WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering a new gambit to restart peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan that would send several Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Afghanistan, US and Afghan officials told The Associated Press late Friday. Under the proposal, some Taliban fighters or affiliates captured in the early days of the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and later sent to Guantanamo under the label of enemy combatants would be transferred out of full US control but not released. It's a leap of faith on the US side that the men will not become threats to US forces once back on Afghan soil. But it is meant to show more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency that the US is still interested in cutting a deal for peace. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others have said that while negotiations with the Taliban are distasteful, they are the best way to settle the prolonged war. The new compromise is intended to boost the credibility of the US-backed Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai and US officials are trying to draw the Taliban back to negotiations toward a peace deal between the national Afghan government and the Pashtun-based insurgency that would end a war US commanders have said cannot be won with military power alone. The Taliban have always been indifferent at best to negotiations with the Karzai government, saying the US holds effective control in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has set a 2014 deadline to withdraw forces, and is trying to frame talks among the Afghans beforehand. Under the new proposal, Guantanamo prisoners would go to a detention facility adjacent to Bagram air field, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, officials of both governments said. The prison is inside the security perimeter established by the US military, and is effectively under US control for now. It is scheduled for transfer to full Afghan control in September. — AP
