5 Freed From Gitmo In Exchange For Bergdahl Join Taliban’s Political Office in Qatar
Five members of the Afghan Taliban who were freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 have joined the insurgent group’s political office in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the five men will now be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, with some negotiators in Kabul saying their presence is a sign that the Taliban desires a peace pact.
Trending: 179 Death Threats Against President Trump Are Live On Twitter…Real Time Updated List
Many others believe that the five men – who have close ties to the Taliban’s late leader and founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar – share the same fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that defined the group’s five-year-rule that ended in 2001 with the U.S.-led invasion.
“The Taliban are bringing back their old generation, which means the Taliban have not changed their thinking or their leadership,” said Haroun Mir, a political analyst in Kabul. “What we are more worried about is if tomorrow the Taliban say ‘we are ready to negotiate,’ who will represent Kabul? That is the big challenge because the government is so divided, not just ideologically but on ethnic lines.”
The AP reports:
Efforts to find a peaceful end to Afghanistan’s protracted war have accelerated since Washington appointed Afghan-American Zalmay Khalilzad as envoy to find a peaceful end to America’s longest war, which has already cost the U.S. more than $900 billion.
But Mohammed Ismail Qasimyar, a member of a government peace council, warned Washington against negotiating peace terms with the Taliban, saying Khalilzad’s only job is to set the stage for direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, something the insurgents have so far refused, calling the government a U.S. puppet.
Taliban officials reported meeting with Khalilzad in Qatar earlier this month, calling the exchange preliminary but pivotal. Washington neither confirmed nor denied the meeting, but Khalilzad was in Qatar at the time.
A Taliban official familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press that talks ended with an agreement to meet again. Key among the Taliban’s requests was recognition of their Qatar office, said the official, who spoke on condition he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media
Pakistan also bowed to a long-standing Afghan Taliban demand to release its senior leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had been in jail in Pakistan since 2010. Baradar was reportedly jailed at the time after bypassing Pakistan to open independent peace talks with Hamid Karzai, who at the time was Afghanistan’s president. Baradar’s release followed Khalilzad’s first visit to Pakistan since being appointed Washington’a peace envoy.
Baradar issued an audio message after being released to the Taliban. Heard by an Associate Press reporter, the Pashto-language message seemed to indicate he was preparing for a role in the insurgent movement that was progressing.
Former Taliban member who is now also a member of the Afghan government peace council, Hakim Mujahed, said the presence of the five former Guantanamo prisoners in the Taliban’s Qatar office is indicative of the Taliban’s resolve to find a peace deal. He said the stature of the five within the insurgent movement will make a peace deal palatable in the rank and file, several of whom have resisted talks believing a military victory was within their grasp.
“These people are respected among all the Taliban,” said Mujahed. “Their word carries weight with the Taliban leadership and the mujahedeen.”
A few of the five men have disturbing pasts.
Human Rights Watch accused Mohammed Fazl, former Taliban army chief arrested in 2002, of overseeing the deaths of thousands of minority Shiites in 2000. The massacre followed the killing one year before of an estimated 2,000 young ethnic Pashtuns in northern Afghanistan by Taliban rivals.
Another of the five men, Khairullah Khairkhwa, former governor of Herat province, and someone close to both Taliban founder Mullah Omar and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, also had a friendship with former president Hamid Karzai.
The others include deputy intelligence minister Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Nori-once described as the most significant Taliban leader held at Guantanamo Bay due to his particularly close relationship with Mullah Omar, who fought U.S.-led coalition forces in northern Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif and Mohammad Nabi Omari, a Taliban communications officer.
All five men are from southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban.
Last week, the Treasury Department made an announcement that it is taking steps in cooperation with the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) to “expose and disrupt Taliban actors and their Iranian sponsors that seek to undermine the security of the Afghan Government.” The department announced sanctions against nine individuals who were identified as Taliban actors by the TFTC and by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OAFC).
“The TFTC has again demonstrated its tremendous value to international security by disrupting and exposing key Taliban members who are involved in suicide attacks, and other lethal activities,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote in a statement. “We are also targeting key Iranian sponsors providing financial and material support to the Taliban.”
In 2014 President Barack Obama received backlash when his administration orchestrated the prisoner swap for Bergdahl, which prompted him to defend his decision.
“We have consulted with Congress for quite some time about the possibility that we might need to execute a prisoner exchange in order to recover Bergdahl,” Obama said at the time. “We saw an opportunity, and we were concerned about Bergdahl’s health. We had the cooperation of the Qataris to execute an exchange, and we seized that opportunity.”
Obama went on to add that “the process was truncated because we wanted to make sure we would not miss that window.”
When Bergdahl walked off his base in Afghanistan in 2009, he was captured by the Taliban and thrown in prison for five years until the Obama administration traded the five Taliban members for his release. Bergdahl pleaded guilty in October of 2017 to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
Follow Haley Kennington on Twitter
Support Big League Politics Big League Politics
Web Market Power providing the latest marketing tips, news and tricks throughout the industry.
Sourced by the online web marketing guys. Web Marketing Experts that know how to drive business uniquely using creative marketing methods, and self-sufficient social media strategies.
No comments