Afghan CIA fighters face stark reality in the U.S.

Summary

Podcast Summary: Afghan CIA Fighters Face Stark Reality in the U.S.

Podcast: Consider This from NPR
Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Mary Louise Kelly
Reporter: Brian Mann
Guests: Daoud (former Afghan fighter), Geeta Bakshi (former CIA agent), Thomas Kaza (U.S. Green Beret veteran)

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Overview

This episode delves into the journey of Afghan fighters who served in elite CIA-backed “Zero Units” during the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Focusing on the struggles faced by these fighters after their evacuation to the United States, the story is anchored by recent news: Rahmanullah Lakhinwal, a former Zero Unit member accused of shooting two U.S. National Guard soldiers. The episode explores how trauma, bureaucratic delays, and feelings of betrayal and abandonment have deeply impacted these veterans’ resettlement and mental health.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

U.S. Involvement in Afghanistan and the Zero Units

• Background: Begins with the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing 20-year conflict, involving both Republican and Democratic administrations.
  • President Bush’s speech (00:13, 00:38) frames America’s purpose in the region—fighting “the patient accumulation of successes.”
• Zero Units: Elite CIA-led Afghan commando groups took major roles in battling the Taliban, often absorbing the greatest risks.
  • Major Kevin McCormick (U.S. Army, 2016): “These skills are perishable, so they require... continuous training, continuous mastery...” (01:22-01:29)

The Fall of Afghanistan and U.S. Evacuation

• Collapse: The Taliban retake Afghanistan in August 2021, prompting a rushed and deadly evacuation of U.S. forces and Afghans who worked with them.
  • Geeta Bakshi (NPR, 01:45): “Hundreds, maybe even thousands of Afghans are trying to get out from there.”
  • President Biden pledges to support “SIV eligible Afghans and their families” (02:37).

Life in the U.S. for Zero Unit Fighters

• Trauma and Neglect: Many Zero Unit veterans report feelings of abandonment, struggling with bureaucracy, finding employment, and mental health challenges.
  • Reporter Brian Mann: “Some have struggled with mental health since coming to the U.S. At least four have died by suicide.” (04:39)
• Daoud’s Experience:
  • On rigorous vetting to join the CIA units:

    “You needed somebody to recommend you in the unit and after two, three months, you know, background check and vetting process, you would get a call.” (05:27)

  • On misconceptions about Zero Units:

    “People think we were a death squad... No, we were out there, going out there because we needed to bring these folks alive. If you bring a target alive, you get more information from him.” (05:59)

  • On the bond with U.S. forces:

    “He [the CIA agent] said, grenade. And he grabbed me from my... body armor, pulled me back. Bullet went through my body armor, but, you know, was fine.” (06:22)

Barriers to Asylum and Integration

• Immigration Struggles: Despite extensive vetting, many Afghan fighters struggle for years to obtain green cards or asylum due to classified records and bureaucratic hurdles.
  • Daoud:

    “We asked the agency, could you please share our information... They said, oh, no, we can't share this. It's classified. And I was like, then how would they know, like, who we are?” (07:34)

  • Lackinwal’s experience paralleled these struggles—he received asylum nearly four years after his arrival.

Mental Health Crisis

• Widespread Distress: High rates of trauma and suicide among Zero Unit veterans are reported.
  • Daoud:

    “We had worse cases than Lackinwal.” (08:32) “He was like, ‘I'm going to go kill myself.’ That's how bad it was.” (08:46)

• Advocacy:
  • Geeta Bakshi (Famil USA): “Individuals from the Zero Units unfortunately suffer death by self harm. We raised this issue to the Biden administration…” (09:06)

Changing U.S. Political Climate

• Security Fears and Policy Shifts:

  • Former President Trump, now in office, freezes Afghan asylum claims and vows to reevaluate refugee status.

    “This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country. For the most part, we don't want them.” (10:38)

  • CIA Director John Ratcliffe questions the wisdom of welcoming Zero Unit allies:

    “This individual and so many others should have never been allowed to come here…” (10:53)

• Impact on Afghan Community:

  • Daoud:

    “I was very shocked with the head of the CIA's comment. I felt so betrayed.” (11:12) “We are part of this nation at this time. You don't want to send these folks back to Afghanistan. You're sentencing them to death.” (11:25)

• Veterans Rally for Allies: U.S. veterans who fought with Afghan partners push to protect resettled Zero Unit fighters, but political rhetoric remains fierce.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Service and Abandonment:

  • Geeta Bakshi:

    “They were the tip of the spear... facing the maximum danger on the battlefield and taking the maximum risk due to their affiliation with U.S. intelligence.” (06:50)

  • Thomas Kaza (Green Beret):

    “In the span that Americans would do one deployment, these guys are doing three, four, five… [no one's] really thinking them for the service. And with that service also goes... the side effects... all the PTSD, and that... has never been... provided for the Afghan population.” (09:48, 10:09)

• On the Mental Health Toll:

  • Daoud:

    “We had worse cases than Lackinwal... I'm going to go kill myself. That's how bad it was.” (08:32, 08:46)

• On Policy and Betrayal:

  • Daoud:

