Obama’s Rebuke to Iraq

Posted on June 12, 2014June 12, 2014 by Denise Simon

The blood and treasure of valiant U.S. troops and allied forces spent in Iraq are fading away. We are sadly witnessing a complete shift to supremacy in the Middle East such that the entire Obama National Security team must be fired, and NOW.

Maliki has begged for air support from NATO and the United States for more than a year. Barack Obama, simply said no. Instead Barack Obama chose to sell Iraq military assets that include fighter jets, weapons and surveillance equipment. There is no other plan to stop the caliphate. except between Barack Obama and John Kerry the only solution is a $5 billion Counter-terrorism Partnership Fund for the Overseas Contingency Operation. This Fund and its design has yet to be fully crafted, it is likely only in concept mode. This does not help Iraq nor does it help NATO.

Meanwhile Turkey is on full alert as their consulate in Iraq has been seized and at least 24 employees of the diplomatic staff there have been kidnapped.

ISIL is moving towards Baghdad, and one of the largest embassies of the U.S. is there. Currently the most proactive measure so far to protect our embassy is to put out travel warnings.

Since the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces in 2003, Iraq had been the mandate of a multi-national contingent led by the U.S. However, as control began to slip away from this multi-national contingent, and later U.S. troops also started to pull out of Iraq, the Quds Force, which is the special-ops unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran, under the leadership of the enigmatic Major General Qasem Soleimani, by taking advantage of the situation managed to replace the multi-national force.

Dozens of comprehensive reports published in the past couple of years show that Soleimani has been wielding considerable power in Iraq and been enjoying a privileged position behind the political scene in that country. As it seems, he has under his thumb both Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, and Masoud Barzani, the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. By exploiting his immense clout in Iraq, he has been tirelessly setting up numerous Shi’ite militia bands and training and equipping them, not only to enhance his influence and maintain his empire in Iraq but also to keep the road to Syria, where many pro-Islamic Republic contingents fight for the Assad regime, secure.

So, perhaps it is easier to explain by just looking at maps. The question now is what comes next? The power struggle is convoluted but it does include Iran’s al Quods force, Kurds, al Nusra, AQIM, Haqqani, Taliban, ISIS, which make up the whole region.

The Child Incursion

Posted on June 12, 2014June 12, 2014 by Denise Simon

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson is a busy man spinning the disaster at the Southern border laying blame on Congress.

Although the Obama administration labels the flow of children a “humanitarian” crisis rather than an enforcement problem, Mr. Johnson said he has directed agents to go after the smuggling networks that control the traffic across the border and are thought to be responsible for encouraging Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans to cross the U.S. border.

He also said the U.S. needs a “robust” public relations campaign to discourage Central Americans from attempting the journey and to warn of the dangers along the way.

Sadly however, Johnson is so wrong on every front as this insurgency was concocted by the White House exclusively and effectively advertised and sold to Central and South America effectively.

Newspapers in El Salvador and Honduras are promoting policies by the Obama administration that defer deportation to minors brought to the United States as children by their parents — known as “Dreamers” — and those that are housing illegal children at military bases in the South and West.

Signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, the policy grants temporary legal status to many young illegal immigrants, ending the threat of deportation for at least two years.

The policy, however, does not entitle the immigrants to state services. It was renewed for two more years.

“With the renewal of DACA, we act according to our values and code of this great nation,” Johnson said. “But the biggest task of comprehensive immigration reform is yet to come.”
In November 2011, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. was pledging $100 million to support Latino entrepreneurs through a public-private partnership dubbed La Idea. The effort, Clinton said, “brings together diaspora communities, the private sector, and public institutions to work on some of the toughest issues we face.” She noted her excitement about one of the central elements of La Idea: a pitch competition calling for “ideas for new businesses that will create jobs and promote trade and investment” in Latin America.

Similar to other entrepreneurship programs backed by the U.S. government in Africa and the Caribbean, the La Idea contest revolves around the idea that the more than 2.3 million Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. have plenty to teach their counterparts in Latin America, and vice-versa. The big idea is to encourage them to form partnerships and expand their ventures across the Americas to spur economic development, says Jane Buhks, a marketing and communications specialist at New York-based Accion U.S. Network, which is handling the contest’s administration.

