Taliban Terrorists Released to Free POW Bowe Bergdahl - May 31, 2014

[Tamikosmom]

Graham on Bergdahl Prisoner Swap: US Released the ‘Taliban Dream Team’
June 02 2014

<snipped>

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) questioned the conditions under which the terrorists were released, warning that they could turn around and launch attacks aimed at killing Americans. Taliban leader Mullah Omar delivered a statement on Sunday calling the trade a “great victory.”

On Outnumbered, Army veteran Pete Hegseth was outraged over the prisoner swap.

“If there’s one thing we’ve never done, it’s negotiate with terrorists,” he said. “We decide now that the price of an American soldier is five Taliban. […] These are guys associated with Usama bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks.”

Harris Faulkner noted that as news broke about Bergdahl’s release, he went from being called a hero to a possible deserter. 

Hegseth said, “The Taliban said he was drunk and off base. He said in a statement that he had fallen behind on a patrol. Which if you fall behind on a patrol, you’re in a fire fight or somebody knows about it.”

Members of Bergdahl’s unit were told not to talk about the situation until he was returned home. Now, fellow soldiers are coming out and saying he walked off the base.

“They don’t want the story to be Bowe Bergdahl, American hero, if he isn’t. If he is, then great,” Hegseth said. “But if he deserted and didn’t believe in the mission, and then they spent months and months looking for him, and now he’s being lauded as such – that really complicates the situation.”

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/06/02/hegseth-bergdahl-prisoner-swap-obama-admin-put-price-american-soldiers

[Blonde]

Some who served with Bowe Bergdahl say he was either a deserter or considering it
President Barack Obama called the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after five years' captivity in Afghanistan "a reminder of America’s unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield," but some of his fellow soldiers are continuing to claim he deserted his post in 2009.

Javier Ortiz, for one. The Army combat medic told the Washington Post he believes Bergdahl should be tried for desertion. Former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing, told CNN, "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."

And Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served with Bergdahl, wrote that he "was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down" in a recent column for the Daily Beast.

Bergdahl was exchanged for five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday, after months of negotiation led by the government of Qatar. Republicans, among them specifically Sen. John McCain, questioned whether the U.S. got the best of that deal, referring to the former Gitmo detainees as the "hardest of the hard core."

http://news.yahoo.com/some-fellow-soldiers-question-sgt--bergdahl-s-release-134759765.html

[Tamikosmom]

I am waiting for an official release pertaining to the claims of the  "unidentified" Defense Department source that were made the FOX network.

Janet

+++++

Sources: Intelligence community investigated Bergdahl’s conduct
Published June 02, 2014

A senior official confirms to Fox News that the conduct of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban -- has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of "a major classified file."

In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy.

The Pentagon official added pointedly that no relevant congressional committee has sought access to the classified file, but that if such a request were made, key committee chairs would, under previous precedent, likely be granted access to it. Separately, the Pentagon confirmed Monday that it is looking into claims Americans died during the search for Bergdahl.

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/02/sources-intelligence-community-investigated-bergdahls-conduct/

[Blonde]

We Lost Soldiers in the Hunt for Bergdahl, a Guy Who Walked Off in the Dead of Night
For five years, soldiers have been forced to stay silent about the disappearance and search for Bergdahl. Now we can talk about what really happened.
It was June 30, 2009, and I was in the city of Sharana, the capitol of Paktika province in Afghanistan. As I stepped out of a decrepit office building into a perfect sunny day, a member of my team started talking into his radio. “Say that again,” he said. “There’s an American soldier missing?”

There was. His name was Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, the only prisoner of war in the Afghan theater of operations. His release from Taliban custody on May 31 marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

[Tamikosmom]

CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin States President Barack Obama “Clearly Broke the Law” in Releasing Taliban Detainees from GITMO without giving Congress 30 Days Notice … Jonathan Turley Too
 
Two Liberal Lawyers say Barack Obama clearly broke the law …

Posted June 3, 2014 by Scared Monkeys

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2014/06/03/cnn-legal-analyst-jeffrey-toobin-states-president-barack-obama-clearly-broke-the-law-in-releasing-taliban-detainees-from-gitmo-without-giving-congress-30-days-notice-jonathan-tur/

[Tamikosmom]

LIARS!!! Hmm, Remember When WH Mouthpiece Jay Carney Said in 2013 … No Bergdahl Decision Will Happen ‘Without Consulting Congress’
 
YET ANOTHER LIE FROM THE ADMINISTRATION THAT PROMISED, IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTHCARE PLAN, YOU CAN KEEP IT, PERIOD!

