Reports are leaking from Washington that a high ranking White House official met with 8 senators on Tuesday, to brief them on plans to send some of the Taliban leaders being currently imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, to jails in the Arab nation of Qatar.
The senators that were briefed included four Democrats (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Intelligence Committee co-head Dianne Feinstein, Senate Armed Services co-chief Carl Levin, Senate Foreign Relations Committee co-leader John Kerry) and four Republicans (Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Intelligence Committee co-head Saxby Chambliss, Senate Armed Services chief John McCain, Senate Foreign Relations Committee co-leader Richard Lugar).
Although none of the senators made any comments after the briefing, several indicated prior to it that it had to do with the ongoing attempt of the Obama administration to reconcile with the Taliban. Prior to the meeting Sen Levin said,
“It depends on what assurances we have from the [Qatari] government that they are not going to be released. But I also think the Afghans have to be very much involved in any discussions and any process. They weren’t for a while.”
“We’re not releasing them. As I understand it they will be imprisoned in Qatar. But can the Qataris be trusted to keep them behind bars? That’s the question.”
I think Sen McCain expressed it better when prior to the briefing he said,
“The whole idea that they’re going to ‘transfer’ these detainees in exchange for a statement by the Taliban? It is really, really bizarre. This whole thing is highly questionable because the Taliban know we are leaving. I know many experts who would say they are rope-a-doping us.”
Earlier this month I wrote about the efforts of the Taliban to open an office in the tiny nation of Qatar. So let me ask why would we be sending jailed Taliban leaders to be jailed in a country that will be the only country in the world to have an official Taliban business office? How stupid and naïve can Obama be, or is it because he wants these Muslim extremists to be eventually freed? Is that what Obama negotiated?
