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Five jihadis freed from Guantanamo in exchange for Bergdahl now face US as Taliban reps at peace talks

Mar 28, 2019 11:00 am By Robert Spencer

Those who warned that these men would return to the jihad were mocked and vilified as “Islamophobes.”

“Once Jailed in Guantánamo, 5 Taliban Now Face U.S. at Peace Talks,” by Mujib Mashal, New York Times, March 26, 2019:

DOHA, Qatar — When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban government, even those who surrendered were treated as terrorists: handcuffed, hooded and shipped to the American detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Now, in a stark demonstration of the twists and contradictions of the long American involvement in Afghanistan, five of those men are sitting across a negotiating table from their former captors, part of the Taliban team discussing the terms of an American troop withdrawal.

“During our time in Guantánamo, the feeling was with us that we had been brought there unjustly and that we would be freed,” said one of the former detainees, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa. “But it never occurred to me that one day there would be negotiations with them, and I would be sitting there with them on one side and us on the other.”

The five senior Taliban officials were held at Guantánamo for 13 years before catching a lucky break in 2014. They were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American service member to be held by the insurgents as a prisoner of war.

In recent months, as the American and militants took up intense negotiations to try to end the conflict in Afghanistan, the Taliban leadership made a point of including the former prisoners. Each day during the recent round of talks in Doha, Qatar, the five men sat face to face with American diplomats and generals.

During days of slow and at times frustrated discussions at the most recent session, which ended on March 12, it was the Taliban side that was often more emotional. Some gave impassioned speeches about how vital it was that the Americans completely leave Afghanistan in as little as six months….

The five former Guantánamo detainees had varying roles during the Taliban government. Mullah Khairkhwa served as a governor and acting minister of interior. Abdul Haq Wasiq was deputy minister of intelligence.

Perhaps the most infamous figure in the group is Mullah Fazel Mazloom, a front-line commander who was also chief of the Taliban army. While accusations of human rights abuses by the others have generally remained vague, there seems to be considerably more evidence against Mullah Mazloom, who is accused of mass killings and scorched-earth brutality….

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Filed Under: Afghanistan, Featured, Guantanamo, Taliban Tagged With: Abdul Haq Wasiq, Bowe Bergdahl, Mullah Fazel Mazloom, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa


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Comments

  1. somehistory says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 11:15 am

    Not one bit surprised. This was the natural course of allowing terrorists to be returned to their field of war and terror.

    Raymond Ibrahim has an excellent article explaining the “scorched earth” in which moslims engage. His article is all about “ribat”, “no-go zones” in their various cities, and their relation to isis.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 28, 2019 at 8:29 pm

      +1

    • SweetOlBob says

      Mar 31, 2019 at 10:14 pm

      Oh ! ‘Scuze me , but wasn’t that exchange one of the great victories scored by the little, pencil necked, lying, muslim fraud, obama*, as our Commander in Chief ?
      Lt’s be sure and list that in the bunch of huge lies he calls his accomplishments.
      *Lower Case Intentional

  2. elee says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 11:20 am

    How about a Congressional Act: No Negotiating With Criminals? How about another Act: No Negotiating To Release Criminals?

  3. mortimer says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 11:28 am

    A modern university-level course of study developed by expert teachers will deprogram almost anyone out of Islam. If Western governments invested even a small percentage of their defense budgets in deprogramming Muslims, most Muslims would leave Islam in about 20 years.

    Private individuals, however, are deprogramming Muslims now on very limited budgets … THEY ARE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE considering what little money they have to work with. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar are financing Islamic propaganda everywhere.

    The West must fight back IDEOLOGICALLY or lose this battle. It should not be left to individual counterjihadists to do ALL the Ideological heavy lifting.

    • James Lincoln says

      Mar 28, 2019 at 12:57 pm

      Mortimer says,

      “Private individuals, however, are deprogramming Muslims now on very limited budgets … THEY ARE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE considering what little money they have to work with.”

      Sounds like some great news.

      Please provide references, methods to donate money to these private groups, etc.

      • elee says

        Mar 28, 2019 at 2:02 pm

        Yes, please, me too.

