Free Republic

One of the terrorists President Barack Obama released last week in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is already plotting to avenge his captivity by attacking American soldiers serving in Afghanistan, a Taliban commander has claimed. As a condition of the deal with the Taliban that secured Bergdahl’s release, the U.S. relinquished five Taliban associates to Qatar, where they are required to stay for the next year. Already, Noorullah Noori, is pledging to return to return to the battlefield, the commander said. After arriving in Qatar, Noorullah Noori kept insisting he would go to Afghanistan and fight American forces there,’ he...

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...