 The U.S. military released 85 Afghans from its jails in Afghanistan on Sunday after deciding they posed no threat and hearing them swear loyalty to the government. Seventy men were brought from the main American base at Bagram to the capital and freed after a closed-door ceremony, Rahmat Nadim, an Afghan intelligence service official, told The Associated Press. Fifteen more were released from a base near the southern city of Kandahar, where they received gifts and cash as well as a warning not to side with Taliban militants. "We hope you will go back to your families, live a quiet life and not cooperate with the Taliban," Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai told the men before they were released. "If you work with the government and the coalition, your country will progress." There was no apology for the 15 released in Kandahar, but the governor handed each of them $234 and a new turban as well as a letter from the U.S. military confirming their release.
| I dunno about giving them new turbans. I'll bet they'd be more peaceful and productive if they were given fedoras, or derbies, or Stetsons, or sombreros. I realize pork pie hats are probably un-Islamic... |
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