Rubio Comments On US Hostages Being Held By The Taliban


The Taliban is holding more American hostages than previously reported, according to a Saturday evening statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, posting on X, sounded the alarm with a chilling update: “Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported. If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden.”

This news comes mere days after American hostage Ryan Corbett was freed from Taliban captivity after 894 days of imprisonment in Afghanistan. While Corbett’s release has been celebrated as a victory, the grim revelation that other Americans remain in Taliban hands casts a long shadow over the situation. Fox News has identified at least two of these hostages—U.S. citizens George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi. However, Rubio did not provide further details about the hostages or the circumstances of their captivity.

The timing of these developments is telling. Corbett’s release occurred just hours after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, following weeks of intensified negotiations between the Taliban and the outgoing Biden administration. Yet the terms of Corbett’s freedom have sparked outrage: his release was secured through the exchange of a high-profile terrorist, Khan Muhammad, who was serving a life sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking and attempting to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

In other words, a man convicted of narco-terrorism and plotting to target U.S. military personnel is now back in Taliban territory, a bitter pill to swallow for a nation that has endured years of sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.

Rubio’s blunt proposal to place a “VERY BIG bounty” on Taliban leaders is more than rhetoric—it’s a stark acknowledgment of the failed policies that have emboldened America’s enemies. The disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, carried out under Joe Biden’s administration, set the stage for this ongoing crisis.

The hasty pullout left Americans and allies behind, shattered any semblance of stability in the region, and gave the Taliban the leverage they now exploit with hostage-taking and extortion. Ryan Corbett’s story exemplifies this chaos. His family evacuated Afghanistan during Biden’s withdrawal, yet Corbett returned just five months later to continue his work rebuilding the private sector in the war-torn country. A year later, the Taliban captured him—yet another victim of the vacuum left behind by the Biden administration’s incompetence.

The Corbett family, in a heartfelt statement, expressed gratitude to a wide array of officials, including both Trump and Biden, for their roles in securing Ryan’s release. But the family’s praise underscores an unspoken truth: the cost of this release is steep, and the battle is far from over. For every Ryan Corbett who comes home, there are more Americans like Glezmann and Habibi who remain in captivity, their fates uncertain.

The Taliban’s actions make one thing clear—they view the United States as weak, fractured, and ripe for exploitation. If the Biden administration’s withdrawal was an open invitation for chaos, the Trump administration now faces the colossal task of reasserting strength and credibility. Rubio’s call for decisive action, including bounties on Taliban leaders, reflects the frustration of a nation that has seen its enemies emboldened while its own citizens remain pawns in a geopolitical game.

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