Former President Barack Obama didn’t listen to Pentagon officials when they told him Taliban mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa was too dangerous to release. Instead, he freed the group that came to be known as the ‘Gitmo five’ — Khairkhwa alongside four of his buddies — from the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2014 in exchange for a U.S. soldier who deserted his post.
Obama all but guaranteed that Khairkhwa and the four other men would be sent to Qatar, where their movements would be restricted and where they could do no harm. As it turns out, the Taliban isn’t as trustworthy as the former president thought.
Now, Khairkhwa has resurfaced as one of the masterminds behind the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the New York Post reported Tuesday. --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool |
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.
Earlier this year, one of them, Khairullah Khairkhwa, actually sat across the table from President Biden’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Moscow, where Khairkhwa was part of the official Taliban delegation that negotiated the final terms of the US withdrawal. The retreat cleared a path for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
+++++Khairullah Khairkhwa, part of 'Gitmo 5' released in 2014, planned Taliban's return: Report+++++
Reports: Gitmo ‘Graduates,’ Jihadist Traded for Bowe Bergdahl on Taliban Victory Team
Reported mastermind behind Taliban takeover released from Guantanamo Bay by Obama in Bergdahl prisoner swap
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