Reprint. Thanks Barack. Four of Obama’s ‘Taliban Five’ Take Top Leadership Posts in Afghan Government

Original article can be found here.

Thanks Barack. Four of Obama’s ‘Taliban Five’ Take Top Leadership Posts in Afghan Government. I guess the Taliban have Barack to thank.

The Taliban announced its “caretaker” government on Tuesday, and the list of top officials included some familiar names: four of the five Taliban leaders released from prison by President Barack Obama in exchange for kidnapped U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl in 2014. The fifth member of Obama’s “Taliban Five,” Mohammad Nabi Omari, was installed as the Taliban’s governor for Khost province last month. 

Afghanistan’s independent Tolo News reported the full list of “caretaker government” appointments on Tuesday. The four prisoners swapped by Obama for Bowe Bergdahl are Director of Intelligence Abdul Haq Wasiq, Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs Norullah Noori, Minister of Information and Culture Khairullah Khairkhah, and Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Fazl. 

The Associated Press amusingly grumbled that the Taliban formed an “all-male” government as if there was any doubt on the matter. In fact, the new Taliban government appears to have dissolved the Ministry for Women’s Affairs as one of its first actions, while Taliban thugs beat and whipped women who dared to march in protest of the regime on Tuesday morning.