    “I was very shocked with the head of the CIA's comment. I felt so betrayed.” (11:12) “You don't want to send these folks back to Afghanistan. You're sentencing them to death.” (11:25)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:00–03:43: Historical context, fall of Afghanistan, intro to Lakhinwal case
• 04:39–06:50: Introduction to Zero Units, Daoud’s experience, U.S.-Afghan bond
• 07:07–09:06: Resettlement barriers, trauma, and lack of U.S. support for Afghan veterans
• 10:09–11:25: Shifting U.S. political climate, security rhetoric, community betrayal
• 11:33–11:59: Veterans advocate for Afghan allies

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Tone and Language

The episode strikes a sober, empathetic tone, blending personal testimony, policy critique, and reports of bureaucratic indifference with urgency and compassion. Afghan interviewees speak with understated conviction and sorrow, while American veterans and advocates stress the moral responsibility owed to their partners.

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This episode is a concise, moving exploration of the cost of conflict—especially for those who once fought alongside U.S. troops—and the complicated, often harrowing, reality of building a new life when politics and bureaucracy fail to honor old alliances.

Transcript

[Mary Louise Kelly]

To understand how the Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers wound up living in the US and struggling to start a new life, you need to go back almost a quarter of a century.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

That's President George W. Bush speaking to the country. On October 7, 2001, the United States began a bombing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It was in response to the September 11 attacks.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

Given the nature and reach of our enemies, we will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes, by meeting a series of challenges with determination and will and purpose.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Over the next two decades, the US Would continue to fight in Afghanistan under both Republican and Democratic presidents. The US Military, along with its diplomatic corps, would try to help Afghanistan build a democratic government. Kabul celebrated Afghanistan's first national elections on Saturday. A free society for men and women and a strong military. Here's then U.S. army trainer Major Kevin McCormick speaking with NPR in Kandahar in 2016.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

It takes a long time. It's not a short process. These skills are perishable, so they require.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Continuous training, continuous mastery to be proficient. The US effort alongside Afghans would go on until August 2021. That's when, over the course of about a week, the Afghan military and government fell to the Taliban.

[Brian Mann]

The government of Afghanistan has fallen. The Taliban are now in control.

[Geeta Bakshi]

The airport in Kabul is a mob scene. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of Afghans are trying to get out from there.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

US forces were supposed to leave Afghans the following month, but the timeline was accelerated. Their exit was chaotic and deadly. 14 service members, more than 100,000 Afghan civilians died in an attack at a checkpoint outside the Kabul airport.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

That's then President Joe Biden speaking from the East Room of the White House. On August 16, 2021, as US for Forces were trying to leave, Biden promised to help Afghans who had worked with US Forces.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

In the coming days, the US Military will provide assistance to move more SIV eligible Afghans and their families out of Afghanistan.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Rahmanullah Lakhinwal was one of the Afghans. He'd worked with an elite group operated by the CIA known as a zero unit, and he was evacuated to the US in 2021.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

Two families are shattered and destroyed and torn apart as a result of the actions of one man.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

That's U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro. Lockinwall is also the man accused of gunning down two National Guard members this Thanksgiving eve. Consider this in the week since the National Guard shooting, NPR's Brian Mann has reported that Lockenwell's time with the Zero Unit and his feelings of abandonment after seeking asylum in the United States left him struggling with trauma. Coming up, we hear from one of those fighters. From npr. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

[Thomas Kaza]

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[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

Hey.

[Brittany Loose]

Hey, it's Brittany Loose from It's been a minute. Your voicemail box is full. Okay, I'll admit it. So is mine. So I'm leaving this for you here. I wanted to say thank you for supporting NPR this year. And if you haven't given yet, it's not too late. Give me a call back when you can visit donate.npr.org.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

It's Consider this from npr. They survived some of the Afghanistan war's most grueling and treacherous missions. They regularly battled the Taliban in nighttime raids, in urban gun battles. But once they evacuated to the U.S. many Afghan fighters who served in zero units units found themselves spiraling because for them, they saw bureaucratic neglect and abandonment by the U.S. government, the very people they'd been helping. NPR's Brian Mann spoke to people involved in zero units and learned some have struggled with mental health since coming to the U.S. at least four have died by suicide. Here's Brian's reporting.

[Brian Mann]

When a former Afghan soldier named Daoud, who lived in Kabul, first signed up for a CIA led Zero Unit, he says he was carefully vetted.

[Daoud]

You needed somebody to recommend you in the unit and after two, three months, you know, background check and vetting process, you would get a call.

[Brian Mann]

Dawoud agreed to talk to NPR only if we identified him by his first name. He fears for the safety of his family still living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He says his service with the CIA led to years of fighting against some of the Taliban's toughest units. Groups like Human Rights Watch have accused Zero Unit soldiers of brutal tactics, including torture and illegal killings.

[Daoud]

People think we were a death squad, we were execution squad. No, we were out there, going out there because we needed to bring these folks alive. If you bring a target alive, you get More information from him.

[Brian Mann]

According to Daoud, those missions led him to believe he was part of a brotherhood with the US Military. He describes one firefight where an American CIA agent saved his life.

