his blood, but they refused to do it. Things like that keep President Xi and the Politburo awake at night. It is the same dilemma as Antigone’s. Can we act according to our conscience and disobey iniquitous orders or laws? Totalitarianism erases all sense of humanity, allegedly. But what about when it doesn’t?**

Anecdotally, you may ask yourself what my expertise was that the Chinese felt they needed. I taught CHINESE Money Laundering investigation at the People’s Public Security University in Beijing.

** Antigone is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, first performed around 441 B.C. The play centers on Antigone, who defies her uncle, the king of Thebes, Creon, by burying her brother, Polynices, who was declared a traitor and denied a proper burial. The play explores the conflict between divine law and human law, familial duty and state loyalty, and the destructive consequences of pride and inflexibility. 

 

Identify the Aircraft

1

 

2

 

3

 

Identify the Ship

4

 

5 & 6 & 7

The boat foreground may not be that difficult. The three Corvettes mid-ground are the same class and might not be a challenge. The ship far ground, which would be #7, might be a challenge.

 

 

End