Ah yes, the Obama administration. It’s a gift that never stops giving to America’s enemies. The latest trinket? Several Obama released terrorists are now Taliban leaders. The disgraced 44th president may not have known this would happen. But it’s the thought that counts.
FNC: “Four out of five Guantanamo detainees whom former President Barack Obama released in exchange for former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 now hold senior positions in the interim government created by the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.
On Tuesday, the Taliban announced that Khairkhwa would serve as acting minister for information and culture, Noori would serve as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Wasiq would serve as acting director of intelligence, and Fazl would serve as deputy defense minister.”
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted that “U.S. officials found that Fazl worked with senior al Qaeda personnel, including Abdel Hadi al Iraqi, one of Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenants. Al Iraqi is still held at Guantanamo.”
1. It appears that 4 of the 5 ex-Guantanamo detainees exchanged for Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 have senior positions in the Taliban’s resurrected Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. https://t.co/OT6LATlaXc [1]
— Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) September 7, 2021 [2]
In 2011, a Washington, D.C., court found that Khairkhwa “was, without question, a senior member of the Taliban both before and after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.” He “has repeatedly admitted that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he served as a member of a Taliban envoy that met clandestinely with senior Iranian officials to discuss Iran’s offer to provide the Taliban with weapons and other military support in anticipation of imminent hostilities with US coalition forces.”
Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse released a statement on Tuesday. He said, “President Biden still clings to an insane fantasy that the Taliban is kinder and gentler. It’s nonsense. Haqqani is the Taliban’s new interior minister for precisely the same reason the FBI’s got a $5 million bounty on his head: he’s a bloodthirsty terrorist. He’s armed, dangerous, and running a country we just abandoned.”
“Americans are still trapped behind Taliban lines, the Biden Administration is still refusing to disclose how many of our people they left behind, and the State Department keeps talking about how they really hope the Taliban ‘will live up to their commitments,'” Sasse added. “Pathetic.”
This piece was written by David Kamioner on September 9, 2021. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com [3] and is used by permission.