{"id":730211,"date":"2021-09-08T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T15:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=730211"},"modified":"2021-09-08T11:36:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T15:36:12","slug":"four-taliban-members-released-from-gitmo-in-trade-for-bowe-bergdahl-now-part-of-hardline-afghan-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/four-taliban-members-released-from-gitmo-in-trade-for-bowe-bergdahl-now-part-of-hardline-afghan-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Taliban Members Released From GitMo In Trade For Bowe Bergdahl Now Part Of Hardline Afghan Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffour-taliban-members-released-from-gitmo-in-trade-for-bowe-bergdahl-now-part-of-hardline-afghan-government%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=730211&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-865358348.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Four of the five Taliban members released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration in a prisoner trade for Bowe Bergdahl are now part of the Taliban\u2019s hardline government in Afghanistan, according to local reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe four members of the so-called \u2018Taliban Five\u2019 who have joined the new government are Acting Director of Intelligence Abdul Haq Wasiq, Acting Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Norullah Noori, Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Fazl, and Acting Minister of Information and Culture Khairullah Khairkhah,\u201d the New York Post noted Wednesday.&nbsp;\u201cThe fifth member of the Taliban Five, Mohammad Nabi Omari, was appointed governor of eastern Khost province last month.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWasiq, Fazl and Khairkhah all held positions in the former Taliban government,\u201d the Post noted, which is why the three ended up on GitMo. \u201cWasiq as a deputy intelligence chief, Fazl as army chief of staff and Khairkhah as interior minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wasiq \u201cutilized his office to support [al Qaeda] and to assist Taliban personnel elude capture,\u201d the outlet noted, citing an intelligence report from early on in the Afghan War. He \u201cwas central to the Taliban\u2019s efforts to form alliances with other Islamic fundamentalist groups to fight alongside the Taliban against U.S. and Coalition forces.\u201d&nbsp;Fazl was accused of establishing \u201coperational associations\u201d between the Taliban and \u201csignificant al Qaeda and other extremist personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Khairkhah, one of Afghanistan\u2019s \u201cmajor opium drug lords,\u201d was accused of trying to establish communication between the Taliban and the Iranians, who were reportedly interested in supporting attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/taliban-names-fbi-wanted-alleged-terror-leader-as-afghan-interior-minister\">Daily Wire reported<\/a> that one of the FBI\u2019s most wanted alleged terrorists, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the Taliban- and al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network and a State Department \u201cspecially designated global terrorist,\u201d was named Afghanistan\u2019s interior minister.<\/p>\n<p>Bergdahl, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2020\/08\/28\/court-upholds-bowe-bergdahls-sentence-despite-trump-dirty-traitor-comments.html\">Military Times noted<\/a>, \u201cabandoned his post in June 2009 on a deployment to Paktika province, Afghanistan,\u201d and &nbsp;\u201cwas subsequently captured by the Taliban and held as a prisoner of war for nearly five years.\u201d The Obama administration orchestrated a prisoner exchange and selected the five Taliban leaders to swap for Bergdahl, even though an assessment recommended the four remain in Guatanamo Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Then-president Barack Obama defended the exchange by noting that the United States \u201cdoes not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind.\u201d Despite his warm White House welcome, though, Military Times reported that Bergdahl \u201cultimately pleaded guilty at court-martial to desertion and misbehavior, and was sentenced in Nov. 2017 to a dishonorable discharge, reduction to the grade of private, and forfeiture of $1,000 in salary per month for ten months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Obama administration was not alone in agreeing to release Taliban prisoners. The Trump administration made a prisoner-swap deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusa9.com\/article\/news\/verify\/afghanistan-taliban-united-states-deal-5000-prisoners\/536-202b0ae9-6251-44d3-a3d0-b9e7d029aed9\">part of its proposed withdrawal agreement<\/a> with the Taliban, inked last year.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s State Department noted Wednesday that it was \u201cconcerned\u201d with the announcement of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban \u201ccaretaker\u201d government, but suggested that it was more deeply worried about the government\u2019s lack of diversity than members\u2019 affilaitions with terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen the announcement and are assessing it,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cWe note the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women. We also are concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words. We have made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government,\u201d the State Department spokesperson added. \u201cWe will continue to hold the Taliban to their commitments to allow safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans with travel documents, including permitting flights currently ready to fly out of Afghanistan to agreed-upon onward destinations. We also reiterate our clear expectation that the Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten any other countries and allow humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people.&nbsp;The world is watching closely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four of the five Taliban members released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration in a prisoner trade for Bowe Bergdahl are now part of the Taliban\u2019s hardline government in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-730211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}