Four of 'Taliban Five' Gitmo Detainees Released by Obama Hold Senior Taliban Positions

Four of 'Taliban Five' Gitmo Detainees Released by Obama Hold Senior Taliban Positions


In 2014 then-President Barack Obama exchanged five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for one very controversial American; U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Now, four of the five detainees, referred to as the “Taliban Five” are serving in senior level positions for the Taliban’s newly formed government.

As Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse put it in a statement he released Tuesday, “President Biden still clings to an insane fantasy that the Taliban is kinder and gentler. It’s nonsense.”

The New York Post reports the terrorist’s new positions: “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. The fifth member of the Taliban Five, Mohammad Nabi Omari, was appointed governor of eastern Khost province last month.”

Obama’s prisoner exchange garnered a lot of attention, not just because he was releasing five known terrorists, but also because of who they were being exchanged for. “In 2015, Bergdahl was charged by the military with desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty and one count of misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of his fellow soldiers. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank and a fine.”

The Post writes:

Despite the assessments recommending “continued detention” for the five, President Barack Obama signed off on an agreement that sprang the men from Gitmo in exchange for the release of Bergdahl, who had been taken captive by the Taliban after walking away from an observation post in Paktika province in June 2009.

“The United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind,” Obama said at a Rose Garden ceremony announcing Bergdahl’s release on May 31, 2014.

As Bergdahl returned to the United States, the Taliban Five were flown to Qatar, where much of the Taliban’s political leadership resided at the time. Among those aghast at the price paid for Bergdahl’s return was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the Taliban Five were “the hardest of the hard-core” and “the highest high-risk people.”

Bergdahl has since appealed to a federal court in a bid to get his conviction overturned.

Former President Trump has consistently chastised Obama and Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer of the rescue of Bergdahl.

On the campaign trail in 2015, presidential candidate Trump criticized Obama and the prisoner swap. “So we get a traitor named Bergdahl. A dirty, rotten traitor. Who, by the way when he deserted, six young, beautiful people were killed trying to find him…so we get Bergdahl, a traitor, and they get five of the people that they most wanted anywhere in the world. Five killers that are right now back on the battlefield, doing a job. That’s the kind of deals we make.”

In 2019 as President, Trump stated he will always stick up for our armed forces, and, “when you have a system that allows sergeant Bergdahl to go, and you probably had five to six people killed, nobody even knows the number, because he left, and he gets a slap in the wrist, if that. And then you have a system where these warriors get put in jail for 25 years. I’m gonna stick for the warrior, I will stick up for the warriors.”


Poll

Join the Newsletter