Khairullah Said Wali Khairkhwa (Pashto:خیرالله سید ولي خیرخواه[xairʊˈlɑsaˈjɪdwaˈlixairˈxwɑ]; born 1967) is a member of the militantTaliban organization currently in control of Afghanistan, who has previously been called one of the "moderate" Taliban.^[2][3] He is the TalibanMinister of Information and Culture and a formerMinister of the Interior. After thefall of the Taliban government in 2001, he was held at the United StatesGuantanamo Bay detainment camp inCuba^[4] for 12 years. He was released in late May 2014 in a prisoner exchange that involvedBowe Bergdahl and theTaliban five.^[5] Press reports have referred to him as"Mullah" and"Maulavi", two different honorifics for referring to senior Muslim clerics.^[6][7][8][9]

Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa خیرالله خیرخواه
Khairkhwa in 2020
Minister of Information and Culture
Acting
Assumed office 7 September 2021
Supreme Leader	Hibatullah Akhundzada
Prime Minister	Hasan Akhund (acting)
Minister of Interior Affairs
In office c. 1997–c. 1998
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani
Leader	Mohammed Omar
Preceded by	Qari Ahmadullah
Succeeded by	Abdur Razzaq Akhundzada
Governor of Herat
In office March 2001 – October 2001
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani
Leader	Mohammed Omar
Spokesperson for theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan
In office c. 1995–c. 1996
Prime Minister	Mohammad Rabbani Abdul Kabir
Leader	Mohammed Omar
Personal details
Born	1967 (age 57–58)[1] Kandahar,Kingdom of Afghanistan
Political party	Taliban
Occupation	Politician,Taliban member

Claims from analysts at Guantanamo that Khairkhwa was directly associated withOsama bin Laden and Taliban Supreme CommanderMullah Muhammad Omar have been widely repeated.^[10]Kate Clark has criticized her fellow journalists for uncritically repeating U.S. claims that were largely based on unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo, or on confessions and denunciations coerced through torture and other extreme interrogation techniques.^[11]

Americanintelligence analysts estimate that Khairkhwa was born in 1967 inKandahar,Afghanistan. He is from theArghistan District inKandahar province and belongs to thePopalzai tribe.^[12][13] He studied at theDarul Uloom Haqqania Islamicseminary (darul uloom ormadrasa) atAkora Khattak inPakistan, where many otherTaliban leaders also studied.^[12][13] He was affiliated withMohammad Nabi Mohammadi'sIslamic Revolution Movement (Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami) during theSoviet–Afghan War.^[12]

Khairullah was one of the original members of the Taliban in 1994^[11][13] and was a spokesman for them from 1994 to 1996.^[12] He was chief of police after the Taliban took control ofKabul in 1996.^[14] He was the Minister of the Interior under Taliban rule in 1997 and 1998, withAbdul Samad Khaksar, also called Mohammad Khaksar, as deputy minister.

Some reports have said he had been the Taliban's deputy minister of the interior, interim minister of the interior, the minister of the interior, and the Minister of Information.^[6][8] Khirullah was also to serve as the Taliban's Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman, giving interviews to theBritish Broadcasting Corporation and theVoice of America. He was the Governor ofHerat Province from 1999 to 2001.^[12]

Kate Clark, then of theBBC News, interviewed Khairkhwa in September 2000. Clark wrote that Khairkhwa was comfortable conversing in theDari language when most Taliban leaders, all members of Afghanistan'sPashtun ethnic group, would only speak in thePashtun language. She wrote that under Khairkhwa, she was allowed to film openly in Herat, even though doing so was disallowed under Taliban law. She wrote that under Khairkhwa, Afghan women felt comfortable approaching her, and speaking with her, something that rarely happened in other regions of Afghanistan.^[11]

