Friday, June 6, 2014

TAKE A DEEP BREATH OR TEN

This is a quick and dirty look at the five "terrorists" we traded to get Bowe Bergdahl beck. Faux is foaming at the mouth, of course. If one word in twenty that come out of their mouths is true it'd surprise the hell out of me. The forces of good have managed to mute the great RL. Anybody for a full courst press against the pants on fire folks over at Fox?

 I got most of the basic information from a Politifact article.  Dates of detention are from individual Wickipedia articles on each man.

Ok, before we hit the Taliban panic button let’s take a look at what we had. Mohammad Fazl. Military commander and acted as the Taliban’s army chief of staff. The UN would really like to talk to him about possible war crimes involving the deaths of Shiite Muslims. I suspect that, like al-Qaida, the majority of the Taliban are Sunni Muslims and their main power base at the time was the ethnically majority Pashtun areas of eastern Afghanistan.   Held at Gitmo since January 2002.
Norullah Noori is described as a senior military commander and one time governor of Balkh province. The UN would also like a bit of chat over possible war crimes. Held at Gitmo since January 2002.
Khairullah Khairkhwa was the governor of Herat province and was alleged to be one of the major drug lords. Opium is a major export product and both sides were selling it to buy arms during the Soviet occupation. Wonder how much of it ended up in the veins of Americans. All for the greater good of course. Detained since May of 2002. To make life just a bit more interesting he’s been described as a long time friend of President Karzai.

Abdul Haq Wasiq was deputy chief of intelligence. Alleged to have ties to al-Qaida. Held at Gitmo since January 2002.

Mohammad Nabi Omari described as a senior Taliban office who served in multiple leadership roles. Also had links to al-Qaida. Wasiq and Omari were both apprehended while claiming to be providing information to the US. Held at Gitmo since October of 2002.

Notice a common denominator here? The year 2002. These guys have been out of the loop fourteen years. I have no doubt that they were and may be dangerous. They may also finally get home and find that the world has passed them by if they’re in any shape physically or psychologically to take up the fight.
May I suggest that we all go find a cup of coffee, take a few deep breaths, wait and see what happens. I suspect that the reception, wherever that may be.  may just go along the lines of "brothers welcome home, you have finally been delivered. OK what did you tell the Americans?"

As I said this a quick and dirty entry with some basic information. I don't suppose anyone at Faux would be interested.

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