On May 31, 2014 President Obama gleefully announced that he transferred five Guantanamo Bay detainees to Qatar in exchange for the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who was held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Breitbart provided the following information on the Taliban 5 back in December of 2015 –
The Taliban Five – Mohammad Fazl, Mohammed Nabi, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Nori, and Khairullah Khairkhwa – were freed from Guantánamo in exchange for Bergdahl.
Mohammed Fazl is one of the first freed Guantanamo detainees to be retained from Afghanistan, accused by the UN of committing war crimes, and suspected of taking part in the slaughter of thousands of Shiite Muslims.
Mohammad Nabi, the former chief of Taliban security, arranged cooperative offenses with Al Qaeda, according to declassified files.
Abdul Haq Wasiq, a deputy to the deceased Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, was one of the top intelligence officials for the jihadi leader. He arranged training with top Al Qaeda operatives.
Mullah Norullah Nori is a senior Taliban commander who is also wanted by the UN for war crimes, and also took part in the suspected mass killing campaign against Shiites.
Khairullah Khairkhwa, a Taliban commander, has ties to the Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran. He was reportedly trusted by Taliban chief Mullah Omar to negotiate ties with Iran.
A House of Representatives report stated that at “least three of the five Taliban leaders… have tried to plug back into their old terror network” and there were indications then that Qatar was eager to have the Taliban Five depart their country. Breitbart also noted that, “If the Taliban Five leave (or have already left) Qatar, there is virtually no measure in place to track the former Guantanamo detainees, or prevent them from re-emerging on the battlefield.”
President Donald Trump was highly critical of Bergdahl on the campaign trail, calling him a “dirty, rotten traitor”. Here is then-candidate Trump railing against “traitor” Bergdahl.
The Government Accountability Office concluded that the Obama Administration broke the law in the Bergdahl swap because Obama failed to notify Congressional Committees at least 30 days in advance of the deal.
Now this…
Four of the five Gitmo detainees swapped for Bowe Bergdahl were named as top commanders in Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.
The Daily Mail reported:
Four top members of the Taliban’s new interim government are former Guantanamo Bay prisoners who were freed by the Obama administration in a prisoner exchange for Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
The four new officials were members of the hardline ‘Guantanamo Five’ who were traded to free Bergdahl from the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in 2014.
The Taliban on Tuesday announced the appointment of 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 four men, who also took part in direct negotiations with the US at the Doha summit last year, spent about 13 years in the military prison camp before they were freed in a trade for the admitted deserter, who was captured by insurgents after wandering off his post.
