The wife of an American detained in Afghanistan met with Trump’s national security adviser
A wife working to bring her husband home after years of illegal imprisonment in Afghanistan saw encouraging progress over the weekend.
After traveling to Mar-a-Lago without the promise that anyone on President-elect Donald Trump’s team would see her, Anna Corbett had a meeting with incoming national security adviser Michael Waltz that lasted more than an hour and received a phone call from President Biden.
“I heard that from a few President Trump he is worried about our family. He knows we’re down here. He knows about our situation and is very concerned,” Corbett revealed to Fox News on Monday morning.
On Sunday, Waltz came to Corbett’s hotel and met with her for more than an hour, she said.
“I am extremely encouraged, and the contrast of my experience right now is incredible.”
Corbett said she “absolutely believes[s]”The Trump administration will bring her husband home, but ‘details are unclear.’
WIFE OF AMERICAN DETENTED IN AFGHANISTAN GOES TO MAR-A-LAGO TO BEGG TRUMP TO START PRISONER EXCHANGE
Anna Corbett, center, and her daughter traveled to Mar-a-Lago this weekend and met with incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz. (Anna Corbett)
Corbett spoke with Fox News Digital on Friday as she took a last-minute flight to Mar-a-Lago to plead for a meeting with Trump.
Biden never called her, she said, in the two and a half years since her husband was detained, until this weekend.
She told Fox News that Biden was “very kind” and “compassionate,” but the call was “absolutely devastating” because it was clear he wasn’t going to bring Ryan Corbett home in his final days in office.
“I heard he said he wasn’t going to bring Ryan home,” she said.
Ever since Ryan Corbett was detained two and a half years ago, he has been “just missing milestones,” according to Anna Corbett. One of their three children recently shot her first husband while hunting, another was chosen prom queen, and the third graduated from high school.
The Corbett family lived in Afghanistan, where Ryan Corbett ran a business before the Taliban took over in 2021.
“We love people and we had to evacuate when the Taliban took over, but Ryan kept working and that’s why he went back to Afghanistan,” said Anna Corbett.
In August 2022, Ryan Corbett and a German business partner returned to Afghanistan to train new employees for their company that offered consulting and lending services. Both were detained by the Taliban and since then Anna Corbett has had brief conversations with him every two weeks as his condition in prison has deteriorated.
The White House on Sunday confirmed Biden spoke to Corbett’s family, along with the families of George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi – also unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022.
Anna Corbett, second from right, works to free her husband Ryan from his captivity in Afghanistan in 2022. (Anna Corbett)
US IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH TALIBAN TO EXCHANGE AMERICANS IN AFGHANISTAN FOR PRISONERS IN GUANTANAMO
White House officials noted that in the past four years, Biden has brought home more than 75 Americans wrongfully detained around the world. All Americans detained before the withdrawal of the US military in August 2021 have returned home, according to the White House.
“Globally, President Biden and his team have worked around the clock, often in partnership with key allies, to negotiate the release of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad so they can be reunited with their families, and will continue to do so. during the rest of the mandate,” the press release states.
Last week, reports emerged that the Biden administration was negotiating with the Taliban to exchange three US citizens held in Afghanistan in exchange for Guantanamo Bay prisoner he was allegedly a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
Ryan Corbett was arrested in 2022 while on a business trip. (Anna Corbett)
The deal appears to have stalled, as a senior Taliban official told The Guardian that the group would prefer to wait to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration.
Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy last week that he would consider a prisoner swap, but seemed skeptical.
“I haven’t looked at it,” Trump said Thursday. “I wasn’t in favor of a trade, but I’ll have a look tomorrow. We’ll announce something tomorrow.”
Despite the detentions, the US still remains the largest financial support to Afghanistanoffering the nation about $3 billion from withdrawal in 2021.
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The negotiations, which last at least July 2024, include the exchange of suspected senior al-Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al-Afgani for US citizens Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022.
The Taliban have long sought the release of Rahim, who has been held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba since 2008 because the Pentagon believes he was a close associate of bin Laden.
In November 2023, the Guantánamo Bay prison review board cited Rahim’s work for senior members of Al Qaeda and his involvement in attacks on US and allied forces in Afghanistan, as reasons for detention.
