After being imprisoned more than two years, Mark Frerichs was released by the Taliban after intense negotiations with the Biden administration.
"Bringing the negotiations that led to Mark’s freedom to a successful resolution required difficult decisions, which I did not take lightly," Biden said."Our priority now is to make sure Mark receives a healthy and safe return and is given the space and time he needs to transition back into society."
A sister of Frerichs, who is from Lombard, Illinois, thanked U.S. government officials who helped secure her brother's release. In a briefing with reporters, two senior administration officials said that Biden decided to release Noorzai only after consulting national security experts across the U.S. government with a deep understanding of the current state of the drug trade in Afghanistan, the broader threat networks there and the potential dangers posed by someone who has been in U.S. custody for 17 years to return to that.
Maltz also criticized the Biden administration for reportedly offering the release of imprisoned Russian weapons trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for Women's National Basketball Association player Brittney Griner and possibly other Americans detained in Russia. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport last February and sentenced to nine years in prison for possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
She learned six months ago that the administration recommended her proposal to the president, and three months ago she was informed that Biden was willing to make the trade, which took another three months of negotiations to facilitate. Until Monday, U.S. officials across two presidential administrations had tried to get him home. Even before their takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban had demanded the U.S. release Noorzai in exchange for Frerichs. But there had been no public sign of Washington proceeding with any sort of trade or exchange along those lines.
But his name surfaced last month when Biden, who had publicly called for Frerichs' release, was said by his advisers to have pressed officials to consider any risk posed to Frerichs by the drone strike in Afghanistan that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.One year since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, life remains increasingly difficult for Afghans.
"I pray for more success of the Taliban," he said."I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now."Before his capture in 2005, Noorzai was one of the most powerful warlords in Afghanistan, biggest heroin traffickers in the world and a close ally of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
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