Posted June 3, 2014 by Scared Monkeys

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2014/06/03/liars-hmm-remember-when-wh-mouthpiece-jay-carney-said-in-2013-no-bergdahl-decision-will-happen-without-consulting-congress/

[Tamikosmom]

BARACK OBAMA – 2008

White House defends prisoner swap with Taliban
Monday, June 2, 2014

<snipped>

When he ran for president in 2008, Mr. Obama criticized then-President George W. Bush for adding “signing statements” to laws, saying it was an abuse of executive authority that bypassed congressional intent.

“That’s not part of his power,” Mr. Obama said in May 2008. “But this is part of the whole theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he’s going along. I disagree with that. I taught the Constitution for ten years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States. We’re not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress.”

<snipped>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/2/white-house-defends-prisoner-swap-taliban/

[Tamikosmom]

JAY CARNEY - JUNE 2013

Carney in 2013: No Bergdahl Decision Will Happen ‘Without Consulting Congress’
June 2, 2014

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said nearly a year ago that no decisions about bringing about the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl through detainee transfer would be done “without consulting Congress.”

“With regard to the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, we have made — the United States has not made the decision to do that, though we do expect the Taliban to raise this issue in our discussion, if and when those discussions happen,” Carney said. “As we have long said, however, we would not make any decisions about transfer of any detainees without consulting with Congress and without doing so in accordance with U.S. law.”

<snipped>

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/flashback-carney-said-no-decision-about-transferring-detainees-for-bergdahl-would-happen-without-consulting-congress/


BARACK OBAMA - DECEMBER 2013

White House defends prisoner swap with Taliban
Monday, June 2, 2014

<snipped>

Republican lawmakers said the president broke the national defense authorization law that Mr. Obama signed on Dec. 26, 2013, which requires him to give Congress a month’s notice before releasing terrorism detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But the president added a “signing statement” to the law, saying that he intended to reserve for himself the flexibility to negotiate over the release of terrorism detainees.

“The executive branch must have the flexibility, among other things, to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers,” Mr. Obama wrote at the time.

<snipped>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/2/white-house-defends-prisoner-swap-taliban/

[Tamikosmom]

BARACK OBAMA – MAY 2008

White House defends prisoner swap with Taliban
Monday, June 2, 2014

<snipped>

When he ran for president in 2008, Mr. Obama criticized then-President George W. Bush for adding “signing statements” to laws, saying it was an abuse of executive authority that bypassed congressional intent.

“That’s not part of his power,” Mr. Obama said in May 2008. “But this is part of the whole theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he’s going along. I disagree with that. I taught the Constitution for ten years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States. We’re not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress.”

<snipped>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/2/white-house-defends-prisoner-swap-taliban/

Flip Flop?

BARACK OBAMA - DECEMBER 2013

White House defends prisoner swap with Taliban
Monday, June 2, 2014

<snipped>

Republican lawmakers said the president broke the national defense authorization law that Mr. Obama signed on Dec. 26, 2013, which requires him to give Congress a month’s notice before releasing terrorism detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But the president added a “signing statement” to the law, saying that he intended to reserve for himself the flexibility to negotiate over the release of terrorism detainees.

“The executive branch must have the flexibility, among other things, to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers,” Mr. Obama wrote at the time.

<snipped>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/2/white-house-defends-prisoner-swap-taliban/

[Tamikosmom]

IN A NUTSHELL

The following article in its entirety is a good read.  IMO

Janet

+++++

Wartime messages to parents, fellow soldiers reveal troubled Bergdahl
Published June 03, 2014

Email exchanges between Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his parents, statements from fellow GIs and a purported letter he left the night he disappeared into the rugged Afghan terrain are painting the picture of a troubled and disillusioned soldier who was "ashamed" to be an American.

