By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--June 9, 2014
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One of the five Taliban leaders freed from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release has pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan, according to a fellow militant and a relative. "After arriving in Qatar, Noorullah Noori kept insisting he would go to Afghanistan and fight American forces there,” a Taliban commander told NBC News via telephone from Afghanistan. Noori pushed to return to Afghanistan after learning that the U.S. had provided written assurances that no country would arrest any of the five freed for a year as long as they lived peacefully, one of his relatives told NBC News by telephone from Afghanistan.You would assume that the Obama administration is deeply troubled by this. After all, it's exactly the kind of PR nightmare they don't need. They've probably been holding intense discussions with the State Department, and our Secretary of State is putting all kinds of pressure on Qatar. Clearly, when a high value combatant like Noorullah Noori makes this type of threat, the U.S government takes it seriously, right?
“Well, first of all, propaganda is propaganda and they’ll say whatever they want to stir the waters. So, people should not be lure in by their propaganda number one. Number two, we are ending our combat role. Our combat role in Afghanistan is over. We're going to have very few ...y’know… people in that kind of position on occasion. But I honestly.... I just think that’s a lot of baloney to be truthful with you.”Almost 10,000 troops. That's the number of U.S. forces that the Obama administration has said will remain in Afghanistan after our drawdown this year. They'll probably be there until at least 2016. John Kerry thinks this represents a "very few." More importantly, why should we assume that people like Noorullah Noori will limit their efforts to combat targets? Just last night, Taliban forces - allied with assorted militant groups - lay siege to the airport in Karachi. From USA Today:
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a brazen siege on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport overnight Monday that left dozens dead, saying the attack was in retaliation for drone strikes on villages in Pakistan's troubled northwest border region.Maybe they hadn't heard that we're ending our "combat role." Kerry & Co. may be stupid enough to believe that the prisoner release will never come back to haunt U.S. interests, but fortunately the Pentagon is probably not. They seem to be well aware of the odds that one of the Gitmo 5 will return to wreak havoc. From CNN:
The number of former detainees once held by the U.S. in Cuba but now returning to terrorism activity has risen from 14 percent to 20 percent, according to a senior Defense official. A classified report by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) says that one in five former detainees returned or are suspected to have returned to terrorist activity after leaving the U.S. prison facility. That is an increase from 14 percent from a similar report by the DIA released in April, according to the official familiar with the new report.Twenty percent. One in five. How many prisoners did Obama just release? ...How many have threatened to return to action? Hmmmmm.....
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