The borders of North America under the Obama administration are only implied now and have no significance. There are many government agencies that are part of the edict from the Obama White House such that it involves, DHS, State, DoJ, Department of Education and Health and Human Services, all these secretaries have signed on. The rewards for the illegals are wide and deep at the expense of the taxpayer all without notice or approval.

A new federal policy allows young unauthorized immigrants who are low enforcement priorities to remain in the country temporarily. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy allows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to exercise prosecutorial discretion in granting administrative relief from deportation for young people covered by the policy. A person who receives deferred action is considered to be lawfully present. Deferred action status, however, does not grant the immigrant any substantive rights, legal immigration status or a pathway to citizenship. Deferred action recipients are not eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Deferred action is permitted for a period of two years and can be renewed.

Those granted deferred action may apply for work authorization. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) began to accept applications for deferred action as of Aug. 15, 2012. This policy change was made via a policy memorandum issued June 15, 2012, by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The most important document of all is from the State Department, which demonstrates and aggressive and proactive objective to reach out to other countries, any country and encourage them to come to the United States, joining all races and cultures into one and the very easy path to U.S. citizenship.

Sovereignty is damned, the definition of ‘citizen’ is damned, law are damned and the taxpayer is damned.

Obama’s 2012 Pen, Today’s Border Insurgency

Posted on June 10, 2014June 10, 2014 by Denise Simon

The truth is fleeting but the other scandal that is surfacing now beyond the boatload of others from 2012 orchestrated by the Barack Obama re-election team is the border insurgency by children.

Barack Obama ordered Janet Napolitano to instruct Border Security agents on deferred action and she complied. There were restrictions to this new lawless order, yet compliance is occurring which is no surprise.

So, now Barack Obama’s pen is about to cost tax payers at least $2 billion to handle the insurgency. This is going to cause chaos that had yet to be fully realized that includes illness, disease, food, shelter, investigations, transportation, education and burdens on states and the military that are not poised to handle.

Immigration agents are so overwhelmed that some children are being kept in detention and being processed during a longer time period than the 72-hour maximum requirement, these senior administration officials acknowledged. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Although they said they had been prepared for an increase this year in the Rio Grande Valley, the influx was much greater than anticipated. As many as 90,000 minors are forecast to enter the U.S. this year without their parents or guardians, the officials said.

The legacy definition of the word ‘citizen’ has been re-defined. The tangible and implied borders of the United States have vanished and the fact is there is no crisis in Central America causing the influx of this trafficking. This is all a condition of politics that was concocted in 2012 such that the wake of the disaster is being realized today and creating huge challenges for states and a handful of military bases where Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered some military bases to handle a humanitarian crisis.

One must remember the Mariel Boatlift was a crisis where Carter took a stand and reversed to influx of Cubans.

This is human-trafficking sanctioned by Barack Obama and deemed so by a Judge.

‘Many of the children there were sleeping on plastic boards. According to the Associated Press, toothbrushes and toothpaste hadn’t arrived yet and were expected Monday. Hundreds of children had not bathed in days, and were taking turns using just four showers. Tony Banegas, Honduras’ honorary consul in Phoenix, told the AP that there were 236 Honduran children there on Saturday, including an 8-year-old’. Read more here and take a look at the disgusting conditions Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson created.

An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.

The flow is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented immigrants who are under 18 will likely double in 2015 to nearly 130,000 and cost U.S. taxpayers $2 billion, up from $868 million this year, according to administration estimates.

The shortage of housing for these children, some as young as 3, has already become so acute that an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has been opened and can accommodate 1,000 of them, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in an interview with Reuters.

The issue is an added source of tension between Democrats and Republicans, who disagree on how to rewrite immigration laws. With comprehensive legislation stalled, President Barack Obama is looking at small, administrative steps he could take, which might be announced this summer. No details have been outlined but immigration groups are pressing him to take steps to keep families with children together.

The minors flooding over the border are often teenagers leaving behind poverty or violence in Mexico and other parts of Central America such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They are sometimes seeking to reunite with a parent who is already in the United States, also without documentation.

