House Condemns Administration's Release of Taliban 5

Press Release

Today, Congressman Steve Pearce voted to condemn the Obama Administration in its handling of the release of five known Taliban terrorists, commonly referred to as the Taliban 5. In May, the White House failed to comply with the law when the Taliban 5 were released without Congressional notification. The radical enemy commanders, including a former head of the Taliban army, were released on May 31 from Guantanamo Bay and flown to Qatar.

"President Obama's release of the Taliban 5 is yet another example of this Administration's disregard for the law," said Pearce. "To make matters worse, the President's unilateral actions released five of the most dangerous foreign terrorists possible. In fact, all five men were deemed by an inter-agency panel in 2010 to be too dangerous to release. These individuals pose a very real risk to the security of our soldiers, the security of the Afghan population, and to the security of the United States. With the ever-mounting instability in the MIddle East due to ISIL, now is not the time to be releasing more aggressors against the United States, especially when these actions happen outside the confines of law."

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