Mark Frerichs.
PresidentJoe Bidenon Sunday called on the Taliban to release Navy veteran Mark Frerichs, who was taken hostage in Afghanistan two years ago while working as a civil engineer. Frerichs, Biden said, “has done nothing wrong” and yet is still being held captive.
Biden, 79, said in his statement that the U.S. government would not recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban — which took over much of the country amid last year’s American withdrawal, ending a 20-year war — until Frerichs is released.
“Mark is a native of Illinois. A son. A brother. And his family has now endured two gut-wrenching years—praying for his safety, wondering where and how he is, aching for his return,” Biden said in his statement.
He continued: “Threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable, and hostage-taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice. The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.”
Biden ended his statement with a message to Frerichs and others detained overseas as he is: “Know that my administration will continue to work steadfastly until every American being unjustly held against their will comes home.”
Monday marks two years since the 59-year-old Frerichs was kidnapped in Kabul, the Afghanistan capital, and he is now the only American hostage in Taliban custody.
According to the State Department, the U.S. government has been continually negotiating for his release in its meetings with the Taliban.
“The United States has raised Mark’s case in every meeting with the Taliban, and we have been clear that the legitimacy the Taliban seek is impossible to consider while they hold a U.S. citizen hostage,” State Department spokesman Ned Pricesaid in a statement Sunday. “His release is among our core, non-negotiable priorities. We will continue to send a clear message to Taliban leadership: immediately and safely release Mark and disavow the practice of hostage-taking.”
Frerich’s family, however, is not confident in those efforts.
In an op-ed published last week inTheWashington Post, Frerich’s sister, Charlene Cakora, argued that the U.S. — under both the Trump and Biden administrations — had other opportunities to bring her brother home but they weren’t taken.
“A month after he was abducted, the United Statessigneda peace accord with the Taliban. Mark’s name apparently wasnot even mentionedin the lead-up, despite the fact that U.S. officials were well aware of his kidnapping,” Cakora wrote.
Cakora wrote that the Taliban has also previously expressed interest in trading Frerich for an Afghan drug dealer who has been in U.S. custody for more than 16 years — nonetheless, that trade was not made.
“We have had so many opportunities to secure Mark’s release — and two successive administrations have missed every one of them,” she continued. “Each time, there was something more important. We helped facilitate the release ofthousandsof Taliban prisoners in 2020, but no Mark. We drew down ourtroop levelsat the end of 2020, but no Mark. We evacuated the country in 2021, but no Mark. Since our withdrawal, we have allocatednearly $800 millionin aid for Afghanistan since October, but no Mark.”
While Cakora said she felt “encouraged” after Biden took office and she was able to hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a Zoom call, she said she gradually grew more “jaded.”
Cakora wrote that Frerich was “a target of opportunity” and was taken “against his will to a stronghhold near the border with Pakistan and later up into the mountains” after he was invited to a meeting to discuss a project.
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In the following months, the U.S. completed a full-scale withdrawal — one that led to the Taliban swiftly retaking the country’s cities as they were met with little resistance from the Afghan army and its democratic government, which soon collapsed.
The Taliban’s takeover led to scenes of chaos and panic at the Kabul airport in August as the U.S. evacuated personnel along with international allies like the U.K. As the evacuation ramped up, American military flights left the country packed in some cases withhundreds of people.
Frerich, however, remained in the Taliban’s custody — with his family growing continually more worried, his sister wrote in thePost: “Every day we don’t bring Mark home is another day he remains in danger.”
source: people.com
