Four high-ranking terrorists once detained in Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but released by then-President Barack Obama in 2014 in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl, have achieved high-ranking positions in the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
At the time, the ruling Democrats, including Biden administration officials Antony Blinken and Jen Psaki, dismissed the deal as a non-threat to national security.
At the time, Blinken, then the deputy national security adviser, told NBC that “any threat they would pose to the United States [and] to Americans has been sufficiently mitigated.”
Blinken also claimed the terrorists would be “very carefully monitored” by Qatar, which aided the exchange.
“There will be restrictions on their travel, on their activities,” he claimed.
But now, four out of the five terrorists released by Obama have attained top-level jobs in the new Taliban regime. It appears that the former prisoners flew in immediately after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, in preparation for their new administrative roles.
The Taliban announced on Tuesday that the former prisoners would take up key positions in the new regime.
Khairullah Khairkhwa will serve as acting minister for information and culture, Norullah Noori as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Abdul Haq Wasiq as acting director of intelligence, and Mohammad Fazl as deputy defense minister.
Prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Wasiq was a senior intelligence official for the Taliban. He also worked with al Qaeda in preparation for the assault.
Fazl likewise served as the Taliban’s deputy defense minister in 2001, and is retaking his old post. He worked with both al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s administration.
Despite the group’s history of active terrorism, President Joe Biden and his administration have shown little concern.
Following Tuesday’s announcement, Senator Ben Sasse, R.-Neb, called Joe Biden’s support of the Taliban regime “pathetic.”
“President Biden still clings to an insane fantasy that the Taliban is kinder and gentler,” Sasse said. “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.”
Making matters worse, the prisoners were exchanged for the infamous deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
A former member of Bergdahl’s platoon, Josh Korder, expressed his frustration.
“They spent so much time with us, they know our inner workings,” Korder said when asked about the former prisoners’ capabilities. “The one gentleman is supposed to be the mastermind behind the entire fall of Afghanistan.”
“He got up and close and personal with us and probably learned a little bit about our hubris and who we are as a nation, and made this plan to retake Afghanistan,” added Korder.
According to Korder, United States officials ought to have seen this coming.
“Frankly, I am horrified. This is just terrible,” said Korder. “It’s the absolute worst ending but as soon as we traded those prisoners and legitimized the Taliban, it was over.”
