No mention was made of two other U.S. citizens – George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi-- who have been held by the Taliban since 2022. It was unclear whether these were the hostages that Rubio referred to.
Don’t get me wrong, the Taliban isn’t exactly on my Christmas card list and I can certainly believe that they’re acting unreasonably.
However. Why were those people in Afghanistan in the first place?
https://jamesfoleyfoundation.org/hostage/george-glezmann/#gsc.tab=0
George Glezmann is a 65-year-old American citizen who was visiting Kabul, Afghanistan as a tourist when he was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services on December 5, 2022. He is held by the Taliban without just cause or formal charge. George was traveling lawfully in Afghanistan fulfilling his lifelong passion of visiting different countries and exploring various cultures and cultural artifacts.
Okay, so he was into visiting places. Question: Did the State Department issue an advisory saying “do not travel to Afghanistan?” Because I’m pretty sure that we’ve had one up for quite some time.
kagis
Yes:
Afghanistan - Level 4: Do Not Travel
Do not travel to Afghanistan due to civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities.
Country Summary: The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations in 2021. The U.S. government is not able to provide routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in Afghanistan.
Multiple terrorist groups are active in Afghanistan and U.S. citizens are targets of kidnapping and hostage-taking. The Taliban have harassed and detained aid and humanitarian workers. The activities of foreigners may be viewed with suspicion, and reasons for detention may be unclear. Even if you are registered with the appropriate authorities to conduct business, the risk of detention is high.
The Department has determined there is a risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals in Afghanistan.
Okay. It’s 2025. This guy was grabbed in 2022. Were they already warning about this?
hits the Wayback Machine
Afghanistan - Level 4: Do Not Travel
Do not travel to Afghanistan due to civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, terrorism, kidnapping, and COVID-19.
Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe. The Department of State assesses the risk of kidnapping or violence against U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is high.
It’s not at all clear to me that the State Department should be going in to pull this guy out via a prisoner trade – as it sounds like the Biden administration was doing with someone else – or having Taliban leaders killed, as it sounds like the Trump administration is talking about doing. They told him “don’t do X or you’re liable to be kidnapped”, and he went right ahead and did X and got himself kidnapped. Now, I appreciate that that is a crummy situation for him, but part of having the freedom to ignore what the State Department says does, I think, include dealing with the consequences when you choose to ignore it.
If the Taliban sent someone overseas to US soil and physically grabbed the guy, okay, sure, I get that. Then it’s not reasonably avoidable for him, and the US government should jump in. But that’s not the situation here. The guy did something very inadvisable after being told “don’t do that” by the government, and that thing had crummy consequences for him.
Rubio is proof that it’s possible to get through life without a spine.
Also he’s a cancerous bag of shit.