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 28, 2019 at 8:44 pm

        All Mortimer has ever done when pressed is point to a couple of ex-Muslim’s websites and, oddly, to Jihad Watch itself as supposedly existing to “deprogram” Muslims. But this is not actually the case. None of these ex-Muslims have claimed that they are “deprogramming” Muslims, nor has Jihad Watch.

        Mortimer should, in fact, be able to point to significant numbers of Muslims that he himself has “deprogrammed” (even with a limited budget)–but he has never posted a single testimonial.

        So this claim from Mortimer that this mythical “modern university-level course of study developed by expert teachers” will deprogram almost anyone out of Islam in twenty years is baseless.

        And Mortimer entirely bases this “deprogramming” on the assumption that Muslims know little about the violence of their creed, and would be horrified if they found out.

        But are we to believe that these Taliban would *really* be sickened if they learned that Islam was violent? What about ISIS? Boko Haram? Let’s just say this seems unlikely…

        Mortimer is a staunch Anti-Jihadist and an excellent scholar of Islamic texts–I have a great deal of respect for him. But his hobbyhorse of “deprogramming” Muslims that he is so wedded to is, sadly, worse than useless.

        • James Lincoln says

          Mar 29, 2019 at 8:00 am

          gravenimage,

          Thanks for the detailed response.

          I was truly hoping that mortimer could provide some evidence that I was not aware of. I would gladly donate to the cause.

          I too have done fairly extensive research regarding the “deprogramming” of Muslims and have yet to find any evidence-based research that supports it.

          I wish that this were not the case…

          That being said, high level research should be conducted in this area.

          And mortimer does adds great value to Jihad Watch.

        • gravenimage says

          Mar 31, 2019 at 11:57 pm

          James. I absolutely agree. I *wish* it was the case that we could simply put together a few university-level courses and then easily civilize all Muslims. I just think it is dangerous to count on this, since it is a pipe dream.

          That being said, I also agree that Mortimer contributes a *great deal* to Jihad Watch. In his knowledge of the texts of Islam, especially, he is almost unmatched.

    • b.a. freeman says

      Mar 28, 2019 at 4:45 pm

      *excellent* point, mortimer!

      +1

      • elee says

        Mar 29, 2019 at 10:26 am

        Thanks from me too gravenimage. Well that was a flurry of hope…….

  4. owensgate says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 1:09 pm

    The average German soldier of the Wehrmacht didn’t believe his salvation depended on the survival of the 3rd Reich, and that’s the difference. The Mohammadan jihadi fully believes obedience to allah determines his access to 72 virgins in a pastoral green paradise, so that allegiance totally supersedes whatever any earthly government can demand. There is NO rehabilitation that can cure this by earthly means, or any appeal to a secular line of thought. The biggest mistake we in the West assume is that by incarceration for a period, while we provide them with prayer rugs, accurate prayer times courtesy of the U.S. Naval observatory, halal meals, will “cure” them, that upon release, they will return to the miserable agrarian lives in the 3rd World countries they came from, and live happily ever after. What we SHOULD have been doing, is changing their hearts and minds by telling them Who Jesus is, and what He did.

  5. elee says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    Do note that Hitler famously disparaged the Christian values of love and forgiveness, as contrary to the neo-pagan Reich he hoped to launch. Come to think of it Muslim heaven isn’t that different from Valhalla, is it?

    Oh and…..a Muslim can only recover if (s)he first absorbs the notion of individual choices, individual reasoning, and individual responsibility. After decades of force-feeding with Koran 33:37 et al, that’s a big and fundamental change.

  6. elee says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 3:01 pm

    You might want to ask your Congressional delegates why this is happening. I just did. No answer yet Maybe no satisfactory answer ever.

    Anybody got any spare drones lying around?

  7. Jay says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 3:18 pm

    Basically…… Obama’s terrorist chickens have come home to roost!!
    Trump,2020 our only hope 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  8. Walter Sieruk says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    Having actual, real, genuine productive “peace talks” with those violent ad murderous Taliban characters is an absurd and fool idea of folly Therefore this topic is of such great importance the it’s very necessary that this message need to be reiterated .

