Posted on 05/31/2014 8:04:21 PM PDT by mgist
Lake, Josh RoginMay 31, 2014 3:12 pm EDT In exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl, the U.S. has released five senior Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison. They are considered some of the worst of the worst.
The five Guantanamo detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for America’s last prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, are bad guys. They are top Taliban commanders the group has tried to free for more than a decade.
U.S. Army/AP According to a 2008 Pentagon dossier on Guantanamo Bay inmates, all five men released were considered to be a high risk to launch attacks against the United States and its allies if they were liberated. The exchange shows that the Obama administration was willing to pay a steep price, indeed, for Bergdahl’s freedom. The administration says they will be transferred to Qatar, which played a key role in the negotiations.
In the initial statements released about the deal, the White House declined to name the detainees who would be leaving the Cuba based prison Obama has been trying to close since his first day in office.
A senior U.S. defense official confirmed Saturday that the prisoners to be released include Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammed Nabi Omari.
While not as well known as Guantanamo inmates like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Taliban 5 were some of the worst outlaws in the U.S. war on terror. And their release will end up replenishing the diminished leadership ranks of the Afghan Taliban at a moment when the United States is winding down the war there.
“They are undoubtedly among the most dangerous Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior editor at the Long War Journal who keeps a close watch on developments concerning the detainees left at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Fazl, for example, was the Taliban’s former deputy defense minister and is wanted by the United Nations for his role in massacres targeting Afghan’s Shi’ite Muslim population.
According to the 2008 Pentagon’s dossier on Fazl disclosed by Wikileaks (PDF), Noori also was a senior Taliban military figure and, according to his Pentagon dossier, was asked personally in 1995 by Osama bin Laden (PDF) to participate in an offensive against northern alliance warlord Rashid Dostum.
Wasiq, a former deputy minister of intelligence, at one point tried to cooperate with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and asked for a GPS system as well as a special radio to communicate with the U.S. military after the U.S. invasion in 2001. His dossier (PDF) says that he was a crucial liaison between the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups while he was deputy intelligence minister. But the 2008 report also said he was holding out information he had on other top al Qaeda and Taliban leaders during interrogations.
Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, was considered by the Pentagon’s 2008 dossier to be a likely heroin trafficker (PDF). That dossier also says he likely participated in meetings with Iranian officials after 9-11 to help plot attacks on U.S. forces following the invasion.
Iran has worked in some cases with the government that has replaced the Taliban in Afghanistan, but also has been accused by the U.S. military of supplying the Taliban and other insurgent groups with roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices of IEDs.
Nabi held several military leadership posts for the Taliban and helped organize the al Qaeda/Taliban militias that fought against U.S. and coalition troops in the first year of the war, according to his Pentagon dossier (PDF).
This week’s secret diplomacy was not the first time the U.S. government had engaged the Taliban in an effort to negotiate a prisoner swap for the release of Bergdahl. In 2011, State Department officials held a series of meetings with Taliban leaders in Doha.
In Congress, there was bipartisan opposition to any release of Guantanamo prisoners. After the negotiations were made public in early 2012 by Sen. Dianne Feinstein the Taliban announced they were pulling out of the talks.
In the summer of 2013, the U.S. attempted a Taliban confidence building measure, the opening of a Taliban representative office in the diplomatic enclave inside Doha, Qatar. Karzai was also mistrustful of that effort and his skepticism was validated when the Taliban violated their agreement with the U.S. and raised their flag at the office’s opening, causing Karzai to have a fit and forcing the U.S. to abandon the deal to keep the Taliban office open.
Talks resumed in late 2013 and the Taliban provided a video proof of life to the U.S. military in December 2013, which had been a condition for the U.S. to continue with the negotiations.
Many in Congress will still be opposed to the swap, but lawmakers gave up their right to stop it. A small change in the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed last December, now makes it only a requirement that the Defense Secretary notify Congress when releasing Guantanamo prisoners. Before the change, Congressional sign off on any Guantanamo releases would have been needed.
At about 10:30 am eastern standard time, Bergdahl was released from his captors. The handover was peaceful and happened in eastern Afghanistan along the border, according to a senior U.S. Defense official. U.S. special operations forces conducted the rescue.
The official said that once he was on the helicopter, Bergdahl wrote on a paper plate (writing instead of talking because it was so loud) “SF?” The operators sitting with Bergdahl responded loudly, saying, yes, we’ve been looking for you for a long time. Bergdahl broke down crying, the official relayed.
