Obama Admin to release Guantanamo Bay Taliban prisoners?

Who's Yusuf al - Qaradawi

Obama Admin to release Guantanamo Bay Taliban prisoners?(TZ).

The release of the Taliban second-in-command from a prison in Pakistan last week is expected to facilitate Afghan reconciliation talks that Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested in August could take place in Turkey.

Pakistan recently released in Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a key figure who it is believed could play an important role in peace talks between Afghanistan and Taliban. A Pakistan Foreign Office press statement on Sept. 20 said that “in order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process,” detained Taliban leader Baradar would be released the next day.
Selçuk Çolakoğlu, expert at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), said in remarks to Sunday's Zaman that the prospect of the NATO troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014 was a significant factor in Pakistan's decision to release Baradar. “Pakistan wants stability and peace in the region in the post-2014 period and has released more than 30 Taliban members in recent months to facilitate peace talks between the Afghan government and moderate Taliban leaders,” said Çolakoğlu.
In June, Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Janan Mosazai said a Taliban office could be opened either in Turkey or in Saudi Arabia for meetings between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives. Fazıl Ahmed Burget, a research fellow at the Ankara-based think tank Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM), believes reconciliation talks will take place in Turkey -- if such a move is not blocked by a foreign power. Pointing out that the Taliban is a coalition of different groups, Burget said Turkey's existing contacts with these factions would strengthen the nation's position as host to Afghanistan-Taliban peace talks.
Pakistan had previously said Baradar would not be handed over to Afghanistan directly, as some in Kabul had hoped and would instead be released into Pakistan. A senior Pakistani diplomat told Sunday's Zaman that some media reports indicated that Mr. Baradar joined his family in Karachi, but there is no official comment as of yet.It was also reported in the media that he might have been sent to another country, possibly Turkey or Saudi Arabia, to help start peace talks with the Taliban after the breakdown of the Doha round of talks.
Earlier in June, when the Taliban said it was opening an office in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the possibility of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban made international headlines. Shortly after that announcement, however, hopes of stopping Afghanistan's 12-year war suffered a severe blow when the Afghan government reacted in outrage over the raising of the Taliban's flag over the Doha office and the use of signs proclaiming an “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the name the Taliban used during its brief rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Baradar's fate is at the heart of Afghanistan's efforts to kick-start the stalled peace process as most NATO combat troops prepare to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and anxiety grows over the country's security.The US and Afghanistan have long pressed Pakistan to free Baradar and other senior Taliban figures who could be used to tempt moderate Taliban leaders to the negotiating table and transform the insurgency into a political movement.
Baradar, the Taliban's former deputy leader, was arrested in a joint raid with the CIA in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.[Arabaşlık]
The US could free Taliban members as a part of Afghan reconciliation process.
Following the release of the former Taliban second-in command in Pakistan, the US may also take important steps, including freeing Taliban members in US custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to help encourage reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Çolakoğlu maintained that the US has eased its firm stance against the Taliban and supports the inclusion of a moderate Taliban body into the Afghan political system. “There are concerns about the Afghan security forces' capability to maintain stability in Afghanistan after the withdrawal; the US does not want to ruin the prestige of the NATO intervention and to facilitate peace process it could release some Taliban members,” Çolakoğlu said.
“Without peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban, there will not be stability in Afghanistan. Therefore, as the US decided to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it may release Taliban commanders [held at Guantanamo Bay] as part of reconciliation talks,” said Hikmet Çetin, NATO's former top civilian official in Afghanistan and a former Turkish foreign minister, to Sunday's Zaman.
Çetin added that if the UN Security Council approves, the US may free some Taliban commanders because both the US and Afghanistan are enthusiastic about peace talks.
The US and its 28 NATO allies are preparing to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014; however, there will be a training and advisory mission to assist Afghan security forces following the withdrawal.Pakistan is a key player in the Afghan peace talks because of its historic ties to the Taliban. Islamabad helped the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan in 1996. Pakistan has increasingly pushed for a peace settlement because it is worried that chaos in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of most US troops by the end of 2014 could make it more difficult to fight its own domestic Taliban militants. It could also send a flood of new refugees into Pakistan.