A Troubling Prisoner Swap
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
There simply has to be more than currently meets the eye with
regard to this Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap.
Because if there isn’t, this has to be one of the weirdest
things I have ever seen and I’ve been watching politics and
government for a long time.
I understand the notion that we never leave a soldier on the
battlefield. That is honorable. But the way this prisoner
exchange played out is just bizarre.
President Barack Obama traded 5 top Taliban commanders for
Bergdahl, who had been held in Afghanistan by the Taliban
since 2009.
(The Taliban guys have to stay in Qatar for a year. Then they
can go wreak havoc wherever they please.)
Some are saying President Obama “broke the law.” But as
commander in chief of America’s armed forces, the president
has broad authority under Article II of the U.S. Constitution
to order a prisoner exchange. So I highly doubt – as some have
brazenly claimed – that the President is some impeachable law
breaker over this.
But here’s where it gets a little weird.
The President defended his actions, saying that the
administration had a very small window of opportunity for the
swap, law or no law, and that the White House had already
talked about the swap with Congress all the way back to 2011.
Fair enough.
But at the same time the President was defending his actions,
the White House was apologizing to Sen. Diane Feinstein, the
Democrat head of the Senate Intelligence committee.
The Hill quoted Feinstein, “I had a call from the White House
last night, from Tony Blinken, apologizing for it. ... He
apologized and said it was an oversight,” she added.
Feinstein also said, by the way, leaders of the House and
Senate Intelligence panels were almost unanimously –
bipartisanly – opposed to a prisoner trade when it came up in
2011.
(Good thing the President didn’t consult Congress. Sounds like
Congress would have said no.)
So why is the White House apologizing if everything, according
to the President, is all hunky dory?
But that’s just the tip of the weirdness iceberg.
Seems Bergdahl may well have been a deserter.
The New York Times, quoting a senior military officer,
reported that Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying
he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the
American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new
life. He slipped off the remote military outpost taking only a
soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing
materials.
Rolling Stone, in 2012, published the following quote from
Bergdahl, attributing it to an email he sent to his parents,
“life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as
well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are
wrong. … I am ashamed to even be [A]merican.”
Rolling Stone also reported Bergdahl told his parents his
battalion commander was a “conceited old fool” and his peers
were “the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies.”
The ensuing search for Bergdahl led to the deaths of at least
two soldiers and possibly six others in the area, according to
various news reports. The Pentagon says those numbers are
unsubstantiated.
While looking for info on Bergdahl online, I stumbled across
an August, 2010, article from the Daily Mail. (That’s almost
four years ago.)
It was about Bergdahl.
From the article:
A captured American soldier is teaching Taliban fighters
bomb-making and ambush skills, according to one of his captors
and Afghan intelligence officials
Private Bowe Bergdahl disappeared in June 2009 while based in
eastern Afghanistan and is thought to be the only U.S.
serviceman in captivity.
The 24-year-old has converted to Islam and now has the Muslim
name Abdullah, one of his captors told The Sunday Times.
A Taliban deputy district commander in Paktika, who called
himself Haji Nadeem, told the newspaper that Bergdahl taught
him how to dismantle a mobile phone and turn it into a remote
control for a roadside bomb.
Nadeem claimed he also received basic ambush training from the
U.S. soldier.
Afghan intelligence officials also believe that Bergdahl is
‘cooperating with the Taliban’ and is acting as adviser to
fighters at a base in the tribal area of Pakistan.
Lies? Propaganda? Who knows?
Let’s add to the weirdness.
CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that Bergdahl will be promoted
because he has not been classified as a deserter.
Bergdahl, by the way, was promoted twice after he was taken
prisoner in June 2009. He was promoted to the rank of
specialist in June 2010 and then sergeant in June 2011.
Guess they didn’t read the Daily Mail article, because they
promoted the guy while he reportedly was teaching the Taliban
how to make bombs and ambush U.S. soldiers.
And how about that Susan Rice? Remember her?
She was the one – as the U.S. United Nations Ambassador – who
went out on the Sunday talk show circuit and pushed the
dubious narrative that the attack in Benghazi was the result
of a Youtube video.
Well, after that, she got a promotion. Now she’s the
President’s National Security Adviser.
And she was back on Sunday TV last weekend declaring
that Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and
distinction” and that “Sergeant Bergdahl wasn’t simply a
hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the
battlefield.”
I know the guy’s innocent until proven guilty, but “honor and
distinction?” Wouldn’t you temper that a little bit until you
had all the info?
Plus, in his five years of captivity, Bergdahl was never
listed as a prisoner of war. He was listed at first as “duty
status whereabouts unknown.” After that, his status was
changed to “missing/captured.”
For crying out loud, who in the White House is writing that
poor woman’s talking points?
Which brings me back around to the first paragraph of this
article
My hope is at some point, a nugget of information will come
out and all this will make sense – like, maybe Bergdahl is
some top-secret CIA mole or something.
If not, this just makes the Obama administration look
incompetent.
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