Secretary of State Marco Rubio escalated tensions by threatening to place large bounties on the heads of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders. His remarks come as he suggested that there may be more Americans detained in the country than previously known. This statement followed a recent prisoner exchange between the Taliban government and the United States, one of the final actions under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Rubio issued this stern warning on social media, using a rhetorical tone reminiscent of his former boss, President Donald Trump. He wrote, “Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported.” He continued, “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” referencing Al-Qaeda’s leader who was killed by US forces in 2011.
While Rubio did not specify who these additional Americans might be, there have long been reports of missing Americans whose cases were not officially recognized as wrongful detentions by the US government. As part of the recent deal with the Biden administration, the Taliban released Ryan Corbett, an American who had been living with his family in Afghanistan and was detained in August 2022. Also freed was William McKenty, whose case has not received widespread attention or details.
In return, the US released Khan Mohammed, a man serving a life sentence in a California prison for trafficking heroin and opium into the United States, as well as allegedly attempting to acquire rockets to target US troops in Afghanistan.
After the 9/11 attacks, the United States set a bounty of $25 million for information leading to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, a reward later raised to $50 million by Congress. No one is believed to have claimed this bounty, as bin Laden was killed during a US raid in Pakistan.
While President Trump was known for making threatening remarks during his speeches and on social media, he also criticized US military interventions abroad. In his second inaugural speech, Trump described his goal of being a “peacemaker.” During his first term, Trump broke diplomatic norms by negotiating directly with the Taliban, even suggesting a summit with them at Camp David. This led to an agreement to withdraw US troops and end the nation’s longest-running war.
Biden honored this deal, though it resulted in the swift collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and the Taliban regaining control in August 2021, shortly after US troops left. The chaotic scenes in Kabul drew severe criticism of Biden, especially after a suicide bombing at the airport killed 13 US service members and many Afghans.
The Biden administration engaged in limited talks with the Taliban government, but achieved little in terms of progress. Some members of the Republican Party, particularly Trump supporters, criticized even the minimal interactions with the Taliban, especially regarding the humanitarian aid provided by Biden’s team. The US government insisted that the aid was meant for urgent humanitarian needs in Afghanistan and was not funneled through the Taliban.
On Friday, Rubio took a decisive step by freezing nearly all US foreign aid. Despite this, no country has formally recognized the Taliban’s government, which has imposed extreme restrictions on women and girls, citing its rigid interpretation of Islam. On Thursday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban officials for their role in persecuting women.
{Matzav.com}
