ATLANTA — The Department of Homeland Security has taken over the investigation into two members of the Afghan air force who disappeared from a U.S. Air Force base in south Georgia.
One congressman told Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant he's remaining calm despite concerns over the screening process.
The two missing members of the Afghan air force are not pilots.
The missing Afghan air force members are maintenance students at Moody Air Force Base outside Valdosta. Agents in this DHS field office are involved in the search.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R- Savannah, told Diamant while he's worried, he's not convinced the missing men are out to do anyone harm.
"It was alarming in the sense that you don't ever want to hear about this," Carter said. "It's a different world that we live in now. It's a dangerous world and certain I can see where this would alarm a number of people."
This week Channel 2 Action News confirmed through our sources that Mirwais Kohistani and Shirzad Rohullah are the two Afghans the U.S. Air Force says were last seen at a training session on the base one a week ago.
The Department of Homeland Security is now heading up the search.
"We have a wide variety of tools to locate individuals. I simply can't discuss what those specific techniques are due to the ongoing investigation, but we are actively engaged with our Federal partners in looking for these individuals," said Brian Cox with the Department of Homeland Security.
The air force told us Kohistani and Rohullah underwent strict screening before setting foot on U.S. soil.
"I think we'll always have concerns about the vetting process, there's no question about that," Carter said.
But Carter said he's willing to accept federal investigators' assessment that the missing men pose no apparent threat.
"They are in agreement that the reason they are missing is that they were scheduled to go back in the very near future and they did not want to go back," Carter said.
A DHS spokesman acknowledged Friday that the longer the Afghan airmen remain missing the harder they'll be to find.
They're part of a group of 23 Afghan air force personnel, who arrived at Moody nearly a year ago, training to fly and maintain a fighter plane.
WSBTV
