In a roughly 30-minute cellphone name Sunday afternoon, President Biden delivered troublesome information to the households of three Individuals held by the Taliban. He didn’t have a take care of the Taliban to free their family members from captivity, regardless of what U.S. officers described to CBS Information as a major provide the U.S. had prolonged in Doha days earlier. The U.S. considers Ryan Corbett and George Glezmann to be wrongfully detained by the Taliban, and describes Mahmood Habibi, who holds twin American and Afghan citizenship, as “unjustly held” since 2022.
FBI public discover
Ahmad Shah Habibi, the brother of Mahmood Habibi, informed CBS Information that in the course of the dialog, Mr. Biden clarified that he wouldn’t comply with the Taliban’s demand that the U.S. launch Muhammed Rahim al Afghani, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, until the Taliban, now the federal government of Afghanistan, additionally releases Mahmood. An NSC spokesman declined to answer a CBS inquiry about that particular declare.
Mahmood Habibi disappeared in Afghanistan in 2022, and the Taliban denied abducting him. In a public discover posted by the FBI in August 2024, the company stated it “believed” that Habibi was taken by Taliban army or safety forces and “has not been heard from since his disappearance.” The FBI stated in its discover that Habibi was working as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecom firm when he disappeared.
The Taliban nonetheless say they don’t have Habibi in custody.
“No, we don’t have him,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid informed CBS Information Monday.
Requested whether or not Mahmoud had disappeared in Afghanistan, Mujahid stated, “It’s not clear either, because we didn’t know him before.”
Ahmad Habibi informed CBS Information, “My family has every confidence that my brother is alive. There are things that neither we nor the U.S. government can say publicly, but Mahmood’s case is different from the other two Americans.”
“We know the other families are desperate to get their loved ones home and I told the president we want them home, too,” Ahmad Habibi added. “But anyone speculating that my brother is dead is just feeding into Taliban claims. We are grateful that President Biden committed to not leave Mahmood behind,” and he stated that nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan had additionally made comparable assurances.
The FBI declined to remark.
Courtesy Corbett household
Corbett, who’s fluent in Pashto, was working for native nongovernmental organizations earlier than beginning a microloan and consulting enterprise in Kabul when he was arrested with three associates — one German and two Afghans — throughout a enterprise journey to northern Afghanistan in 2022.
Glezmann is an Atlanta native who was detained whereas on a vacationer go to in December 2022.
James Foley Basis web site
The household of Ryan Corbett is publicly calling on Mr. Biden to contemplate a deal to convey him and Glezmann dwelling.
“We hope that President Biden will have the courage to take the deal in front of him, given that the lives of several Americans rest on his shoulders,” Erin Pelton, a spokesperson for the Corbett household, informed CBS Information.
Corbett’s spouse, Anna Corbett, described the decision with the president throughout an look on Fox Information on Monday.
“He was very kind and empathetic, but what I heard him say is he’s not bringing Ryan home, and that was just devastating,” Anna Corbett stated. She blasted Mr. Biden for refusing to comply with the Taliban’s phrases for a deal. “It is not being taken and it is incredibly crushing to our family.”
She has launched a public marketing campaign in latest days to induce the incoming administration to press for her husband’s launch, and he or she traveled to President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence in hopes of constructing an in-person plea to Trump. Neither Mr. Biden nor Trump have met together with her but.
Anna Corbett did inform Fox Information that Trump despatched incoming nationwide safety adviser and present Florida Rep. Mike Waltz to satisfy together with her. She stated he spent greater than an hour listening to her household’s story. She expressed frustration that it took greater than a 12 months to get an identical assembly with the present nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan.
The Taliban have been demanding that the U.S. launch Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani, who’s being held in indefinite law-of-war detention at Guantanamo Bay. A supply aware of his case stated the U.S. intelligence group and Pentagon oppose Rahim’s launch and couldn’t assure that he now not represented a menace to the U.S. Nevertheless, the president may waive that if he decided it had been within the U.S. curiosity to finalize a prisoner swap.
Rahim was captured in Pakistan in 2007 by the CIA and was the final detainee despatched to the Guantanamo jail facility by the Bush administration in 2008. He has by no means been charged with struggle crimes, however the periodic evaluate board has deemed his continued detention a nationwide safety necessity. His 2016 intelligence profile describes him as a courier for al Qaeda.
In its assertion acknowledging the cellphone name, the White Home additionally famous that Mr. Biden had been capable of convey dwelling U.S. residents who had been detained earlier than the U.S. exit from Afghanistan in 2021. Corbett, Glezmann and Habibi had been detained after touring to Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to energy. That ascendance of the Taliban adopted a diplomatic deal negotiated by the Trump administration for U.S. troops to withdraw and a surprisingly sturdy Taliban army offensive that caught the Biden administration off guard, resulting in a hasty and chaotic U.S. evacuation. Unwilling to stay with out U.S. troops, NATO forces additionally pulled out.
The U.S. doesn’t formally acknowledge the Taliban, with its horrific human rights document, because the authentic authorities of Afghanistan however has been in touch with its leaders by U.S. companies in addition to by way of the Qatari authorities. Final weekend in Doha, Particular Presidential Envoy Roger Carstens and NSC official Jen Daskal pressed for a take care of the Taliban to free the Individuals.
A U.S. official described the Doha conferences as unsuccessful however declined to element which different people the Biden administration was keen to supply to the Taliban as a part of a possible commerce. The White Home described the Biden efforts as persevering with by the tip of his time period.
Mr. Biden has devoted a lot of his profession to overseas coverage, and that portion of his legacy is extraordinarily vital to him. In a speech Monday on the State Division, the president will describe the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan, arguably his largest overseas coverage failure, as having efficiently ended America’s longest struggle.
contributed to this report.
