Biden Admin. Blasted for Attending Event with Wanted Terrorist Who Killed US Soldiers

Outraged members of Congress are demanding an explanation as to why senior Biden administration officials attended an event featuring a notorious and active Islamic terrorist who has killed dozens of American soldiers.

U.S. Representatives Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Jim Banks (R-IN), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and Robert Wittman (R-VA), are demanding the Biden State Department explain why senior U.S. officials attended a forum alongside Qais Hadi Sayed Hasan al-Khazali, designated by the State Department as an active Islamic terrorist currently under U.S. government sanctions.

“I am gravely concerned about the precedent this activity sets,” said Lamborn. “I insist the State Department take immediate action to ensure that its officials do not give credibility to events that feature enemies of the United States.”

“Qais Hadi Sayed Hasan al-Khazali, the terrorist prominently featured at this event attended by high-ranking U.S. Department of State officials, has served in various terrorist organizations since at least 2003 and is responsible for the death of dozens of American soldiers. He is known to have directed and coordinated the attack on American forces in Karbala on January 20, 2007, that resulted in five American soldiers dead and three wounded,” a statement from Lamborn’s office reveals.

“Qais al-Khazali is also responsible for the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on December 31, 2019. For these actions, among others, Qais al-Khazali was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on December 6, 2019, for ‘involvement in serious human rights abuse in Iraq’ and designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on January 3, 2020,” the statement adds.

Despite appearing at the same forum as Biden officials, Qais al-Khazali is still an active and designated terrorist and has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“Currently, Qais al-Khazali is Secretary-General of Asa’id Ahl al-Haw (AAH), also known as the Khazali Network, a radical Iraqi Shi’a political party and paramilitary group that is funded, trained, and equipped by Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah. The AAH claimed responsibility for over 6,000 attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces between 2006 and 2011, including the roadside bomb that killed the last American soldier to die before the U.S. withdrawal in November 2011. This group was labeled a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) on January 3, 2020,” the statement concludes.

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