    One thing is for sure, even if even attempting to engage on “peace talks” with Taliban it would be best not to be naïve about them and take at face value anything that they might say or promise. To just “give trust away” to those Islamic characters who compose the Taliban would be foolishness and folly. For when trying to have genuine negotiations with the them ,it need to be kept in mind that there is an Islamic doctrine called TAQIYYA This is the Muslim dogma the lying and deception are good things to do, if and as long as the lies and deceit are done for the advancement of Islam.

    For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will most likely speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”

    .Furthermore, if attempting to engage in “peace talks” with Taliban it would be very naïve to take at face value anything that the Taliban might promise. For example, the Taliban might say that they will respect the rights of women and girls, for they ,many times, employ the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya In those so called “negotiations” with officials of the West .Taaqyia ids the Islamic teaching that lying and deceit
    So it may be nothing but foolishness and folly to even try to have worthwhile constructive peace discussions with lying brutal cruel men who make up the Taliban. For having a genuine practical peace compromise with Taliban might be impossible

    As the former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had well-spoken when he said “There has never been – there never can be – successful compromise between good and evil.”.

    • elee says

      Mar 29, 2019 at 10:30 am

      Thanks, good post.

  9. b.a. freeman says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    While accusations of human rights abuses by [probably supposed to be “of” or “done by”] the others have generally remained vague …
    —
    they’re *all* pious muslims, so it’s a given that they have committed human rights violations; otherwise, they would be dead for *not* committing them. human rights violations are the fundamental core of islam.

  10. sheliak says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    Another pointed humiliation of the infidel.

  11. gravenimage says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    Five jihadis freed from Guantanamo in exchange for Bergdahl now face US as Taliban reps at peace talks
    ……………

    What–you mean they wet and joined the Jihad? I’m shocked, shocked! Wait–no I’m not.

    And these “peace talks” with the murderous Taliban as a sick joke.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 31, 2019 at 11:57 pm

      went

  12. sidney penny says

    Mar 28, 2019 at 8:34 pm

    “They were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, ”

    President Obama’s Work

  13. infidel says

    Mar 29, 2019 at 12:59 am

    Letting off Muslim terrorists has a nasty history of non muslims getting snake bitten with huge venom. In India’s sordid history with Islam, there was once a valiant Hindu King by the name of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, who defeted the beastly Jehaadi Ghori from Afghanistan 7 times in battle and each time Chauhan let Ghori go back. But the 8th time around Ghori conspired with Chauhan’s own close kin Jaichand, who in turn betrayed Chauhan and Ghori finally ended up defeating the Hindu King. Immediately, Ghori had Chauhan in the heaviest of fetters and gouged out his eyes with red hot iron skewers. As Chauhan writhed in pain, he hollered at the animal Jehaadi as to why he is being treated this way? He asked Ghori as to how he forgot that he had been spared 7 times earlier? The animal beast of a Jehaadi immediately replied pat…” Why the hell did Chauhan spare him in the first place?”. This is how these mad animals operate and this holds true even today.

  14. na says

    Mar 29, 2019 at 4:23 am

    Who are the new make up beauties? I have not seen these faces before.

  15. CRUSADER says

    Mar 29, 2019 at 5:33 am

    President Trump tweeted “The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”

    • na says

      Mar 29, 2019 at 8:34 am

      They are very dangerous new face of terrorism.

  16. elee says

    Mar 29, 2019 at 10:52 am

    Truth is a woman in Islam. She must be hijabbed, hidden in her own ghetto at home, she can be divorced in an instant at the Muslim’s pleasure, and he can marry four truths plus all the captives of his right hand. But hey, it’s all okay, she can drive now, the Book still says to beat her but only after you exile her from your bed. Anyone who doesn’t like this is probably repeating lies they heard from Jews and apostates. Oh and don’t be looking at a Muslim’s wife, that’s why she’s encased in a (barely) walking cloth jail.

    And here we thought a mere bodyguard of lies was sufficient. He who would dine with the devil will need a very long spoon. And hey fellow kafirs, I’d rather go hungry, but that isn’t an option. If you’ve got responsibilities, you can’t tune out and go to bed hungry and dream about something happy. Time for today’s Romans to learn a lot about the Huns.

    Read up and wake up.

  17. No Muzzies Here says

    Mar 29, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    Part of Obama’s Hate-America legacy.

    • Richard Cromwell says

      Mar 29, 2019 at 6:52 pm

      True, that. What else is new?

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