At the same time Afghanistan’s leader promises to do a better job screening his army and police recruits for Taliban infiltrators, now killing US military trainers at an alarming rate, he’s demanding President Obama release several “high risk” Taliban leaders from Guantanamo prison and resettle them in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants 18 Taliban detainees freed, including top Taliban commanders who led deadly attacks on US troops before their capture in the months after 9/11. Among them:
* Mullah Norullah Nori, who was the military commander in Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought American forces there, including the late CIA hero Michael Spann.
* Mullah Mohammed Fazi, the Taliban’s former defense chief.
* Khairullah Khairkhwa, the Taliban’s former interior minister.
* Abdul Haq Wasiq, the Taliban’s former deputy intelligence chief.
The senior Taliban figures are among the most dangerous detainees remaining at Gitmo. They were directly involved with al Qaeda when it was training the hijackers in Afghanistan before 9/11.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has tentatively agreed to release the four suspected terrorists if Karzai can certify they no longer pose a threat. They must disavow terrorism and any allegiance to al Qaeda.
Karzai claims his government obtained such assurances from them in a recent trip to Gitmo.
“We actually sent a delegation three months ago to Guantanamo prison where Taliban prisoners were interviewed,” Karzai told reporters last month following talks with Taliban representatives in Japan. “We want the release of those Taliban figures and we want them to have the freedom to settle where they want.”
But such assurances have proved meaningless in the past.
A recent federal report by the director of national intelligence found that more than one in four of the 600 former detainees moved from Gitmo to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries subsequently rejoined the jihad. At least 16 repatriated Afghans returned to the battlefield to fight US and NATO troops.
The most notorious among them is Abdullah Gulam Rasoul, who became the Taliban’s operations commander in southern Afghanistan soon after his 2007 release. He was blamed for masterminding a surge in roadside attacks against American troops. He’s also accused of organizing assaults on US military aircraft in Afghanistan.
Recent intelligence shows the Taliban is coordinating attacks with al Qaeda.
Intelligence gathered from Osama bin Laden’s computers reveals that he and other al Qaeda leaders never separated from Taliban chief Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders after the US invasion. In fact, they kept closely in touch with each other right up to the time of bin Laden’s death.
At the same time Karzai wants to release the worst of the worst of the Taliban mullahs, he has already freed hundreds of their fighters from local Afghan jails. US officials confirm at least 500 suspected Taliban fighters have been released from the Bagram prison at the urging of Karzai, a onetime member of the Taliban himself.
Karzai maintains Pashtun tribal ties to the Taliban, men he sometimes calls “brothers.” The amnesty deals buy him credibility among key Afghan elders, who have accused him of being a US stooge.
The administration has agreed to the deals because it believes they are the best way to stabilize Afghanistan ahead of its announced 2014 withdrawal.
They also help Obama fulfill his 2008 campaign pledge to empty and shutter Gitmo. Antiwar activists among his base are upset he’s freed just 70 detainees, leaving 168. The White House last month confirmed the president still plans on closing the prison camp.
Cognitive dissonance doesn’t get much worse than this.
While behind the scenes the administration negotiates the release of several senior Taliban figures from Gitmo, the White House confirmed this week that the president planned to speak personally with Karzai about the rampant infiltration of Taliban insurgents in his national army and police.
One in four US or NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year have been killed by Taliban sympathizers or operatives posing as Afghan security forces.
Prison break
Following his pledge to close Gitmo, President Obama has transferred dozens of prisoners to the country of their origin. There were 245 detainees when he took office (down from a high of 684 in 2003); now, 168 prisoners remain.
Of those left, 89 have been cleared for transfer, but actually moving them isn’t so easy. In 2010, Obama stopped shipping inmates to Yemen because of heightened security concerns there.
The administration plans on prosecuting highprofile targets and imprisoning them in supermax prisons in the US, though that plan has faced resistance.
Last year, Obama conceded there were no plans to close the prison anytime soon. “Obviously I haven’t been able to make the case right now, and without Congress’s cooperation, we can’t do it,” Obama told the AP. “That doesn’t mean I stop making the case.”
Of those left:
* 18 are citizens of Afghanistan
* 11 are citizens of Saudi Arabia
* 6 are citizens of Pakistan
* 90 are citizens of Yemen
* 47 are from other countries, including China, Tunisia and Algeria.
* 16 prisoners, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid SheikhMohammed, are considered “high value detainees” charged with war crimes.
* 2 detainees have been transferred in 2012, one to Sudan and one to El Salvador
* In total, 199 prisoners have been transferred to Afghanistan
Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of “Infiltration.”