In exchange for Bergdahl’s release, five detainees at Guantanamo Bay will be released to Qatar. The US has “appropriate assurances” that Qatar will be able to secure the detainees there, a U.S. official said. The detainees are under a travel ban for a year.
The transfer took place quickly without incident, peacefully and without violence. There were approximately 18 Taliban on site.
U.S. officials believe Bergdahl had been held for the bulk of his captivity in Pakistan. They’re not sure when he was moved to Afghanistan.
The transfer was not negotiated with the Haqqani network, a network of former Pakistani defense officials and other designated terrorists. Instead it was brokered through the Qatari government.
Bergdahl’s parents happened to be in Washington when the news broke. They had come from their home in Idaho for Memorial Day.
Bergdahl is currently being held at a forward operating base in Afghanistan. He will be there until doctors are ready to let him go, and his next move will be to Bagram only when he’s ready.
The U.S. official praised this operation as a show of interagency cooperation—it was a whole-government effort that he said had been in the works for five years. “We really got traction in the last week but we never lost sight of Bergdahl,” he said.
This Administration is building one HELLUVA ‘legacy,’ I tell you what! *SNORT*
I sure hope we survive this. The next 9/11 is going to be spectacular! Possibly nuclear! And the one after that, and the one after that, and...
Wonder if this solider feels his life was worth this? As a Vet, I’m kinda doubting it.
All very convenient for the taliban loving Mohammed Barack Hussein Obama
I have to be happy the US soldier is freed. I imagine his family is beyond elated.
Now track the 5 bastards in Qatar and kill everyone of them.
Yup.
He’s a Moslem at heart...
The POS is doing everything he CAN DO to act like he CARES about VETS next stop Beaches of Normandy just sickening, this fricken VET
deserted wandered away from base and now this POS POTUS puts
our soldiers in jeopardy releasing 5 top terrorists to do a Rose Garden
photo op with the parents of this loser deserter!!!!!
Put that locator exploding transponder in ‘em and send ‘em back.
Look for more kidnappings of US soldiers in the coming days.
Dumb question...
Barry had a photo op with this soldier’s parents tonight....in Washington.
Doesn’t this family live in Idaho?
Did this family fly in for the photo op?
If so...who paid for it?
I am very curious about the logistics of the photo op. Were my tax dollars used to bring the parents from Idaho to DC?
Is this trade even legal if Obama was involved? Not that legality matters with those on Capitol Hill.
WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS
very well
- 0bama
His father learned Pashto so he could communicate with his captors. WTH(eck). The parents talked with his captors?
News pointed out he was in good enough condition to walk a long distance after his release. Coherent enough to communicate with transport operators.
Lots of questions about how he was captured to begin with. This story is a long time from being over.
The parents “just happened” to be in DC.
Mere coincidence.
(not buying it)
How about exchanging a few million of the worst Mexican drug thugs from our prisons in exchange for that Marine sergeant being held there.
It is worth repeating.
Confused about Obama’s foreign policy? With Clinton’s foreign policy?
You are likely familiar with the “Hierarchy of Needs” - Things a human MUST have in order survive: for a minute, for an hour, for a day, for a week, for a year, etc. Until those needs are met, he or she cannot look for less important things. Air, water, food, clothing, shelter, etc .. All can get ranked according to a human’s most important priorities.
Now consider every foreign policy decision, speech, foreign leader, foreign trip (well - except vacations), and foreign award or recognition Obama has chosen since 2008.
Think about his hierarchy of hatred, then look at his decisions. His administration’s decisions.
In every case, when given a public choice, Obama has chosen American over Israeli;
American (if democrat-donor or government-enhanced) over republican/capitalist/energy/white/male/oil/red state;
European-republics over America;
European-socialist governments over European-republics;
3rd world socialist-republics over European-socialist governments;
socialist-selected governments over socialist-elected governments;
socialist-dictatorships over socialist-selected governments;
communist governments over socialist dictatorships;
Islamic republics over communist governments;
Islamic secular states over Islamic republics;
Islamic dictatorships over Islamic secular states;
Islamic-tolerant states over Islamic dictatorships;
Islamic religious states over Islamic-tolerant states;
Islamic Sharia states over Islamic religious states;
Islamic fundamentalist states over Islamic Sharia-compliant states;
Radical Islamic bands over Islamic fundamentalist states.
If Obama can figure out how to have 20 more of our soldiers kidnapped, he could release enough terrorists to finally fulfill his dream of closing Guantanamo.
What jumped out at me was the Taliban beard the father had as he and zip walked out to the camera. The whole thing stinks rotten.
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