In the mid-to-late 1980s, during the Reagan administration, a delegation of Taliban members was invited to the White House to meet with President Ronald Reagan, per John Kiriakou; a former boss of Kiriakou’s served as translator for the meeting. One member of that delegation was a man named Haqqani, who went on to ally himself with al-Qaeda and became the leader of what is now known as the Haqqani network.[1]
Later consequences
Kiriakou says the Haqqani network was responsible for the capture of U.S. Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, and separately for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of a Canadian couple.[2]