“This is a humanitarian crisis and it requires a humanitarian response,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said in an interview. The Maryland Democrat, a former social worker, has likened the flood of unaccompanied children to the “boat people” of past exodus movements.

Barack Obama and his team broke a system, broke the law, broke enforcement and had no plan or intention to fix it, now when this crisis has reached an epic status, it will cost the taxpayers big bucks.

At the Altar of Treason

Posted on June 7, 2014June 7, 2014 by Denise Simon

All dedicated patriots across America have questioned the loyalty of Barack Obama and those past and present in his administration. Much has been written challenging his allegiance to what really is America and what she stands for.

Perhaps it would be a good time for reference purposes to list some profound work by others that have worked diligently to teach the undisputed facts.

Frank Gaffney offers a course that requires you to enroll.

Clare Lopez spells out the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. government.

Robert Spencer and David Horowitz published a short book providing tangible evidence of Barack Obama’s outside loyalties.

Andrew McCarthy accomplished prosecutor and author spells out Barack Obama’s Sharia agenda.

While America has listed proven enemies that include al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, it is important to pull back the curtains now on the recent Taliban 5 release from Gitmo and what role Qatar played. Below are the reasons why we cannot trust Barack Obama, his inner circle but most especially Qatar to control the Taliban 5.

Of particular note is an organization called the Union of Good. The deep relationship that has ties inside the United States and spreads to other global destinations that includes Qatar. There are countless members of the Obama administration that were/are involved with Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas and the back-channels of al Qaeda, including previous Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. She willingly agreed to Barack Obama’s edict to cooperate with Qatar.

This is chilling and a warning for Americans located anywhere in the world, with particular attention to our soldiers that proudly display the American flag on their shoulders.

Qatar, at the core of Barack Obama’s hidden loyalty.

Following joint military operations during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Qatar and the United States concluded a Defense Cooperation Agreement that has been subsequently expanded. In April 2003, the U.S. Combat Air Operations Center for the Middle East moved from Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia to Qatar’s Al Udeid airbase south of Doha, the Qatari capital. Al Udeid and other facilities in Qatar serve as logistics, command, and basing hubs for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan. In spite of serving as the host to a large U.S. military presence and supporting U.S. regional initiatives, Qatar has remained mostly secure from terrorist attacks. Terrorist statements indicate that energy

infrastructure and U.S. military facilities in Qatar remain potential targets. U.S. officials have described Qatar’s counterterrorism cooperation since 9/11 as significant; however, some observers have raised questions about possible support for Al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups by some Qatari citizens, including members of Qatar’s large ruling family.

Qatari officials have taken an increasingly active diplomatic role in recent years, seeking to position themselves as mediators and interlocutors in a number of regional conflicts. Qatar’s deployment of fighter jets and transport planes to support NATO-led military operations in Libya signaled a new assertiveness, as have Qatari leaders’ calls for providing weapons to the Syrian opposition. Qatar’s willingness to embrace Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban as part of its mediation and outreach initiatives has drawn scrutiny from some U.S. observers. Unrest in Syria and Hamas-Fatah reconciliation attempts have created challenging choices for Qatar, and Qatari leaders now host Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal following his split with the Asad regime. The Obama Administration has not voiced public concern about Qatar’s multidirectional foreign policy and has sought to preserve and expand military and counterterrorism cooperation with the ambitious leaders of this wealthy, strategically located country.

The emir visited Washington, DC, in April 2011 for consultations with President Obama and congressional leaders. In the wake of the visit, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Joseph LeBaron referred to “a deepening of the relationship in political terms” and stated his belief that President Obama’s consultation with Shaykh Hamad moved the U.S.-Qatari relationship “in a direction that is qualitatively different from the past 10 years.”2 The Administration has not elaborated on what new political arrangements or agreements, if any, were concluded during the emir’s visit. In the months since, Qatar has continued its bold responses to unrest in various Arab countries by backing opposition movements in Libya and Syria and offering sanctuary to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal after his departure from Damascus.

