Blamed for killing thousands of shiite muslims who may have played a role in a prison uprising that resulted in the death of a cia officer, could be leaving gitmo and heading back to afghanistan as part of an exchange. fox news is confirming today the obama administration is considering this release as part of an effort to breathe new life into stalled peace talks with the taliban. jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. jennifer, everybody acknowledges this is high-stakes stuff. what are you hearing? reporter: well, it s high-stakes and first we were hearing, we heard vice president joe biden say in recent days that the taliban are not our enemy. that got a lot of attention in kabul. now we can confirm from u.s. officials that the white house is considering the release of mohammed fazal, high-risk detainee at guantanamo bay. he is a taliban commander. he and five taliban commanders who were among the first prisoners at guantanamo bay captured shortly after 9/11 back when
He was captured in the prison where cia operative, john my mike span was killed. he was the first u.s. casualty in the war. he is a legend in these halls here in the pentagon. president karzai is not happy about these stalled reconciliation talks. he was not happy it was revealed that the u.s. was encouraging the taliban to open an office in qatar and karzai pulled back from those talks. so now the leak that mohammed fazal would be among those that the u.s. releases from guantanamo bay, that is not likely to give president karzai confidence about this reconciliation process with the taliban. jon? jon: all right. monumental stuff there. jennifer griffin, keep an eye on it. thank you. there is also a new wave of bloodshed in syria to tell you about. hundreds of thousands of protesters flooding the streets there after friday prayers. a live report on that coming up. jamie: plus security is already tight in new york city s times square.
jon: the latest nbc news/marist poll puts romney in the lead. newt gingrich tied for fourth after the leading the poll earlier this month. the only major candidate not in iowa is jon huntsman who is focusing all his efforts on the next contest in new hampshire. join be us, paul west, national correspondent for the tribune newspaper group. paul, we should point out many of these iowa voters are still undecided and even today s frontrunner might not see the undecided voters break his or her way, right? that s right, jon. probably pen% of the voters go into the caucus tuesday night undecided or persuadable to change their minds. jon: obviously that is part of the caucus process, to stand up and try to convince people that your candidate is the one to vote for. exactly. every candidate will have a representative at each of the 1774 caucuses and they will make short speeches right before the vote is cast. that could make a difference. jon: there were some interesting things to
news/marist poll puts romney in the lead. newt gingrich tied for fourth after the leading the poll earlier this month. the only major candidate not in iowa is jon huntsman who is focusing all his efforts on the next contest in new hampshire. join be us, paul west, national correspondent for the tribune newspaper group. paul, we should point out many of these iowa voters are still undecided and even today s frontrunner might not see the undecided voters break his or her way, right? that s right, jon. probably pen% of the voters go into the caucus tuesday night undecided or persuadable to change their minds. jon: obviously that is part of the caucus process, to stand up and try to convince people that your candidate is the one to vote for. exactly. every candidate will have a representative at each of the 1774 caucuses and they will make short speeches right before the vote is cast. that could make a difference. jon: there were some interesting things to note in that marist