The man arrested in the Capitol gallery Thursday night after yelling “Remember Abbey Gate!” during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union was among the Gold Star parents who took part in an Escondido hearing last August.
Steve Nikoui was the father of Camp Pendleton Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, one of the 13 service members killed near the airport in Kabul during the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
From the balcony, he also shouted “United States Marines!” and “Abbey Gate!”
He spoke for 8 minutes here last summer, tearful at the end, lashing military leaders and accusing Biden of using his son as a “pawn” and getting “the optics he wanted” by pulling troops out ahead of Sept. 11.
Press reports said police quickly removed Nikoui, 51, from the gallery where he was a guest of Florida Rep. Brian Mast.
“A statement from the Capitol Police said officers had warned Mr. Nikoui to stop, and when he did not, they removed him from the chamber,” said The New York Times.
Rep. Darrell Issa of East County, the Republican who organized the Escondido event, tweeted twice about the incident Thursday:
“The Gold Star families of the 13 lost at Abbey Gate have every right to be angry with Joe Biden,” he said. And: “If only Biden addressed the Gold Star families tonight as much as he did Snickers bars.”
Shortly after the fatal bombing, Reuters reported how Nikoui of Norco had been glued to TV reports desperate for hints his son survived the deadly airport suicide bombing when three Marines arrived at his door with the worst news possible.
The 20-year-old Marine the previous day had sent home a video of himself giving candy to Afghan children.
“He was born the same year [the war] started, and ended his life with the end of this war,” Nikoui said at the time.
Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, carried out during a massive evacuation of U.S. and other foreign nationals as well as some Afghan civilians following the Taliban takeover.
Nikoui, who was to fly with his wife to an Air Force base in Delaware to receive his son’s remains, said he was angry.
“I’m really disappointed in the way that the president has handled this, even more so the way the military has handled it,” he said in 2021 “The commanders on the ground should have recognized this threat and addressed it.”
The family’s grief multiplied in August 2022 when Kareem’s older brother killed himself near a memorial flower garden and stone tablet for the “Fallen 13.”
Dakota Halverson’s body was found at Pikes Peak Park in Norco, and his mother said Halverson struggled to cope with his brother’s death and would frequently sneak into the cemetery where Kareem is buried to sleep on his grave.
Rep. Issa has long called on Biden to do more for the families of the Kabul fallen.
On Friday, Issa released a joint statement with seven other Gold Star family members, including Nikoui, critical of Biden.
It said, in part:
Since August 2021, the Gold Star families have not only endured the loss of loved ones but also the absence of any true accountability. Despite numerous requests to meet with President Biden at any time and any location of his choosing, he has ignored them all.
He has refused to even reply. To this day, he has never once publicly spoken the names of the fallen. The families have been denied the personal possessions of their loved ones.
They have been denied their rightful access to military bases as clearly allowed by law. And they’ve been denied any kind of complete accounting of the events of that day. Biden has never made this right.
At the August 2023 hearing, Nakoui recalled a playful routine he had with his son — “an homage to every father-son movie ever made” — when Kareem would leave for Camp Pendleton.
The father would wait to hear the creak of the front door closing and yell from a distant part of his house “KAREEM!’
In a little boy’s voice, Kareem would answer: “Yeah?”
The father would reply: “Avenge me!”
Updated at 12:35 p.m. March 8, 2024