These Are the 5 Guantanamo Detainees Being Released in Exchange for Sgt Bergdahl
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress on Saturday that the United States would be transferring five detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Their release is in exchange for the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan nearly five years ago. Though Hagel did not mention any names in his statement, TIME has confirmed their identities with a senior administration official. Previous releases of terror suspects from Guantanamo have seen mixed results. Some have returned to private life, others have gone on to fight again in Afghanistan and now in Syria. That's the case with Ibrahim bin Shakaran, a former Moroccan detainee who was recently killed while commanding an al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group in Syria. This time, the U.S. isn't taking any chances. The five, high-ranking members of the Afghan Taliban  whose names were first floated as part of an exchange deal in 2012  will be transferred to Qatar, where they will live under close observation in some form of house arrest. A look at who will be released, 1. Mohammad Fazl, One of the first detainees captured in Afghanistan to be transferred to Guantanamo  in January 2002  Fazl is the Taliban's former deputy minister of defense. He was one of the Taliban's founding members, rising through the ranks to become Taliban Chief of Army Staff when it ruled Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch accuses Fazl of presiding over the mass killings of Afghanistan's Shi'ite Muslims in 2000 and 2001. 2. Mohammad Nabi, The former chief of Taliban security in Qalat, the capital of Afghanistan's southern Zabul Province, Nabi was a latecomer to the Taliban, joining only in the late 1990s. After taking a few years away, he rejoined in 2000 to work as a radio operator for the Taliban's communications office. He has claimed during U.S. military interrogations to have been working for the C.I.A. in the search for Taliban Chief Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda operatives. Those confessions may earn him difficulties upon his release. 3. Abdul Haq Wasiq, Also accused by Human Rights Watch of mass killings and torture during the Taliban's time in power, the Taliban's former deputy minister of intelligence is considered to have been at one time one of Mullah Omar's closest confidants, with a direct line to the elusive leader. 4. Mullah Norullah Nori, Nori was the senior Taliban commander in the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when U.S. forces arrived in late 2001. A former governor of two northern provinces, he is considered to be one of the most high-ranking Taliban officials ever to be held in Guantanamo. He is also accused of being involved in the massacre of thousands Shi'ite Muslims in 2000 and 2001, when the Taliban attempted to purge Afghanistan of what it deemed a deviant form of Islam. 5. Khairullah Khairkhwa, The former Taliban governor of Heart Province, which borders Iran, Khairkhwa has also served as a military commander and a minister of the interior. He was close to Mullah Omar as well as current Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who briefly worked with the Taliban administration in the 1990s. According to the Associated Press, Khairkhwa's U.S.-based lawyers have argued in court filings that by the time of his capture in 2002 he had already distanced himself from the Taliban.