AP says Washington is reviving a plan to transfer some Taliban fighters out of US control, but not release them from custody
The White House is considering sending suspected militants currently held at Guantánamo back to Afghanistan in a bid to kickstart stalled talks with the Taliban, it has been reported.
Citing US and Afghan officials as its source, the Associated Press said that under a plan being discussed, some Taliban fighters captured in the early days of the 2001 invasion would be transferred out of full American control but not released from custody.
It represents a leap of faith on the US side that the men will not become threats to Nato forces once back on Afghan soil. But it is meant to show more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency that Washington is still interested in cutting a deal for peace.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and others have said that while negotiations with the Taliban are distasteful, they are the best way to settle the prolonged war.
The new compromise is intended to boost the credibility of the US-backed Afghan government.
President Hamid Karzai and American officials are trying to draw the Taliban back to negotiations toward a peace deal between the national Afghan government and the Pashtun-based insurgency.
The Taliban have always been indifferent at best to negotiations with the Karzai government, saying the US holds effective control in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration has set a 2014 deadline to withdraw forces and is trying to frame talks among the Afghans beforehand.
Under the new proposal, Guantánamo prisoners would go to a detention facility adjacent to Bagram air field, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, officials of both governments said. The prison is inside the security perimeter established by the US military, and is effectively under US control for now. It is scheduled for transfer to full Afghan control in September.
Defence secretary Leon Panetta would have to sign off on the transfer and certify that the men did not pose a danger.
He would not confirm details of the new proposal at a Pentagon news conference Friday, but he said discussions continue to try to promote a peace deal.
"There are no specific commitments that have been made with regard to prisoner exchanges at this point," he said. "One thing I will assure you is that any prisoner exchanges that I have to certify are going to abide by the law and require that those individuals do not return back into the battle."
Any such transfer is unlikely to include the five most senior Taliban figures held at Guantánamo, the subjects of separate stalled negotiations, a senior US official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the transfer is still under discussion and no offer has been made.
Republicans in Congress bitterly opposed the plan to send those men to house arrest in Qatar, which has emerged as a key broker with the Taliban.
The opponents feared the men would be set free and endanger the US.
The latest proposal was a topic of recent discussions in Washington with members of Karzai's peace committee, a group of elders charged with reaching out to the Taliban on the government's behalf.
"The possibility is strong," for a transfer to Afghanistan that includes the five top figures, said Ismail Qasemyar, international relations adviser for the Afghan High Peace Council.
The Taliban has demanded release of all the Guantánamo detainees as a condition for talks.
The Islamist group abandoned direct talks in March, accusing the US of reneging on several promises.
The United States considers the talks suspended, not dead.
Karzai has long sought the return of all 17 Afghans imprisoned at Guantánamo, men he sometimes calls brothers, as a point of national pride.
He has argued that their imprisonment at Guantánamo undermines his credibility as a national leader, and that Afghanistan's own institutions should deal with captured insurgents.
The US has said publicly that, in regards to the five senior Taliban, they would be transferred to another country's control, not released.
But terms for the proposed transfer to Qatar were fairly loose.
Officials briefed on the discussions said the men would have to agree not to return to fighting, forswear any ties to al-Qaida, and submit to a ban on their travel. Beyond that it was not clear how closely they would be controlled by the Qatar government.
The Taliban would have been asked to release Bowe Bergdahl, the only US prisoner of war from the Afghan conflict.
Saturday marks the third anniversary of the American soldier's capture.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/30/us-guantanamo-suspected-taliban-militants
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