Obama has said that it is contrary to American principles to keep prisoners in Guantanamo indefinitely without charge. Very well. So why wasn’t Mohammad Fazl ever charged for the murder of Mike Spann? Why was he released outright when it is extremely likely that he will rejoin the jihad in Afghanistan and try to murder more Americans? Will Barack Obama be held responsible for this, or will the mainstream media give him yet another free pass?
“Jihadist released in Bergdahl swap had hand in Qaeda plans before 9/11,” by Danika Fears, New York Post, June 13, 2014:
One of the five Guantánamo detainees released as part of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap had a hand in al Qaeda’s plans just before the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Mohammad Fazl — who was the Taliban’s army chief of staff and deputy defense minister before his detention at Guantánamo — was not directly involved in the 9/11 attacks, but he did play a part in a military offensive aimed at Taliban and al Qaeda enemies the day before the World Trade Center towers were destroyed, according to The Weekly Standard.
Osama bin Laden saw the Sept. 10 offensive as an important part of the terrorist group’s three-stage attack plan, which the 9/11 commission uncovered in the wake of the attacks, the magazine reports.
Fazl was involved in the second part of the plan, which was put into action just after the assassination of Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud — the Taliban’s chief rival — in a suicide bombing.
Fazl joined forces with one of bin Laden’s chief lieutenants, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, to begin a Taliban offensive against the Northern Alliance, which would strengthen Taliban and al Qaeda power in Afghanistan — and possibly pave the way for a terrorist attack against the United States.
Al Iraqi “stated the Northern Alliance was demoralized after the assassination and [he] met with [Fazl] to immediately coordinate an attack with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance,” according to a leaked Joint Task Force Guantánamo threat assessment of Fazl.
While Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar, hesitated to back an attack against the United States, al Qaeda believed the first stages of their plan would rally Taliban support, reports the magazine.
Al Qaeda military chief Mohammed Atef “would likely have remembered that Mullah Omar was dependent on them for the Massoud assassination and for vital support in the Taliban military operations,” while mulling over the terrorist plot, the 9/11 commission found.
Self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed recalled Atef “telling him that al Qaeda had an agreement with the Taliban to eliminate Massoud, after which the Taliban would begin an offensive to take over [all of] Afghanistan,” according to the 9/11 commission.
The other four Taliban leaders released from Guantánamo have also worked with al Qaeda on various occasions. These sorts of alliances may have made it easier for al Qaeda to carry out the terrorist attacks, the magazine reports.
“The alliance with the Taliban provided al Qaeda a sanctuary in which to train and indoctrinate fighters and terrorists, import weapons, forge ties with other jihad groups and leaders, and plot and staff terrorist schemes,” the 9/11 commission found.
Despite Fazl’s involvement in the military offensive, several US officials remain adamant that the Taliban 5 pose no threat to American security.
“These five guys are not a threat to the United States,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with NBC News. “They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them. So I think we may be kind of missing the bigger picture here.”
“Daughter’s heartbreak at learning Taliban leader responsible for her dad’s death when she was 9 was freed in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl,” by Lydia Warren, Daily Mail, June 13, 2014:
The daughter of the first American soldier killed in the war in Afghanistan has shared her heartbreak at learning that his killer – a Taliban leader – was freed by the U.S in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl.
Alison Spann was just nine when her father, CIA operative Johnny Micheal Spann, was killed during a prisoner uprising at a compound where he was interrogating Taliban fighters on November 25, 2001.
Mullah Mohammad Fazl, the leader of the prisoners at the compound, ended up in Guantanamo Bay – until two weeks ago when he and four others were switched for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
‘My initial reaction was shock,’ Spann told Fox. ‘I was shocked that our president would release five of the most high-risk prisoners being held in Guantanamo in exchange for one American.
‘As a whole, my family was extremely upset and saddened that our government would do something like this, especially in light of the fact that it seems that people in the intelligence community are fairly united in their belief that these terrorists are likely to seek to further harm Americans in the future.’
She said she still cannot understand why the county that her father fought for would release the man responsible for his death.
‘I do not believe that it was the right move by the administration,’ she added. ‘You cannot release someone of such a high caliber within the Taliban community and expect him to suddenly emerge as a peaceful being.’
Her father, who had served in the Marines for eight years before he joined the CIA, was 32 when he died at the Qala-i-Jangi compound near Mazari Sharit in northern Afghanistan early in the war.
Before he left, he had told his daughter: ‘You know people want to kill us and they’re trying to kill us. People like me have to go do the things that I have to do.’
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where then-CIA Director George Tenet said he had given up his life trying to build a ‘better, safer world’.
‘You cannot release someone of such a high caliber within the Taliban community and expect him to suddenly emerge as a peaceful being’
‘To that place of danger and terror, he sought to bring justice and freedom,’ Tenet said. ‘For Mike understood that it is not enough simply to dream of a better, safer world. He understood that it has to be built – with passion and dedication, in the face of obstacles, in the face of evil.’
Fazl had been deputy defense minister and commander of all Taliban troops in the northern Afghanistan region at the time of the September 11 attacks and he had also been accused of personally supervising the murders of thousands of Shiite and Tajik Sunni Muslims, Fox reported.
More than 2,300 Americans have died in Afghanistan since Spann’s death.
Bergdahl returned to the U.S on Friday after his release from five years in captivity in Afghanistan in the controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban.
Bergdahl, who has been recovering at an Army medical facility in Germany since his release last month, ‘will continue the next phase of his reintegration process,’ at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
Officials have kept quiet about Bergdahl’s condition to avoid rushing his back into the public spotlight after the captivity and amid a public uproar over the circumstances of his capture and release.
The Idaho native was captured in Afghanistan in June 2009 and released by the Taliban on May 31 in a deal struck by the Obama administration in which five senior Taliban officials were released from detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Army has not formally begun a new review into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture and whether he walked away without leave or was deserting the Army when he was found and taken by insurgents[.]