Will we ever learn our lesson? All signs point to no.
Via Weekly Standard:
Newsweek’s Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau have published a list of the “12 of the most-hunted insurgent commanders on the front lines” in Afghanistan. The list is made up “of lesser-known lieutenants who include some of the insurgency’s most important and aggressive operatives.” But one of the “dirty dozen” is former Guantanamo detainee Maulvi Abdul Rauf Khadim.
Here’s Newsweek’s description of Khadim:
Until 9/11, the hard-nosed Khadim commanded Mullah Omar’s elite mobile reserve force, fighting regime opponents all over Afghanistan. Arrested and sent to Guantánamo soon after the Taliban’s collapse, he was released in late 2007, having convinced his jailers that he wanted only to go home and tend his farm. Escaping from house arrest in Kabul, he fled to Pakistan. Today he’s the shadow governor of southern Uruzgan province and a potential rival to [Abdul Qayyum] Zakir (who was freed from Gitmo at the same time) for the insurgency’s top slot, with a loyal following of fighters at the heart of the U.S. military surge in neighboring Kandahar and Helmand provinces. “He will be very important in the future,” says one senior Taliban commander.
Of course, Khadim did not admit he was one of Mullah Omar’s henchmen during hearings at Gitmo. Instead, Khadim claimed he simply wanted to go back to a life of farming.
Newsweek says Khadim is a “potential rival” to Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, who is Mullah Omar’s top military commander. Zakir is also a former Gitmo detainee. He is not included on the dirty dozen list only because he is more senior than the insurgents listed.