Multilateral diplomacy aimed at ending the insurgency in Afghanistan entered a new phase in late 2011, culminating in an announcement by the Afghan Taliban that the movement is ready to open a political office in the Qatari capital, Doha, to engage with third parties.3 The announcement signaled a formal return to the international diplomatic stage by the Taliban, which operated embassies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates prior to its ouster by U.S.-backed Afghan militias in 2001. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani has said, “A solution in Afghanistan requires the participation of the Taliban in a way that must be decided by the Afghans. That requires talking to them.”4 The Doha office was part of a package of U.S. proposals for confidence building measures with the Taliban; Afghan authorities reportedly had preferred Saudi Arabia or Turkey as a proposed site for the office, presumably out of concern that Qatar might not adequately monitor or limit the activities of senior Taliban personnel.

Afghanistan withdrew its ambassador from Doha for consultations in mid-December 2011, in apparent protest of what it implied were Qatari efforts to circumvent Afghan government participation in discussions concerning the proposed office and a negotiated settlement to the conflict. The Afghan ambassador returned to Doha in early 2012, in line with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s acceptance of the Doha office concept. Still, Karzai has insisted that his government remain fully involved in all aspects of any negotiations, in Doha or elsewhere.

Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul visited Doha in early April 2012 and said that Qatar and the United States can help Afghans negotiate peace by “providing the appropriate environment for success,” but such peace talks should be “between Afghans.” Rassoul told the April 22 NATO Foreign and Defense Ministers Meeting in Brussels that, “we’re today closer to the opening of an address in Qatar for the purpose of facilitating direct negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban and other armed opposition groups than at any other point in the past. We hope to finalize an understanding on this in Kabul soon.

Qatar has supported the Arab League position backing internationally supported negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.6 In April 2011, Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifa said during a visit to the White House that “the most important issue for us in the region is that Palestine-Israeli conflict and how to find a way to establish a Palestinian state.” He signaled his support for President Obama’s goal of “supporting the existence of two states peacefully living side by side.” Qatari leaders also have criticized recent Israeli decisions on settlements and Jerusalem that they feel undermine prospects for a two-state solution. Qatar has been in the forefront of Arab-Israeli talks on expanding economic ties during periods of progress in the peace process. However, Qatar’s position regarding the Arab boycott of Israel is governed by the September 1994 decision by the GCC to terminate enforcement of the indirect boycotts, while maintaining, at least in theory, the primary boycott. An Israeli trade office in Doha was shuttered by the Qatari government in response to the January 2009 Gaza war and has not been reopened.

Qatar offered $50 million in financial support to the then-Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government and has hosted Hamas officials for numerous talks and consultations since January 2006. Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declined a Qatari invitation to participate in an October 2006 democracy conference in Doha because of the presence of Hamas representatives, but an Israeli delegation participated in the conference, led by lower-ranking Foreign Ministry officials.8 Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres visited Qatar in February 2007 and declined the emir’s reported suggestion that Israel negotiate directly with Hamas.

Some observers speculate that Qatar may be encouraging Libyan militia groups to provide weaponry or volunteers to support counterparts in the Syrian opposition. Qatari leaders have called for Syrian rebels to be armed, but no public confirmation of any connection to Libya has been established.

Qatar has pursued a policy of engagement with Iran in recent years, probably based on the countries’ shared energy reserves and Qatar’s calculation that engagement may help deter Iranian reprisal attacks on U.S. and Qatari targets in the event of any regional conflict involving Iran.

Qatari and Iranian officials signed a defense and security cooperation agreement in February 2010, and, in April 2010, Qatari military officers reportedly were invited to observe Iranian military drills in the Persian Gulf. In February 2010, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani reportedly encouraged the United States to engage directly with Iran in order to resolve the ongoing dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

In early 2011, Qatar attempted to resolve a government crisis in Lebanon and was rebuffed by Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian supporters. This precipitated the fall of the government of then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri and paved the way for a more confrontational Qatari approach to its relations with the government of President Bashar al Asad in Damascus. During the Syrian uprising, Qatar has taken an increasingly direct approach to insisting on a halt to violence against protestors, organizing multilateral Arab sanctions on Syria while quietly lending political support to opponents of Asad’s regime.

