In 2014, former President Barack Obama swapped five Taliban leaders, including Khairullah Khairkhwa, from Gitmo for deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
Obama promised the men would settle in Qatar and not become a problem.
But as soon as they got out, the Taliban leaders promised to fight Americans in Afghanistan. They set up channels for the Taliban in the country and helped from afar.
Fast forward to August 15, 2021. The Taliban took over Afghanistan. They toppled Kabul. They are in charge.
Now the Taliban want to bring back their old leaders from Qatar. This includes Khairkhwa.
You know how everyone is pointing to former President Donald Trump’s Taliban meeting? Well, President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan envoy met with him and others in Moscow:
Earlier this year, one of them, Khairullah Khairkhwa, actually sat across the table from President Biden’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Moscow, where Khairkhwa was part of the official Taliban delegation that negotiated the final terms of the US withdrawal. The retreat cleared a path for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years.“I started jihad to remove foreign forces from my country and establish an Islamic government, and jihad will continue until we reach that goal through a political agreement,” Khairkhwa said at the summit.After raiding the presidential palace in Kabul, a group of armed Taliban fighters told Al Jazeera that they were arranging to bring back their Gitmo-paroled leadership from Qatar upon securing the capital. One unidentified fighter, who blasted America for “oppressing our people for 20 years,” claimed he had also been locked up at the Guantanamo Bay facility. It’s more evidence that Gitmo catch-and-release policies facilitated the fall of Afghanistan to the enemy that Washington vowed to crush after 9/11.
Khairkhwa made all sorts of promises to Biden’s envoy in Moscow. The envoy ate it up:
Earlier this year, Khairkhwa assured the administration that the Taliban would not launch a spring military offensive if Biden committed to removing all remaining American troops. He also promised not to retaliate against any Afghans who worked with the US military or the US-backed government in Kabul. But Khairkhwa showed no signs of remorse or rehabilitation inside Gitmo — if anything, he’s probably more embittered toward the United States. Why would they believe him?Reports coming out of Kandahar and Kabul indicate the extremists have already broken their word. Taliban thugs have started a reign of terror against people who cooperated with Westerners. Guided by a “kill list,” they are going door to door to punish their enemies.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a Taliban co-founder and deputy leader, will also go back to Afghanistan. He is in charge of the terrorist group’s political bureau.
Pakistan’s security forces arrested him in 2010. The U.S. released him in 2018.
Baradar signed the treaty with Trump in Qatar in March 2020.
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