The Taliban says it's willing to free the only US prisoner of war in Afghanistan—if the US will hand over five top Taliban operatives held at Guantanamo Bay. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (who disappeared on June 30, 2009) "is, as far as I know, in good condition," a Taliban spokesman tells the AP in a phone interview. He explains that the group, which this week opened a political office in Doha, Qatar, is calling for the prisoner exchange to occur before any peace talks go ahead. "First has to be the release of detainees," the spokesman says. "Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward."
But there's another hurdle: Afghan president Hamid Karzai is fuming over what the Taliban is painting as an embassy of its own, and the fragile situation yesterday prompted the US to hold off on its talks, which were supposed to begin this week. The Guardian reports that one particular sticking point was the Taliban office's name: a sign identified it as the "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." The US, Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Qatar had previously agreed to call it the "Political Office of the Afghan Taliban." That reportedly prompted Karzai to suspend separate security talks with the US, the Guardian reports; the sign will be replaced, reports the BBC. (More Bowe Bergdahl stories.)
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