A U.S. embassy opened in Doha in 1973, but U.S. relations with Qatar did not blossom until after the 1991 Persian Gulf war. In the late 1980s, the United States and Qatar engaged in a prolonged diplomatic dispute regarding Qatar’s black market procurement of U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

The United States has provided limited counterterrorism assistance to Qatar to support the development of its domestic security forces (see Table 2 below), and the Export-Import Bank has provided over $2 billion in loan guarantees to support various natural gas development projects in Qatar since 1996. The Obama Administration has phased out limited U.S. foreign assistance and in recent years has requested military construction funds for facilities in Qatar. Since September 2005, Qatar has donated $100 million to victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. Gulf states.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report and former U.S. government officials, royal family member and current Qatari Interior Minister Shaykh Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani during the 1990s provided safe harbor and assistance to Al Qaeda leaders, including the suspected mastermind of the September 11 hijacking plot, Khalid Shaykh Mohammed.39 Several former U.S. officials and leaked U.S. government reports state that the late Osama Bin Laden also visited Doha twice during the mid-1990s as a guest of Shaykh Abdullah bin Khalid, who served then as Qatar’s minister for religious endowments and Islamic affairs, and later as minister of state for internal affairs.40 According to other accounts, Shaykh Abdullah bin Khalid welcomed dozens of so-called “Afghan Arab” veterans of the anti-Soviet conflict in Afghanistan to Qatar in the early 1990s and operated a farm where some of those individuals lived and worked over a period of several years.41

In January 1996, FBI officials narrowly missed an opportunity to capture Khalid Shaykh Mohammed in Qatar, where he held a government job at Qatar’s Ministry of Electricity and Water. Mohammed had been targeted for arrest in connection with an investigation of his nephew—1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef.42 The FBI dispatched team to arrest Mohammed, but he fled Qatar before he could be detained. Some former U.S. officials have since stated their belief that a high-ranking member of the Qatari government alerted Mohammed to the impending raid, allowing him to flee the country.

During the summer 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and 2008-2009 Israel-Hamas war, Qaradawi publicly argued that Muslims should support the activities of Hezbollah and Hamas as legitimate resistance activities, based on Quranic injunctions to defend Muslim territory invaded by outsiders.55 Qaradawi hosts a popular weekly call-in television show on Al Jazeera and frequently delivers sermons in Qatari mosques.

Qaradawi has worked with a charitable umbrella organization, known as the Union of Good, that coordinates the delivery of relief and assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In November 2008, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the Union of Good as a financial supporter of terrorism pursuant to Executive Order 13224. According to the Treasury, “The Union of Good acts as a broker for Hamas by facilitating financial transfers between a web of charitable organizations—including several organizations previously designated under E.O. 13224 for providing support to Hamas—and Hamas-controlled organizations in the West Bank and Gaza.”56 Qaradawi has appeared at public events in Doha with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal since Meshaal’s relocation to Doha in early 2012.

Full text of this Congressional report with the citations is found here.

The core of the Barack Obama foreign policy carried out by Hillary Clinton and John Kerry with the help of Susa Rice, Samantha Power, along with foreign investments, donated monies and actions by USAID is now fully explained.

Clearly, this explains how the Taliban 5 are enjoying their new country-club setting and the revolving door of nefarious visitors and cards and letters of joy are now being exchanged.

National Security has been sacrificed at the hands of Barack Obama, who told us he is un-apologetic. The Altar of Treason, explained.

The Taliban’s Version

Posted on June 7, 2014June 7, 2014 by Denise Simon

UNCREDITED — AP

This is a transcript of the Pashto narration of a video released June 4, 2014, by the Taliban showing the release to American special forces of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

[RELIGIOUS SINGING]

[CREDITS] This video is presented by the cultural department of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Broadcasting this video with instrumental music is not permitted.

ANNOUNCER: Under the instructions of the Afghan leadership and with the initiative of the Islamic Emirate’s delegation in Qatar, negotiations have been going on for the past few months with officials of the United States of America on the exchange of prisoners detained by both sides for the last several years.

Due to those negotiations, on May 31, 2014, Bowe Berghdal, a U.S. soldier who was arrested a few years ago in Paktika province, was handed over to American soldiers during a special ceremony in the Bati area of Alisher district in Khost province.

