WASHINGTON -- The five senior Taliban leaders released to Qatar after years of detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are subject to strict bans on militant incitement or fundraising that might pose a danger to the United States, according to people familiar with the negotiations that freed American prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
The Afghans also are under a one-year travel ban insisted upon by Washington despite a Taliban request that the men be allowed to make the hajj, Muslims' annual pilgrimage to nearby Saudi Arabia.
President Barack Obama's administration has kept the document detailing the terms of the men's conditions of release confidential, partly in deference to Qatar, the tiny Mideast country that served as intermediary. But people familiar with the talks and a classified briefing provided to senators said negotiators sought additional security assurances from Qatar this spring and got them.
U.S. officials and others who provided details of the negotiations spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the arrangement, much of which remains classified.
The men are not under lockdown in Qatar, and their relative freedom of movement after more than a decade under complete U.S. control has angered administration critics.
"It's possible someone will see them on the streets of Qatar," State Department spokesman Marie Harf said. "But those types of activities don't threaten our national security interests, and that's the standard here about substantially mitigating the threat that they will pose."
But critics, partly on the basis of Qatar's past record, fear that the five will be not be subject to the kind of strict monitoring that can prevent them from having a role in the Taliban insurgency.
"There is no dispute in the intelligence community about how dangerous these Taliban detainees are," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "It is highly likely that they will return to the fight against our country after their year in Qatar, which is why I share concerns expressed by many members of both parties about the administration's decision."
The five, all once part of the Taliban government that rose to power in Afghanistan and sheltered al-Qaida before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, were traded for Bergdahl, who was held by the Haqqani network, a branch of the Taliban, for nearly five years. He was the only American prisoner of war from the Afghan conflict and the subject of years of fitful negotiations.
A backlash to the prisoner swap has mounted, with criticism of the administration's willingness to negotiate with a terrorist group and questions about whether Bergdahl had deserted his post before his capture.
Administration officials stressed that Bergdahl's health was declining and time was of the essence to make a deal, if one was possible. Officials also stressed that once negotiations began they had to move quickly, for fear that a lag or a leak about the arrangements could put Bergdahl's life in jeopardy.
People familiar with the negotiation said the five militants had become less worrisome as the years wore on and are now considered "graybeards," or elders unlikely to assume top battlefield roles. That said, U.S. officials acknowledged that some of the five could take on other leadership roles.
The strict travel ban will keep them from returning to any active role fighting U.S. forces for at least a year, U.S. officials said. By that time, all U.S. combat forces will be gone from Afghanistan. A small force devoted to training and counterterrorism will remain.
The release of the five Taliban commanders ran counter to administration policy because the detainees had not been approved for transfer through a national-security vetting process, a category that now includes 71 of the 149 detainees that remain in Guantanamo.
Information for this article was contributed by Scott Wilson and Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post.
A Section on 06/07/2014