According to journalistMark Mazzetti, in February 2002, Khairkhwa and alleged CIA agentAhmed Wali Karzai discussed the possibility of Khairkhwa surrendering and informing for theCIA. However, the deal broke down and Khairkhwa fled for Pakistan; the CIA learned of his flight through a communications intercept and the U.S. military dispatched a helicopter-borne commando team to capture Khairkhwa. However, the CIA hoped to allow the Pakistanis to recruit or capture Khairkhwa, which would also boostU.S.-Pakistan relations. Thus, the CIA recalled the drone following Khairkhwa's truck and a second drone pinpointed a different truck, whose innocent occupants were captured and later released. Khairkhwa successfully crossed into Pakistan atSpin Boldak, but after further talks over informing broke down, Khairkhwa was arrested by the Pakistanis inChaman, transferred to the CIA inQuetta, and then sent to Guantanamo.^[15]

Khirullah Khairkhwa arrived at the United StatesGuantanamo Bay detainment camp inCuba on May 1, 2002.^[16][17][18]

Originally, theBushPresidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by theGeneva Conventions and could be held indefinitely without charge and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.^[19] In 2004, theUnited States Supreme Court ruled, inRasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention and were entitled to try to refute them. Following the ruling, theDepartment of Defense set up theOffice for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC)^[19][20] in 2004.

Scholars at theBrookings Institution, led byBenjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations. Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa was listed as one of the captives who:^[23]

• the military alleges were members of either al Qaeda or the Taliban and associated with the other group.^[23]
• "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."^[23]
• was a member of the Taliban leadership.^[23]
• was one of "36 [who] openly admit either membership or significant association with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or some other group the government considers militarily hostile to the United States."^[23]
• had admitted "being [a] Taliban leader."^[23]

On January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated,United States PresidentBarack Obama issued threeExecutive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo.^{[24][25][26][27]}He put in place a new review system composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back a year later, theJoint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo. On April 9, 2013, that document was made public after aFreedom of Information Act request.^[28]Khairullah Khairkhwa was one of the 71 individuals deemed too innocent to charge but too dangerous to release. Obama said those in that category would start to receive reviews from aPeriodic Review Board. The first review was not convened until November 20, 2013.^[29]

TheAfghanistan High Peace Council called for his release in 2011.^[30] In early 2011, PresidentHamid Karzai demanded his release and Hekmat Karzai, the director of theCentre for Conflict and Peace Studies in Kabul, said "His release will be influential to the peace process," and that "Mr Khairkhwa is well respected amongst the Taliban and was considered a moderate by those who knew him".^[2][3]

Throughout the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2012, the United States conducted peace negotiations with the Taliban and widely leaked that a key sticking point was the ongoing detention of Khairkhwa and four other senior Taliban,Norullah Noori,Mohammed Fazl,Abdul Haq Wasiq^{[31][32][33][34]} – theTaliban Five. Negotiations hinged on a proposal to send the five men directly toDoha,Qatar, where they would be allowed to set up an official office for the Taliban.

In March 2012, it was reported thatIbrahim Spinzada, described as "Karzai's top aide", had spoken with the five men in Guantanamo earlier that month and had secured their agreement to be transferred to Qatar.^[34] Karzai, who had initially opposed the transfer, then reportedly backed the plan.

The Taliban Five were flown to Qatar and released on June 1, 2014. Simultaneously, U.S. soldier and deserterBowe Bergdahl was released in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban Five were required to spend the next year in Qatar, a condition of their release.^[35] They are the only "forever prisoners" to be released without being cleared by a review^[36] by the Periodic Review Board.

On September 7, 2021, Khairkhwa was named the newMinister of Information and Culture for theinterim government.

• Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Five: Captured in Pakistan Andy Worthington, September 29, 2010
• David Lerman (2015-03-31)."Qatar extends travel ban on 5 Taliban traded for U.S. soldier".Miami Herald.Archived from the original on 2015-07-25. Retrieved2016-04-18.
• Carol Rosenberg (2013-06-07)."FOIA suit reveals Guantánamo's 'indefinite detainees'".Miami Herald.Archived from the original on 2014-11-21. Retrieved2016-04-18.She also noted that, since the list was drawn up, the Obama administration was reportedly considering transferring five Afghan Taliban to custody of the Qatari government in exchange for the release of U.S. POW Bowe Bergdahl. The Wall Street Journal named the five men and all appear on the list released Monday as indefinite detainees: Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Abdul Haq Wasiq.