Afghan prisoner release

U.S. forces in Afghanistan freed 81 suspected Taliban fighters from military jails across the country Sunday and some of the released men said they had been mistreated and tortured in custody.

Aged between 19 and 64, looking pale and exhausted, the bearded men smiled and waved as they left the Afghan Supreme Court to begin their journeys home.

"They have been released from Bagram," Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari told reporters, referring to the main American base in Afghanistan, north of the capital Kabul.

"We will give them clothes and then send them home."

At a brief hearing before their release, Shinwari warned the men not to talk about their imprisonment, saying it could harm the prospects of those still held, but some still spoke out.

[...]

Shinwari said U.S. authorities had also pledged to free all their remaining Afghan prisoners.

"There are another 400 Taliban in Bagram and they (the U.S. military) have promised to release all Taliban from Bagram and Guantanamo Bay," he said.

The release of the Afghan prisoners and pledge to free more comes amid reports that U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is in peace talks with mid-level Taliban commanders to persuade them and their foot-soldiers to give up their fight and return to normal life.
  Reuters article

There we go again. Negotiating with terrorists.

Local media reports say some previously freed Guantanamo prisoners have rejoined the Taliban and some of those have since been killed in clashes or recaptured by U.S. forces.

Some 18,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan hunting al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The Taliban said all Afghan prisoners should be freed.

"All the prisoners under the custody of the Americans either inside or outside Afghanistan, they are innocent people, they are not Taliban," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told Reuters by satellite telephone. "The Americans are torturing and harming those innocent people in their jails."

That torturing business sure does come with some blowback, doesn't it? Under pressure due to the torture revelations to release innocent people, we can now be pressured to release terrorists as well. And those innocent people who were indiscriminately rounded up and imprisoned and/or tortured, plus all their family members, are now more than willing to join the fight against the U.S.

Mission accomplished, indeed.

It's interesting that Reuters prefaces the name of President Karzai with "U.S.-backed". Of course it's true, but it's bizarre that it's so widely accepted that this is how he's referred to in the press, instead of just "Afghanistan President Karzai," or "the democratically elected President Karzai." At least it sounds better than the more accurate title: U.S. Puppet President Hamid Karzai.

...but hey, use whatever name you want...you will anyway.