CIA must pull its weight to free Mahmood Habibi in Afghanistan

For many people, August is a fun time to enjoy summer vacation.  But for our family, each Aug. 10 reminds us that another year has passed and my brother, Mahmood Habibi, remains in Taliban custody.

My brother is a U.S. citizen who obtained citizenship after working on civil aviation issues in support of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. After the U.S. left Afghanistan, he returned to work as a contractor for Asia Consultancy Group, which manages the air traffic control system at Kabul’s airport and the cell towers in downtown Kabul.

Shortly after the July 2022 drone strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, my brother was arrested along with 30 other employees of his company. They were taken to the headquarters of the General Directorate of Intelligence, the Taliban’s feared secret police, and interrogated about the company’s involvement in the strike.

It became apparent that the Taliban believed the CIA used cameras atop the company’s cell towers to target its strike against Zawahiri. Indeed, the missile they used had to be guided to its target by sight, as it used blades rather than a warhead.

Eventually, almost all the 31 people were let go, but not my brother — the only U.S. citizen they have.

We have been fighting for three years now to get the Taliban to admit they are holding Mahmood so that he can be traded for. Other Americans — Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, Faye Hall, and William McKenty — were arrested and released in that time, but the Taliban denies they ever had my brother.

This denial comes in the face of overwhelming witness testimonies and technical evidence affirming that they arrested him. The Taliban even claimed that they never heard of him — that they looked in their jails and did not find him. As a result, they asserted that he must be dead. In contrast, people held with my brother by the secret police testified that they saw him. One person detained with my brother later reported: “Even though we were kept in separate rooms next to each other, I could hear Mahmood’s voice when he talked. At one point I personally saw Mahmood and one more [Asia Consultancy Group] employee in this ... facility.”

Congress has been supportive of our efforts. Parallel House and Senate resolutions are being submitted by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.). The State Department and FBI have been incredibly supportive of my family, and their efforts under the Trump administration are so much more effective than under the Biden Administration.

Whereas the Biden Administration politely asked for the Taliban’s help, the Trump administration is now demanding that they hand my brother over. My family feels like we finally have someone fighting for us. Both the FBI and State Department worked together with us to offer a $5 million reward for my brother under the Rewards for Justice program. The National Security Council has also been working to create the conditions to bring Mahmood home and we are grateful to the Trump Administration for their advocacy.

Unfortunately, the CIA has not been doing all it can to bring my brother home. They are the outlier in the U.S. government. Should my brother die in Taliban custody, I will consider his blood to be on their hands.

Aside from its apparent inaction now, the CIA's first sin was that it failed to warn ACG to direct my brother, who was in the United Arab Emirates at the time of the drone strike, not to go back to Kabul. If the agency's collaboration with the company got my brother arrested, they had a duty of care to tell the company to warn employees against returning so soon after the strike. The best evidence that my brother had nothing to do with it was the fact that he returned to Kabul so soon afterward.

At a time when the U.S. has cut off most of our funding to Afghanistan, we believe the CIA is still providing Title 50 support to its General Directorate for Intelligence — the same entity that arrested my brother and now denies having ever heard of him. We believe that the CIA has not leveraged this counter-terrorism relationship to encourage them to free my brother.

We believe the CIA is ignoring an American citizen it could help, and who is only in a horrible situation because of its failure to warn him, in favor of a desire to play whack-a-mole with the Taliban against ISIS fighters in Afghanistan.

I’m saying “we believe” this because the CIA has refused every request we have made for a meeting — through the State Department, through the National Security Council and directly — for the last three years.

If the CIA wants to be left alone in its efforts to work with Afghan authorities, we have no objection. We are taxpayers and we hate terrorists too. But the only way either the Taliban or the CIA will get peace from us is if the CIA leverages its relationship to encourage the Taliban to let my brother go.

In the meantime, we hope the House and Senate Intelligence committees will look into this issue for us.

Ahmad Shah Habibi is the older brother of Mahmood Habibi.