Rubio is demanding answers from two other Americans who said he was being held by the Taliban
In the final hours of his term, President Joe Biden negotiated a prisoner swap with the Taliban that released American citizens Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty from Taliban custody.
However, they were not included in the agreement George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the Taliban had “only heard” the detention of additional Americans.
“If that’s true, we’re going to have to immediately place a very large fortune on their top leaders, perhaps even greater than what we had on bin Laden.” Rubio wrote.
2 Americans released in exchange for Taliban prisoner
Dennis Fitzpatrick, who is coordinating efforts outside the US government to free Glezmann, argued that Glezmann “has never been a serious priority for the Biden White House.”
“President Biden and [former National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan decided to leave George Glezmann in Kabul for no good reason,” Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital.” We are confident that the clear-eyed leadership of President Trump will ensure George’s release to his family. “
Two American citizens, George Glezmann, left, and Mahmood Habibi, were not included in the recent Biden administration deal that freed two more Americans from the Taliban. (James Foley Foundation/Getty Images)
Fitzpatrick added that the 66-year-old Glezmann is “a completely innocent man” who was “a hard-working, blue-collar airline before he was wrongfully detained. He does not deserve to be used as a pawn.”
Glezmann has been in custody since Dec. 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 confinement in the nine-foot underground cell. He was allowed only limited family calls and experienced “facial tumors, hypertension, severe malnutrition and other medical conditions” as a result of his detention.
Former President Joe Biden in the White House (Anna Moneymaker)
While the Taliban admit they are holding Glezmann, they insist they are not holding Mahmood Habibi.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Building on the White House campus Tuesday, in Washington, DC (AP Photo/Evan VUCCI)
Habibi’s brother Ahmad told Fox News Digital Family “Know[s] that my brother is still in Taliban custody. I can’t share too much about it because we don’t want to put him or others at risk. But anyone who accepts the Taliban’s hollow propositions that they don’t have one is falling for their own lies.
“We have several witnesses to his arrest [General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI)]. We have several witnesses who were with him at the headquarters of the GDI. The Taliban have always claimed that they don’t have him and don’t know who he is. How do they explain the apparent contradictions in this? “
Ahmad also claimed the family “Know[s] 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 “micro-mirrored the State Department’s efforts to secure my brother’s release” and “blocked [the State Department] From using the data in their discussions with the Taliban, even though we told them it would directly counter the Taliban’s claims that they had never heard of my brother. ”
Neither the State Department nor the National Security Council responded to Fox News Digital’s requests to confirm Ahmad’s claims.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Taliban spokespersons 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 answer. Shaheen directed Fox News Digital to address GDI and made no comment about the situation.
They are the Taliban Long sought release from Guantanamo Bay detainees and Al Qaeda leader Muhammad Rahim in exchange for Americans they admitted were in their prisons. Ahmad Habibi told CBS News President Biden assured him in a January 12 phone call that the US would not release Rahim if the Taliban released Habibi.
Taliban fighters in Kabul, Afghanistan (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
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Former principal deputy to the president’s special envoy for hostages, Hugh Dugan, told Fox News Digital the Trump administration could pursue multiple “lines of effort.” To secure the release by Glezmann and Habibi.
Dugan said this could involve “a direct rescue by the military” at one level or continued “subtle diplomacy in the background”.
Dugan said he recognized that “saying we’re doing everything we can … isn’t satisfying to a family member, honestly, or anybody, and they want to hear that you continue to recognize what might have been making us up all along, or That there’s a crack in the horizon that opens.
“And we have to understand that this could be another step on our road to recovery and that the line of effort has to be changed to adapt to new realities at any time.”
