In the final hours of his term, President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner exchange with the Taliban, releasing U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty from Taliban custody.
However, US citizens were not included in the deal George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that he “just heard” of the arrests of more Americans by the Taliban.
“If this is true, we will immediately have to pay a VERY LARGE reward to their top leaders, perhaps even larger than the one we had against Bin Laden.” Rubio wrote.
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Dennis Fitzpatrick, who is coordinating efforts outside the US government for Glezmann’s release, claimed that Glezmann “was never a serious priority for the Biden White House.”
“President Biden and (former national security adviser) Jake Sullivan decided to leave George Glezmann in Kabul for no good reason,” Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital. “We are confident that President Trump’s clear leadership will secure George’s release to his family.”
Two American citizens, George Glezmann (left) and Mahmood Habibi, were not included in the Biden administration’s recent deal that freed two other Americans from the Taliban. (James Foley Foundation/Getty Images)
Fitzpatrick added that Glezmann, 66, is “a totally innocent man” who was “a hard-working, aircraft mechanic before he was wrongfully detained. He doesn’t deserve to be used as a pawn.”
Glezmann has been in custody since December 5, 2022, when he traveled to Afghanistan to “explore the country’s cultural landscape and rich history,” according to a July 2024 Senate resolution calling for his immediate release.
The resolution states that Glezmann’s mental and physical condition deteriorated as a result of his detention in an underground cell of three square meters. He was only allowed to make limited calls to his family and has suffered from “facial tumors, hypertension, severe malnutrition and other medical conditions” as a result of his detention.
Former President Joe Biden in the White House (Anna Geldmaker)
While the Taliban admit they have Glezmann in custody, they insist they are not holding Mahmood Habibi.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks Tuesday after being sworn in by Vice President J.D. Vance in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Habibi’s brother Ahmad told Fox News Digital that the family “knows that my brother is still in Taliban custody. I can’t say too much about that because we don’t want to endanger him or others. But anyone who Taliban’s suggestion that they don’t have him is a trap for their lies.
“We have several witnesses to his arrest by the (General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI)). We have several witnesses who were detained with him at GDI headquarters. The Taliban have always claimed they don’t have him and don’t know who. How do they explain the obvious contradictions in this?’
Ahmad also claimed that the family “knows that the US government has technical evidence that Mahmood was in GDI custody long after his arrest.”
He claims that Biden’s National Security Council has “micromanaged the State Department’s efforts to secure my brother’s release” and “blocked the State Department from using the data in their conversations with the Taliban, even though we told them it would have been directly confronted by the Taliban. The Taliban claim they have never heard of my brother.”
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Neither the State Department nor the National Security Council responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for confirmation of Ahmad’s claims.
Fox News Digital also contacted Taliban spokespeople Zabihullah Mujahid and Suhail Shaheen about Habibi’s detention and asked Mujahid what happened to Habibi after he was arrested by the GDI. Mujahid did not respond. Shaheen instructed Fox News Digital to contact the GDI, claiming no knowledge of the situation.
The Taliban did that long sought for release from a Guantanamo Bay detainee and Al-Qaeda facilitator Muhammad Rahim in exchange for the Americans they admitted were in their prisons. Ahmad Habibi told CBS News that President Biden assured him in a Jan. 12 phone call that the U.S. would not release Rahim unless the Taliban released Habibi.
Taliban fighters in Kabul, Afghanistan (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
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Former Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Hugh Dugan told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration could pursue multiple ‘efforts’ to secure release by Glezmann and Habibi.
Dugan said this could mean “outright bailout by the military” at some level, or continued “subtle diplomacy in the background.”
Dugan said he recognized that “saying we’re doing everything we can … is frankly not satisfying to a family member, or to anyone for that matter, and they want to hear that you continue to identify what could be us all the time missed, or that a crack opens in the horizon.
“And we must realize that this may be another step on our path to recovery and that our efforts must adapt to meet new realities at any time.”
