A former Taliban commander was sentenced to 42 years in prison for crimes including kidnapping a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
Haji Najibullah's sentencing capped a daylong proceeding in Manhattan federal court where the reporter, David Rohde, faced Najibullah and described how Najibullah took part in the abduction of him and two other men in 2008 in Afghanistan.
Rohde, MSNOW's national security reporter, told Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he was 'surprised and disappointed' that Najibullah was trying to blame others and circumstances for his role in the kidnapping.
Najibullah pleaded guilty to providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to take hostages in April 2025.
He admitted to providing material support, including weapons, to the Taliban from 2007 to 2009, knowing it would be used to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Rohde said it was Najibullah's lies that led him to go to what he thought was an interview but what turned into an ambush.
He noted that hostage taking is a cruel and cowardly crime, and the pain he and those who know him have suffered is dwarfed by the deaths of three U.S. soldiers who were killed by Najibullah's cohorts in a separate operation.
