When Biden’s administration pulled all troops A.S. From Afghanistan last August, Mark Frerichs was believed to be the only American hostage left in Taliban custody. Frerichs, a fifty-nine-year civil engineer and naval veteran, has been kidnapped on the streets of Kabul in 2020. His family members have repeatedly begged with the Taliban and the Biden government to negotiate his release, but, for more than two years, no Proof that openly appeared that Frerich was still alive. New Yorker has obtained a new video, from an unknown individual in Afghanistan, which shows Friterich in captivity and appealed for his freedom. “I patiently waited for my release,” Frerichs said, apparently read from the script held in front of him. “I want to ask the leadership of the Afghan Islamic Emirates, please, release me.”
Video, which was recorded by Friterichs on November 28, 2021, was about thirty seconds. The dark cloth hung behind Frerichs, an Illinois native who spent a decade in Afghanistan working on aid project before being kidnapped. He sat, wearing Afghan clothes, and wearing a short beard. Fratorich concluded the video with a simple attraction and seemed to be grateful for the opportunity to make contact with the outside world. “Let me get it so that I can be reunited with my family,” he said. “Thank You.”
Freichs’s sister, Charlene Cakora, confirmed that the man in the video was her lost brother, and expressed her thanks to the Taliban for it. (The New Yorker has not been able to verify video sources.) “This is a public confirmation of our family’s old beliefs that he is still alive after more than two years in captivity,” Cakora said to me. The Frerichs family has been very frustrated that two President-Donald Trump and Joe Biden-negotiated and completed the full withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan without securing the naval veteran release. Cakora said that senior officials from both administrations also refused to meet him directly. In the spring of 2020, Cakora’s request to speak with President Trump about the case was rejected by the White House. Last year, efforts to meet with Biden president or national security advisors, Jake Sullivan, were also continued. Cakora said he saw the release of the video as the first sign of progress because both administrations left Frerichs at the end of the twenty-year war in Afghanistan.
Government officials said that the video was rated, that diplomat A.S. Have repeatedly caused the Frerich case with the Taliban, and that Sullivan planned to meet with Cakora directly this month. “Biden President has clear: administration will continue to work until every US citizen is held hostage or detained wrongly,” a senior administrative official, who asked not to be named after, said. “We will never ask satisfied families, knowing that their loved ones are not home with them.”
On Friday, two other Americans, Safi Raouf, a twenty-seven-year-old assistance worker and Navy reserves, and his brother, Anees Khalil, was released after being held by the Taliban in December, CNN reported. Frerichs remain in captivity. Cakora said he welcomed the release of the brothers but questioned why the administration had not made an effort to free his brother, who had spent much longer in captivity. “We thank you for seeing these two individuals reunite with their family and have no criticism of them, but we are very angry with the Biden government,” he said. Taliban had tried to exchanged my brother for someone in US custody for more than a year, and the White House never gave them a reply. Sending US officials to Kabul as they did today did nothing to move the ball forward on Safe Mark Returns. “
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