The Taliban who may leave Gitmo

The Obama administration is considering the controversial release of several senior Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay.

Diplomatic sources say they would probably be relocated to Qatar in the Persian Gulf, where the Taliban is negotiating the establishment of a liaison office to facilitate dialogue with the U.S.

James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence told the Senate Intelligence Committee this week that such transfers, though controversial, are not new when trying to end combat.

"In almost every case where we've had hostilities, that at some point in time, there are negotiations. I don't think anyone in the administration harbors any illusions about the potential here," Clapper said.

CIA Director David Petraeus:"Our analysts did provide assessments of the five and the risks presented by various scenarios by which they could be sent somewhere - not back to Afghanistan or Pakistan - and then based on the various mitigating measures that could be implemented to ensure that they cannot return to militant activity,"

Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa: Former Afghan minister of interior during Taliban rule, governor of Herat and a military commander.

Mullah Mohammad Fazl: Deputy minister of defense under the Taliban, senior military commander who was chief of staff of the Afghan army and commander of the Taliban's 10th Division.

Mullah Norullah Nori: Senior Taliban commander in Mazar-e Sharif in late 2001. Taliban governor of two provinces.

Mohammad Nabi Omari: a member of the Taliban and associated with both al Qaeda and another militant group Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin. He was the Taliban's chief of communications.

We have moved up our withdrawal from Afghanistan to next year.

We are talking to the Taliban, Mullah Omar likely did send a letter to President Obama last September.

Seven families of "important" Taliban leaders were resettled in Qatar late last December.

The five potential detainees to be released would be barred from Afghanistan and certainly would like to be with their families. And, their families would offer a "hostage" form of security that these former Taliban will stay in Qatar.

Hmmm... Lots of moves going on and no denials from either side.

One reported concession is that The Taliban renounce al Qaeda in AfPak and that AQ operatives be given safe travel out of AfPak to Yemen or Saudi Arabia.

Obama needs a "break-through" on the Taliban, AfPak war, Pakistan relations and Guantanamo detainees to help his re-election. These moves do it all for Obama.

Quite frankly I generally support all of this, no matter that it helps Obama, who needs to go.

The loss of American lives is no longer justified in AfPak. We can go to garrison in AfPak and conduct special ops with minimal exposure and to make sure that AQ and the Haqqani's are degraded.

The Karzai government is a complete fraud and are generally being kept out of all these moves. Karzai and his corrupt operatives will not survive this new alignment, good riddance.

This new alignment is the only hope we have of degrading Afghanistan's opium trade that supplies 90% of the world's heroin and morphine that Karzai refuses to stop.

Ending wars always has obnoxious elements. If we leave Afghanistan alone, we need a mechanism so that they leave us alone from the opiate plague.

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