Taliban Number Two to be Freed

Here was the news back in 2010, as Obama was surging in Afghanistan (the good war on the front lines of the GWoT):

His capture could cripple the Taliban’s military operations, at least in the short term, said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer who last spring led the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policy review.

And of course it was a big deal for Obama, who had yet to gutsily capture bin Laden.  Here's how then Senator--now Sec of State--Kerry put it..



It was just an 'effort to go after the Taliban wherever they are'.   No comment on whether it was done for leverage on some kind of a deal, which now appears to be the case.   As to the speculation it would help find bin Laden, well, no--we were told a woman in the CIA, played by Jessica Chastain in a movie, led to the capture.   Besides, the official story is that the Pakistanis knew nothing about UBL living in their backyard, so if Baradar provided info on UBL it had to be wrong or the entire narrative about the raid becomes false. 

Now today:

"In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, the detained Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, would be released tomorrow," the Foreign office spokesman said in the statement.

Hopefully Sgt Bowe Bergdahl will be part of some of these upcoming reconciliations, that is, if we are now bargaining with terrorists.