While Bergdahl remained at a U.S. military hospital in Germany following a swap for five high-level Taliban members — dubbed a jihadist "Dream Team" — two of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers told Fox News Channel that the 28-year-old Idaho native willingly walked away from his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. Their claims that Bergdahl's departure from the base was premeditated jibes with emails published in 2012, in which he told his father of his growing disenchantment with the Army's mission in Afghanistan.

“The future is too good to waste on lies,” Bergdahl wrote his parents. “And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.” ....

<snipped>

READ MORE:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/03/wartime-messages-to-parents-fellow-soldiers-reveal-troubled-bergdahl/

[Tamikosmom]

Pentagon inquiry in 2010 found Bergdahl walked away from unit, report claims
Published June 03, 2014

A Pentagon investigation in 2010 concluded that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit prior to his capture by the Taliban the year before, a finding that led the military to curb any high-risk rescue plans, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

A former Pentagon official told the AP that the evidence presented in the investigation was “incontrovertible” that Bergdahl had left the unit when he disappeared on June 30, 2009.

READ MORE:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/03/pentagon-inquiry-in-2010-found-bergdahl-walked-away-from-unit-report-claims/

INCONTROVERTIBLE: not able to be denied or disputed

[Blonde]

Though the 2009 Afghan presidential election slowed the search for Bergdahl, it did not stop it. Our battalion suffered six fatalities in a three-week period. On August 18, an IED killed Private First Class Morris Walker and Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen during a reconnaissance mission. On August 26, while conducting a search for a Taliban shadow sub-governor supposedly affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss was shot in the face and killed. On September 4, during a patrol to a village near the area in which Bergdahl vanished, an insurgent ambush killed Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and gravely wounded Private First Class Matthew Martinek, who died of his wounds a week later. On September 5, while conducting a foot movement toward a village also thought affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey stepped on an improvised land mine. He died the next day.
It is important to name all these names. For the veterans of the units that lost these men, Bergdahl’s capture and the subsequent hunt for him will forever tie to their memories, and to a time in their lives that will define them as people. He has finally returned. Those men will never have the opportunity.

Bergdahl was not the first American soldier in modern history to walk away blindly. As I write this in Seoul, I'm about 40 miles from where an American sergeant defected to North Korea in 1965. Charles Robert Jenkins later admitted that he was terrified of being sent to Vietnam, so he got drunk and wandered off on a patrol. He was finally released in 2004, after almost 40 hellish years of brutal internment. The Army court-martialed him, sentencing him to 30 days' confinement and a dishonorable discharge. He now lives peacefully with his wife in Japan—they met in captivity in North Korea, where they were both forced to teach foreign languages to DPRK agents. His desertion barely warranted a comment, but he was not hailed as a hero. He was met with sympathy and humanity, and he was allowed to live his life, but he had to answer for what he did.



The war was already absurd and quixotic, but the hunt for Bergdahl was even more infuriating because it was the result of some kid doing something unnecessary by his own volition.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

[cookie]

This is the first time in my adult life that I do not feel safe under this President...
He truly makes me wonder whose side he is on.....
He is going rogue on the American people.
This deserter who said that he was ashamed to be an American reminded me of when Michelle Obama made the comment, (not word for word) for the first time I am proud to b an American. I think it was when her husband was voted into office.
This guy is ruining America.
Makes me sad.

[Tamikosmom]

“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”  - Barack Obama, October 30, 2008

Hi Cookie

My youngest son's American in-laws emotions fluctuate.  Frustration.  Angry.  Sadness.  They believes that a revival is what it will take to halt the current "transformation of America".

Janet


2 Chronicles 7:14 - If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

[Tamikosmom]

Bergdahl's team leader: Intercepted radio chatter said he sought talks with the Taliban
June 3rd, 2014

(CNN) - Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow was the team leader with Bowe Bergdahl the night Bergdahl disappeared.

"Bergdahl is a deserter, and he's not a hero," says Buetow. "He needs to answer for what he did."

Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban.

"I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio," said Buetow. "There's a lot more to this story than a soldier walking away."

The Army will review the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "in a comprehensive, coordinated effort," Secretary of the Army John McHugh said Tuesday.

