WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on Sunday met with the families of three Americans held by Taliban rulers in Afghanistan since 2022, underscoring his determination to bring back Americans unjustly detained abroad. The White House announced.
The Biden administration has announced a U.S. offer to release three Americans, Ryan Corbett, George Glezman, and Mahmoud Habibie, in exchange for Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay. The United States has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July. Reuters reported last week, citing people familiar with the talks.
Another person familiar with the effort said Sunday that efforts to secure the Americans' release were continuing.
Mr. Corbett and Mr. Habibi were arrested in separate incidents in August 2022, a year after the Taliban captured Kabul amid the chaos of the U.S. military withdrawal. Glezman was detained in late 2022 while visiting as a tourist.
Mahmoud Habibie's brother, Ahmad Habibi, who spoke by phone on Sunday, welcomed the meeting with Biden.
“President Biden has made it very clear that he will not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not release his brother.” “He said he would not leave him behind. His family is very grateful that he stood up for his brother.”
The Taliban, which denies holding Habibi, had countered the U.S. proposal with an offer to swap Glezman and Corbett with Rahim and two others, one of the people told Reuters last week.
The White House noted that Biden has brought home more than 75 Americans who were wrongfully detained around the world, including in Myanmar, China, Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Russia, Rwanda, Venezuela and West Africa.
The administration also announced that it had repatriated all Americans held in Afghanistan before the U.S. military withdrawal.
“President Biden and his team, often in collaboration with key allies, are working around the clock to negotiate the release of hostages and Americans unjustly detained overseas so they can be reunited with their families. “We have been successful and will continue to do so for the remainder of our term.”
In a report on the agency's so-called enhanced interrogation program, the Senate Intelligence Committee called Rahim an “al-Qaeda facilitator” and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and “turned over” to the CIA the following month. Ta.
The report said he was held in a top-secret CIA black site, where he underwent intense interrogation, including extensive sleep deprivation, before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in March 2008.
Biden last week sent 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman as part of efforts to close the facility as the president prepares to leave office on January 20, cutting the number of inmates at the Cuban detention center by nearly half. I let it happen.
