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Were Top Taliban Officials Freed?
Wednesday, January 9, 2002
By Alex Johnson & Miguel Llanos
MSNBC.com

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.



Pentagon official dismisses claim that they were in custody

In what would be a setback for the U.S. initiative to wipe out terrorists and their supporters in Afghanistan, some Taliban officials were reportedly freed this week after cutting deals with officials of Afghanistan’s new government. But a senior Pentagon official Wednesday questioned the veracity of the claims that senior Taliban officials were ever in custody, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site.

“I DON’T HAVE a whit of confidence that there was any aspect of that story that was ever true,” the Journal quoted the unnamed Pentagon official as saying. “I don’t think anybody surrendered; I don’t think anybody had custody of anybody; so I don’t think anybody was released by anybody.”

Among those reportedly released -- apparently before the United States could question them -- were two senior ministers from the fundamentalist, and often harsh, Islamic regime.

Officials in Kandahar said that among the men let go was Nooruddin Turabi -- the one-eyed, one-legged justice minister responsible for some of the Taliban’s most repressive edicts, particularly those affecting women.
(More: MSNBC.com News Source)
2002 © MSNBC News Services.

Dan