Afghans’ Plan to Release Prisoners Angers U.S.

From The New York Times:

Just months after American officials ceded control over all detention operations in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai’s government has quietly planned dozens of prisoner releases that American and Afghan officials said on Tuesday would include committed insurgents who had attacked Americans.

The pending wave of releases has revived one of the most caustic — and seemingly resolved — issues between the allies just as relations have hit a new low over Mr. Karzai’s refusal to sign a long-term security agreement with American officials. Officials from both countries who support the security deal say they are worried that the mass release of militants with American blood on their hands could scuttle talks altogether and lead to a complete Western withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.
      

It was out of concern that dangerous militants might be too easily returned to the battlefield that American military commanders initially resisted Mr. Karzai’s demands in the spring to hand over all detention operations. As the Americans relented, they said they had received his personal assurances that security would be maintained.