The Biden administration on Monday secured the release of an American contractor who had been held hostage for more than two years in Afghanistan in exchange for a noted Taliban drug lord jailed in the U.S. for more than a decade.
Mark Frerichs, an engineer and Navy veteran who was abducted in Afghanistan in January 2020 while working as a civilian contractor, was released by the Taliban in exchange for Taliban fighter Bashir Noorzai, an accused drug dealer who spent more than 17 years in U.S. custody.
President Biden said the successful resolution of the negotiations to secure Mr. Frerichs’ release “required difficult decisions.”
“His release is the culmination of years of tireless work by dedicated public servants across our government and other partner governments, and I want to thank them for all that effort,” Mr. Biden said. “My administration continues to prioritize the safe return of all Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, and we will not stop until they are reunited with their families.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the team of U.S. national security experts and partners in Qatar who he said worked to secure Mr. Frerichs’ release.
“Our commitment to bring Mark home never wavered, and it will never waver for the Americans who are held captive anywhere around the world,” Mr. Blinken said.
At a press conference Monday after his release, Noorzai, who U.S. prosecutors said in 2008 owned extensive opium fields in Kandahar province and oversaw a network of distributors who sold the heroin to finance Taliban insurgency operations, expressed gratitude at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul.
“I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now,” he said, according to an Associated Press account.
Mr. Frerichs, 60, had been working as a civil engineer at the time of his capture in Kabul. He was last seen last spring in a video in which he pleaded for his release. The video was released by The New Yorker, which said it had been obtained from an unnamed person in Afghanistan.
The Taliban began demanding the release of Noorzai in exchange for Mr. Frerichs before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Administration officials told reporters on Monday that Mr. Biden made the “difficult decision” to grant Noorzai clemency to secure Mr. Frerichs’ release after determining that Noorzai’s return would “not materially change any risk to Americans or fundamentally alter the counters of the drug trade” in Afghanistan.
Mr. Biden authorized the July 31 drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Afghanistan weeks after deciding to release Noorzai, with Mr. Frerichs “foremost” in the president’s mind, officials said.
The administration warned the Taliban immediately following the strike that it would be held “directly responsible” if Mr. Frerichs’ was harmed following the strike that killed al-Zawahri.
Administration officials say a “narrow window of opportunity” opened Monday to coordinate Noorzai’s return to Afghanistan and Mr. Frerichs’ safe passage to Doha, Qatar, where he remains in U.S. care.
“This included extraordinarily careful logistical coordination, at a very senior level of our government over the past few days in particular,” officials said.
Mr. Frerichs’ sister, Charlene Cakora, thanked U.S. officials who helped secure her brother’s release.
“I am so happy to hear that my brother is safe and on his way home to us,” she said in a statement Monday. “Our family has prayed for this each day of the more than 31 months he has been a hostage. We never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us.”
The exchange marks one of the most significant prisoner swaps under the Biden administration, which is still bargaining for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan being held on suspect criminal convictions in Russia.
Mr. Blinken announced in late July that the administration had made an offer to secure the release of both Americans, who U.S. officials have said are being wrongly detained by Moscow.
CNN later reported that the Biden administration offered to exchange convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for the two Americans. Bout is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted in 2011.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week that negotiations with Russia “are still ongoing” despite the Kremlin having not yet responded to the offer.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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