WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2021) ASHINGTON, August 27 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Chukaeva - The appointment of a former Guantanamo detainee by the Taliban (terrorist group, banned in Russia) as their acting defense chief is likely to prompt Republicans in Congress to block any attempts by President Joe Biden to shut the notorious prison down, analysts told Sputnik.
Afghanistan has emerged as a hotspot and the center of world attention after the Taliban entered Kabul earlier in August, claiming de facto control over all of Afghanistan and causing the US-backed government to collapse. Internationally recognized President Ashraf Ghani resigned and left the country. Many nations have resorted to evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from the beleaguered country due to the precarious security situation, and some have pledged to take in a limited number of Afghan asylum seekers.
The Taliban have since started creating their own government, and vowed that the country will not be a democracy and will instead be governed in accordance with sharia law. On Tuesday, reports emerged that the Taliban had appointed Abdul Qayyum Zakir � a former detainee in Guantanamo Bay camp � acting defense minister. Sputnik reached the Pentagon but the latter replied that it is not commenting on Taliban staffing decisions.
Zakir, who was was released from the Guantanamo prison camp in 2007, was reportedly a close associate of Taliban founder Mohammed Omar, who was wanted by the US government together with Osama bin Laden. After his release from Guantanamo, Zakir reportedly directed operations in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. He was said to have been appointed as a Taliban military commander in 2011 but, three years later, stepped down due to tensions with other Taliban leaders.
Established by George W. Bush during his War on Terror in 2002, the facility has long been criticized for mistreatment and abuses of prisoners, with human rights activists and international organizations calling for its closure. Former US President Barack Obama vowed to close the camp but faced strong pushback from Congress. His successor, Donald Trump, signed an order to keep the detention camp open indefinitely, while incumbent President Joe Biden has promised to close the facility.
The US authorities have since shut down secretive Camp Seven, where the highly classified prisoners were kept, and transferred the detainees to other accommodation blocks. Yet, no announcements on the full closure of the camp, which once kept over 700 people � mostly without charges � followed. In July, the White House announced that the Biden administration is aiming to close down the detention facility for good and that it works to transfer its remaining detainees out, but it has set no deadline to effectuate its closure.
"The US is highly divided so this might be used by Republicans to block any efforts by the Biden administration to shut down Guantanamo or transfer other prisoners," Dr. Steve Hewitt, Senior Lecturer in American and Canadian Studies at the University of Birmingham, told Sputnik.
Zakir's case provides the Republicans "with ammunition to use against any efforts" to close Guantanamo, Hewitt suggested.
"Although the Biden admin could still transfer out prisoners deemed to be of low risk. Eventually, only the hard core al-Qaeda [terrorist group, banned in Russia] will remain," he added.
Biden, like Obama, sought to close Guantanamo, yet the US Congress passed a law saying no US president can close Guantanamo and transfer the prisoners to the US, Richard Lachmann, a professor of sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, recalled while speaking to Sputnik.
"So Biden, like Obama, will try to keep reducing the number of prisoners there by repatriating them to other countries. But there is a core of prisoners no US president can get away with releasing and so Guantanamo will remain open at the cost of hundreds of millions a year to house one or two dozen prisoners for the rest of their lives," he said.
That is why, "the sham trials" will continue to drag on, according to Lachmann.
"Zakir's return to power will have no effect on this since the law keeping Guantanamo open was irrational and political posturing from the beginning," he concluded.
NO IMPACT ON US PUBLIC ATTITUDE
As the Taliban advances have been truly alarming, the report about Zakir's appointment has created storms on social media, with people asking how that could have potentially happened. Hewitt, however, does not believe that Zakir's appointment will affect the whole attitude of the public to the two decades of the US War on Terror.
"Previous Guantanamo prisoners have been released and have been involved in violence although most have not. The issue is whether they were already 'radicalized' before being imprisoned or 'radicalized' as a result of that experience or a combination of both," Hewitt told Sputnik.
When asked about the potential ramifications for relations between the US and the Taliban following Zakir's appointment, Hewitt replied that no impact would follow since both have fought each other over the past 20 years anyway.
"He's [Zakir] one voice among the Taliban. I expect them to be cautious in the short term given what they and Afghanistan have gone through over the last 20 years (and the violence the country experienced in the 1990s and 1980s as well)," he said.
The US public already thought the war was a waste and a failure, Lachmann added.
"Most Americans are unfamiliar with any of the individuals in the Taliban leadership and so won't care which man with a beard and a turban holds which office," he said.
According to the expert, the US's main concern now is to be sure it can evacuate Americans still in Afghanistan.
"It will make any necessary concessions to the Taliban to be sure no Americans are taken hostage. The Taliban has an interest in having sanctions lifted and being able to get aid again... His [Zakir's] grudge will take second place to the Taliban's need to be able to establish a viable state and deliver economic benefits to at least some part of the Afghan people," Lachman said.
Meanwhile, the US evacuation in Afghanistan did not go as smoothly as expected. On Thursday, several explosions targeted Kabul airport and its outskirts. The Islamic State-Khorasan terror group (banned in Russia) claimed responsibility for the attacks. A source in the Afghan health authority told Sputnik that at least 110 people died and 1,300 people were wounded. Thirteen American servicemen were killed in the attack, according to the defense department.
Speaking of the attack, Biden vowed to hunt down the leaders of ISIS-K, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to pull forces out of Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline. The attack came just as Biden's administration was already under fire for the botched evacuation from Afghanistan that has been going on for more than a week.
