WASHINGTON
The White House on Thursday declined to describe Afghanistan’s Taliban as a terrorist group, prompting consternation from the right, which accused President Barack Obama’s administration of being out of touch.
“They do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism, they do pursue terror attacks in an effort to advance their agenda,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “What’s also true though is that it is important to draw a distinction between the Taliban and Al Qaeda,” he said, pointing to a difference in designation. “The Taliban is a very dangerous organization,” he added.
The issue came up when the Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz insisted on Wednesday that a prisoner exchange between Jordan and ISIS would be different than the prisoner exchange the United States made last year with the Taliban to gain the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“Our policy is that we don’t pay ransom. We don’t give concessions to terrorist organizations,” Schultz said Wednesday. “This is a longstanding policy that predates this administration. And it’s also one that we’ve communicated to our friends and allies across the world.”
Schultz explained that the exchange the United States made with the Taliban — releasing five Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in exchange for the release of Sgt. Bergdahl — was consistent with that policy because the Taliban is an “armed insurgency” and not a terrorist organization.
The Afghan Taliban are not on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations but they are on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, a classification that allows their assets to be frozen.
ABC news reported that even as Earnest was explaining why the Taliban are not terrorists, he slipped, calling them … “terrorists.”
“We have not ruled out that there would be some situations in which U.S. service members would still carry out operations in self-defense against the Taliban or other terrorists who are operating in Afghanistan,” Earnest said.
The Treasury Department has imposed anti-terror sanctions on around 2,000 Taliban fighters, leaders, supporters and financiers. But the White House’s distinction got short shrift from its political opponents, with Republicans sending footage of the comments to supporters.
“It slits throats, it attacks buses, it drives car bombs into markets and it’s not a terrorist group. Look, you can’t parody this administration,” said conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer.
Others said the White House’s distinction was based more on politics than reality, pointing to the negotiated release of Taliban captive and U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl.