US Enlisted DC Shooting Suspect in CIA-Backed Death Squad When He Was a Child

"Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man who authorities say shot two National Guardsmen outside the White House, had previously worked in a CIA-backed "Zero Unit" in Afghanistan, often called "death squads" by human rights groups. "The United States made this person into a child soldier, and now is experiencing what I think is one of the most horrifically bright-line cases of imperial blowback that we've seen throughout the 'war on terror,' says Spencer Ackerman, journalist and author focused on U.S. military and foreign policy."

"What we're focusing on less is that the person - what we're focusing on less is that the person who committed, allegedly, these crimes, Lakanwal, had a gun put in his hand when he was a child by the CIA. Apparently, when he was 14 or 15, he was brought into the Zero Unit number 03 around Kandahar. Apparently his brother told The New York Times - apparently his brother, The New York Times reported, was a deputy commander of this unit."

Rahmanullah Lakanwal previously worked in a CIA-backed Zero Unit in Afghanistan that human rights groups called death squads. He was reportedly recruited as a child at about 14 or 15 and brought into Zero Unit number 03 near Kandahar. His brother reportedly served as a deputy commander of that unit. Lakanwal allegedly shot two National Guardsmen outside the White House. The United States' training and use of child fighters is characterized as creating a child soldier who later committed violence, and the incident is framed as a stark example of imperial blowback. The Trump administration ascribed collective guilt to Afghan refugees.

Read at Truthout