Biden didn’t just leave behind the Americans he refused to evacuate after the Taliban’s August 31st deadline. He also abandoned
Mark Frerichs, a Navy vet who had been taken hostage by the Haqqani Network, a component of the Taliban tied to Al Qaeda.
The Taliban now appear to admit to negotiating over his fate with the Biden administration.
Last month, Newsweek published an urgent appeal by Frerichs’ sister, Charlene Cakora, addressed to Haqqani network commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, a deputy leader for the Taliban. Specifically, she proposed freeing Frerichs in exchange for the release of Afghan tribal leader Bashir Noorzai, who was jailed on drug trafficking charges after being lured to New York on a self-styled diplomacy mission in 2005 and is currently serving a life sentence at a federal prison in New Hampshire.
Or we could have demanded that Frerichs be freed in exchange for the whole handing over the country to the Taliban thing.
While the elder Haqqani has not since discussed Frerichs’ case in public, his brother, Anas Haqqani, another senior Taliban official and fellow son of the late powerful leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, has offered new insight into a potential deal to secure the captive Florida man raised in Illinois.
“Regarding the Mark Frerichs case, there was an exchange of discussion in this regard between the U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the head of the Political Bureau, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar,” Anas Haqqani, who himself was released from captivity in 2019 as part of a prisoner exchange between the Taliban and former Afghan government, told Newsweek.
All of this is a helpful reminder that the Haqqani Network is very much part of the Taliban. And the Taliban is well aware of the case and playing games.
The Haqqani Network which took Frerichs hostage is the same Jihadist group that was handling the checkpoints and security around Kabul airport.
And the Biden administration let it happen.
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