US might transfer some Gitmo prisoners to Qatar as part of Taliban negotiations

The United States could release five Taliban prisoners from
Guantanamo Bay to Qatar as part of negotiations with the Taliban.

Eight Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), were briefed Tuesday by
administration officials about the possible transfer of the Afghan prisoners
from Guantanamo, Foreign
Policy reported, the clearest sign that the first transfer of prisoners from
Guantanamo in more than a year could occur.

{mosads}During a Tuesday congressional hearing, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper did not
dispute that the United States was considering the transfer in negotiations with the
Taliban.

“This proposed so-called trade has actually not been decided
yet,” Clapper said. “There’s continued consultation with the Congress.

“In almost every case where we’ve had hostilities, … at
some point in time there are negotiations. 

“I don’t think anyone in
the administration harbors any illusions about the potential here. Of
course, part and parcel of such a decision, if it were finally made, would be
the actual determination of where these detainees might go and the conditions
in which they would be controlled or surveilled.”

Afghan officials said they would drop an earlier
objection about sending the prisoners to a third country because of a plan to
give the country a form of legal custody over them, according to The Associated
Press.

Al Jazeera reported last month that the Taliban’s leaders said
they would step up their “political efforts” to secure peace in Afghanistan, but
they did not intend to give up their armed struggle as a precondition for negotiations.
The Taliban recently established a political office in Qatar.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was at Tuesday’s briefing, told
Foreign Policy beforehand that the idea of a prisoner transfer is “highly
questionable.”

“The whole idea that they’re going to ‘transfer’ these
detainees in exchange for a statement by the Taliban? It is really, really
bizarre,” McCain said. “This whole thing is highly questionable
because the Taliban know we are leaving. I know many experts who would say they
are rope-a-doping us.”