The review will include speaking with Bergdahl "to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity," he said.

The night Bergdahl disappeared, says Buetow, the platoon was at a small outpost, consisting of two bunkers and a perimeter of military trucks. Buetow was in one of the bunkers, and Bergdahl was supposed to be in a tent by one of the trucks.

Then a call came through on the radio.

"I'll never forget that line, 'Has anyone seen Bergdahl?'" says Buetow.

Firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon say Bergdahl disappeared while he was on guard duty.

Buetow says Bergdahl was about to go on guard duty, but when a fellow soldier went to wake him, he was not in his tent. He had left behind his weapons, his bullet-proof vest, and night vision gear.

"I immediately knew, I said, 'He walked away. He walked away,'" said Buetow.

Bergdahl walked off the observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary, according to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon.

Read: Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero

Buetow was involved in the immediate search for Bergdahl, pushing a patrol into a nearby local village.

"Immediately as we left the base, two small boys walked up to us, and they told us that they saw an American crawling in the weeds by himself," said the former Army sergeant. The search followed that lead, and others, for months.

"For 60 days or more, I remember, just straight, all we did was search for Bergdahl," said Buetow, "essentially chasing a ghost because we never came up with anything."

At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for him, according to soldiers involved in those operations.

<snipped>

READ MORE:
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/03/team-leader-bowe-bergdahl-wanted-to-talk-to-taliban/

[Tamikosmom]

Ted Cruz Interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly: Bergdahl Swap – 6/3/14
Posted on June 3, 2014

Video:
http://uneditedpolitics.com/ted-cruz-interview-with-fox-news-megyn-kelly-bergdahl-swap-6314/

[Tamikosmom]

Susan Rice: Bergdahl Served With 'Honor and Distinction'
June 2, 2014

President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said on ABC that Bowe 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."

Rice says, "Sergeant Bergdahl wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield." She adds, "We have a sacred obligation that we have upheld since the founding of our republic to do our utmost to bring back our men and women who are taken in battle, and we did that in this instance." 

<snipped>

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/susan-rice-bergdahl-served-honor-and-distinction_794066.html


White House backpedals after claiming Bergdahl 'served with honor and distinction'
June 03, 2014

Deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken struggled to cover for his boss Susan Rice on Tuesday, backtracking from her contention that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” in the face of tough questions from NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell.

Mitchell confronted Blinken over Rice’s Sunday claim that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” —  an assertion almost immediately disproven by scores of Bergdahl’s comrades and official Pentagon reports, which show the soldier abandoned his post and may have been seeking to join the Taliban.

“Why did Susan Rice say he served with honor and distinction?” she asked. “It was clear to the military as soon as he left what had happened, according to his former fellow soldiers?”

“Andrea, as Chairman Dempsey said this morning, we need to give Sgt. Bergdahl an opportunity to tell his story,” Blinken dodged, refusing to address Rice’s claim.

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/03/white-house-backpedals-after-claiming-bergdahl-served-with-honor-and/

[Tamikosmom]

Bergdahl wrote of being 'ashamed' to be an American in emails
Published June 03, 2014

While Bergdahl remained at a U.S. military hospital in Germany following a swap for five high-level Taliban members — dubbed a jihadist "Dream Team" — two of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers told Fox News Channel that the 28-year-old Idaho native willingly walked away from his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. Their claims that Bergdahl's departure from the base was premeditated jibes with emails published in 2012, in which he told his father of his growing disenchantment with the Army's mission in Afghanistan.

“The future is too good to waste on lies,” Bergdahl wrote his parents. “And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.”

<snipped>

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/03/wartime-messages-to-parents-fellow-soldiers-reveal-troubled-bergdahl/

[Tamikosmom]

VIDEO: Taliban Release Video of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Handover

Posted June 4, 2014 by Scared Monkeys

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2014/06/04/video-taliban-release-video-of-sgt-bowe-bergdahl-handover/#comments

[Tamikosmom]

Freed Taliban in Midst of Luxury in Qatar
June 4, 2014

VIDEO
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/freed-taliban-midst-luxury-qatar-23967652?tab=9482931&section=4765066