Tag Archives: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

I Wonder What His Resume Looked Like

Posted on by

Yesterday The Daily Wire reported that the Interior Minister of the new Afghanistan government is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the Taliban- and al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network and a State Department “specially designated global terrorist.” For anyone who is unaware, the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al-Qaeda are the best of friends. We can expect the new Afghanistan government to reflect the interests of all three groups. Those interests include Sharia Law throughout Afghanistan and eventually throughout the world, women put back in the place they were under Sharia Law, and restoration of the Islamic  Caliphate that was the Ottoman Empire. The place where things will get interesting will be when the leaders of various factions have to decide exactly who will rule the caliphate.

The article reports:

“Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a long-time Taliban member who has been [the] leader of the group’s Shura or Leadership Council for about two decades, was named as prime minister. He is seen as an influential and respected on the religious side of the movement, rather than on its military side,” CNN reported. Not a single female leader was among those appointed, despite the Taliban’s reported newfound commitment to women’s rights.

“Two senior figures in the Haqqani Network, a US-designated terror group aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, will be in in the interim government. Both have been sanctioned by the United Nations and the US,” the outlet added.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the Haqqani Network’s leader, CNN noted, and he is joined by his uncle, Khalil Haqqani, who was appointed “acting minister of refugees,” though it is not clear whether that refers to incoming or outgoing Afghans.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by both the FBI and the United States State Department, and he has a $5 million bounty from the U.S. State Department on his head, according to the FBI’s “Most Wanted” page,  which still lists his whereabouts as largely unknown.

Just for the record, Fox News reported the following yesterday:

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.

At least if anyone wanted to deal with these criminals, we know where to find them.

Bad Decisions Have Bad Results

Posted on by

In October 2018 The Military Times reported the following:

Five members of the Afghan Taliban who were freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have joined the insurgent group’s political office in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday.Guantn

They will now be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, a sign some negotiators in Kabul say indicates the Taliban’s desire for a peace pact.

Others fear the five, all of whom were close to the insurgent group’s founder and hard-line leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, bring with them the same ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam that characterized the group’s five-year rule that ended in 2001 with the U.S.-led invasion.

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan.

In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday’s sacking of Kabul.

Soon after gaining their freedom, some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there. But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the disturbing intelligence reports, and it wasn’t long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile.

Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent “peace” talks.

…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.

Leopards don’t really change their spots:

The mastermind of the regime change is former detainee Khairkhwa, the Taliban mullah whom Obama released from Gitmo even though the Pentagon classified him as too dangerous to release.

The article notes the behavior of the Taliban as they conquer Afghanistan:

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.

The New York Post article concludes:

It’s not clear if then-Vice President Biden was fully on board with Obama’s controversial prisoner exchange. But in a reversal of Trump administration policy, Biden has restarted Obama’s program to release Gitmo detainees as part of a renewed push to close the prison.

Last month, the president released his first prisoner — accused terrorist Abdul Latif Nasser — leaving the number of remaining detainees at 39. Ten others have been cleared for release, while still others have appealed to Biden through their pro-bono defense lawyers to ensure their release, despite the risk of them returning to militant activities like the Taliban Five.

If Obama and Biden had left the five Taliban thugs to rot in Cuba, Kabul more than likely would not be back in the clutches of the Taliban right now. And maybe Americans wouldn’t have sacrificed more than 2,400 troops and $1 trillion in vain.

The Obama administration’s foreign policy decisions were not helpful to our nation. It looks as if the Biden administration has the same problem.