[Daoud]

He said, grenade. And he grabbed me from my, you know, body armor, pulled me back. It was a crazy fight. Bullet went through my body armor, but, you know, was fine.

[Brian Mann]

This was the kind of American led Afghan unit that also employed Lackenwell, who pleaded not guilty last week to murder and other charges in the National Guard shooting. Geeta Bakshi, a former CIA agent who served in Afghanistan, says Zero Unit fighters like Daoud and Lackenwall were essential to America's war effort.

[Geeta Bakshi]

These guys were the tip of the spear. They were out on the front so that American personnel didn't have to be. They were the ones that were facing the maximum danger on the battlefield and taking the maximum risk due to their affiliation with US intelligence.

[Brian Mann]

After the Taliban swept to power in 2021, the Biden administration evacuated thousands of Zero Unit fighters, offering them a chance to start new lives in the U.S. but NPR has learned that many of these soldiers found themselves mired in America's complex immigration system. Despite vetting and background checks by the CIA, Daoud says, and many other soldiers struggled for years to gain permanent asylum and necessary work visas.

[Daoud]

We asked the agency, could you please share our information so that when we submit our forms for our green cards, they know who we are. We are vetted. We have worked with you guys. They said, oh, no, we can't share this. It's classified. And I was like, then how would they know, like, who we are?

[Brian Mann]

NPR reported last week that Lackinwald, too, struggled with his immigration status. He only received asylum protection from the Trump administration in April of This year, nearly four years after coming to the U.S. a refugee resettlement volunteer who worked with Lackinwall shared emails with NPR written in 2024 indicating that lachenwall appeared to suffer a personal crisis after failing to find stable employment. The volunteers spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety after working to support Lachenwal and other Afghan refugees. Daoud says this kind of emotional distress became widespread among former soldiers.

[Daoud]

We had worse cases than luck and Wall.

[Brian Mann]

Daoud says he knows of at least four former Zero Unit fighters who became so desperate and hopeless they took their own lives. He described one crisis involving a friend who ultimately survived.

[Daoud]

He was in a very stressful situation. He was like, I'm going to go kill myself. That's how bad it was. And I was very worried for him.

[Brian Mann]

Bakshi, the former CIA agent, now runs an organization called Famil USA that advocates for Zero Unit soldiers. She says her group tried to warn the Biden as early as 2023 of this growing problem.

[Geeta Bakshi]

Individuals from the zero units unfortunately suffer death by self harm. We raised this issue to the Biden administration, and it was one that we were very concerned about. Again, we saw a direct connection to prolonged immigration delays.

[Brian Mann]

NPR sent detailed questions to the CIA and to U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services, but they declined to comment on the record. But Bakshi and Daoud aren't alone in RA about the welfare of former Afghan Special Forces soldiers now living in the U.S. thomas Kaza served with the Green Berets in Kabul alongside Afghan soldiers who specialized in clearing landmines and IEDs.

[Thomas Kaza]

In the span that Americans would do one deployment, these guys are doing three, four, five, right. So you have to kind of be cognizant of the impact that's going to take.

[Brian Mann]

Kaza says despite the lack in Wall Case, he doesn't think former Afghan soldiers pose a security risk in the US but he thinks many Afghan soldiers are struggling with trauma compounded by their uncertain asylum status.

[Thomas Kaza]

The Afghans were providing the exact same services even more right. But no one's really thinking them for the service. And with that service also goes with kind of the side effects that are incumbent upon this profession. You know, all the ptsd, and that was that has never been something provided for the Afghan population.

[Brian Mann]

Uncertainty for Afghan soldiers has only grown since the D.C. attack. President Trump says Afghans brought to the U.S. by the Biden administration may be dangerous. He's frozen asylum claims and officials are reevaluating the legal status of Afghan refugees.

[Various Political Figures (George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Jeanine Pirro, Donald Trump)]

This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country. For the most part, we don't want them.

[Brian Mann]

In a statement, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also suggested America's Zero Unit allies may now be unwelcome. This individual and so many others should have never been allowed to come here, Ratcliffe said. Daoud, the Afghan who fought alongside CIA agents, said those comments sent waves of fear through his community.

[Daoud]

I was very shocked with the head of the CIA's comment. I felt so betrayed.

[Brian Mann]

Dawoud says despite years of frustration, he and many of his fellow Afghan fighters now view the US as their home and their only safe refuge.

[Daoud]

We are part of this nation at this time. You don't want to send these folks back to Afghanistan. You're sentencing them to death.

[Brian Mann]

Some US Veteran groups that fought with Afghan allies are now scrambling to convince the Trump administration to soften its stance on refugees who served with American military and intelligence services. But so far, Trump has maintained his fierce rhetoric. In a speech in Philadelphia, he objected again to taking in asylum seekers from what he described as hellholes like Afghanistan. Brian Mann, NPR News.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. That's 988. This episode was produced by Erica Ryan and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Alina Hartunian and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. Thank you to our Consider THIS plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and who help keep public radio strong. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors and unlock bonus episodes of Consider this. You can Learn more at plus.NPR.org. It's CONSIDER this from npr. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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