US, Taliban in talks to swap detainees, WSJ reports

The Biden administration is negotiating with Afghanistan to exchange Americans detained in the country for at least one high-profile prisoner held in Guantanamo Bay, the Wall Street Journal reported today according to Reuters.

Representatives for the White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. Representatives for the Afghan Taliban also did not immediately respond.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking the return of three Americans seized in 2022 – Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi – in exchange for Muhammad Rahim Al-Afghani, the WSJ reported.

Corbett and Habibi were detained in separate incidents in August 2022 a year after the Taliban took control of Kabul amid a chaotic US withdrawal. Glezmann was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.

Al-Afghani is an Afghan man who is alleged to be a high-level Al-Qaeda operative who was transferred to Guantanamo in 2008 from CIA custody.

The talks have been in motion since July, according to the WSJ, which cited sources who attended a classified House Foreign Affairs Committee briefing last month with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The report comes after Biden’s administration yesterday sent 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, slashing the prisoner population at the detention centre in Cuba by nearly half.

Guantanamo, established in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, once held 800 detainees. Criticism over indefinite detention without trial and alleged torture has persisted for years. Despite pledges from Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to close the facility, it remains operational.

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