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Taliban's High-Risk Commanders
00:02:19
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| Thanks for watching. | |
| The Guantanamo Five are top Taliban commanders, and the group has tried to free them for more than a decade. | |
| According to a 2008 Pentagon dossier on Guantanamo Bay inmates, it was disclosed by WikiLeaks, All five men released were considered to be a high risk to launch attacks against the U.S. | |
| and its allies if they were liberated. | |
| Mullah Mohammad Fazl is Taliban's former Deputy Defense Minister and is wanted by the United Nations for his role in massacres targeting Afghan's Shiite Muslim population. | |
| Mullah Nawrullah Nouri was a senior Taliban military figure directly subordinate to Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Omar. | |
| Nouri led troops against US and coalition forces and is also wanted by the UN for possible war crimes, including the murder of thousands of Shiites. | |
| Abdul Haq Wasiq is a former Deputy Minister of Intelligence. | |
| At one point, he tried to cooperate with U.S. | |
| forces in Afghanistan, asking for a GPS system as well as a special radio to communicate with the U.S. | |
| military after the invasion in 2001. | |
| His dossier says that while he was Deputy Intelligence Minister, he was a crucial liaison between the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups. | |
| Mohammed Nabi Omari held several military leadership posts for the Taliban. | |
| He helped organize the Al-Qaeda and Taliban militias that fought against U.S. | |
| and coalition troops in the first year of the war. | |
| Nabi maintained weapons caches and supported extremist activities by smuggling fighters and weapons. | |
| Nabi maintains strong ties to active networks. | |
| A former Taliban governor of Herat was considered by the Pentagon's 2008 dossier to be a likely | |
| heroin trafficker and a major opium drug lord in western Afghanistan. | |
| And he likely participated in meetings with Iranian officials after 9-11 to help plot | |
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Taliban Influence Swap
00:00:49
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| attacks on U.S. forces. | |
| forces. | |
| The dossier says the detainee claimed to be a longtime friend of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. | |
| According to Afghanistananalysts.org, Karikwa is the most senior of the five on the list. | |
| He is one of the fraternity of original Taliban who launched the movement in 1994. | |
| In other words, he is someone who will still command a great deal of influence and respect among today's insurgents. | |
| This week's secret diplomacy was not the first time the U.S. | |
| government has engaged the Taliban in an effort to negotiate a prisoner swap for Bergdahl's release. | |
| In 2011, State Department officials held a series of meetings with Taliban leaders in Doha. | |
| At the time, Dianne Feinstein opposed the swap, saying, these are major Taliban figures. | |
| They are not minor people. | |