On the same day, five heroic holy fighters of Islamic Emirate were released after having spent nearly 13 years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo and reunited with the Islamic Emirate’s representatives in Qatar. They were: Mullah Fazl Mazloom, the army chief of staff in the Islamic Emirate’s government, Mullah Noorullah Noori, in charge of the northern regions of Afghanistan and governor of Balkh province, Mullah Khirullah Khairkhwa, interior minister and later governor of Herat province who was in charge of the southwestern region, Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq, deputy of the National Directorate, and Mullah Mohammad Nabi Omari, who was a border brigade commander.

The release of the five heroes was received as good news throughout the world and brought tears of joy to the eyes of most Muslims.

Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, sent a message of congratulations: “Thanks to Allah thanks to Allah, that because of the sacrifices of the mujahideen and best efforts of the our political office in Qatar, five senior officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan were released safely from Guantanamo with the help of God. This great victory requires a prayer of thanksgiving to God that with the sacrifice of our fighting nation that our holy fighters were rescued from the claws of the enemy.”

“I want to thank the fighters, the Islamic Emirate’s leadership council, the men who arrested Bowe Berghdal, the men who guarded him, and everyone who contributed in this great work. I pray to God for their further success.”

Dear viewers: in this documentary you will see the handing over of the U.S. soldier and hear the commentary of a holy warrior who witnessed the event.

WITNESS: First of all, congratulations to all fighters and leaders of the Islamic Emirate. I was present in this process. We arrived at the Bati area at 4 p.m. We’d been asked where we were willing to come for the meeting. We’d also brought few tribal elders so that if they (Americans) did not trust us, we could send these elders to them. These tribal elders were there to get the trust of other side. We said that we have units near the Bati district military base and we could be there within a half an hour.

They asked where we could be and we said wherever you want _ the base or someplace else, it’s all the same. The mujahedeen control the Bati area. We gave them security guarantees. They said, “We’ll come by helicopters to the Bati area, just tell us where.” We said, “We’ll come to the base. They said no, they said “Come to the the area near the house of Naim Kuchai, a famous tribal elder, 500 meters from his house.”

[Video shows fighters chanting: “God is great! Long live Afghanistan! Long live Mullah Omar!”]

WITNESS: They said, “We’ll come by helicopter.” Big airplanes were in the air also. When we arrived to the site there were three helicopters _ two were in the air and one landed about 14-15 meters away.

The detained soldier and two of our friends were with me. They said, when you arrive at the site three persons from your vehicle should come toward us. One should be the detained soldier and two others. They said, three persons from our side would get of the helicopter. When we arrived to the site we waited 10 minutes. The helicopter approached and another bigger plane flew overhead. The helicopter landed. Eighteen armed fighters were with us in the area, and they were on the top of the hill.

We had told them that we would have armed fighters with us, and they’d said that was ok. They told us to carry a green flag, but we said we don’t have a green flag, we’ll have a white flag. I carried the white flag. I thought that they (Americans) would sit with us and we would talk, but they were in such a big hurry that they didn’t event greet us properly. We shook hands with two and the third one presented his left hand. They were in such a rush they told us not to come any closer. There were two persons, and an interpreter named Sher Khan, and we handed over their man.

They were in such a big hurry, they did not hesitate, but before they departed they asked me to tell them if his health was not good. I replied that he is in good health. They asked about his shaved head and face. I said yes, he does not have hair on his face and head.

Before he was scared, but when he saw his U.S. helicopters, he wanted to run from excitement. He became restless. I told him that they are coming down, and the helicopter landed. I wanted to speak with them via the interpreter and deliver some messages to them, but as I said they were in too much of a hurry and after the handshake, when they saw armed mujahideen with the weapons in the area, they became in an even bigger hurry. They did not even let the soldier to have a good-bye handshake with us. They did a strange thing. It was a hard scene for them. Our leaders had offered assurances, but still we could not trust the enemy.

The armed fighters were with us only for self-protection. We were all armed. When we entered there we had told ourselves that either we would all be killed or we would have brought an end to the episode in accordance with our orders. But then we heard about the released leaders, thanks be to God.

[Taliban song of praise continues as video shows the five former detainees being greeted by other Taliban officials.]

Hashim Shukoor is a McClatchy special correspondent.