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Bowe Bergdahl, U.S. soldier held in Afghanistan, freed in swap

Beaudreaux

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(CNN) -- Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier held captive for nearly five years by militants during the Afghanistan war, has been released in exchange for five Guantanamo detainees, authorities said Saturday.

"Today the American people are pleased that we will be able to welcome home Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl," the White House said in a statement.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a separate statement that he had informed Congress of the decision to transfer five detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for Bergdahl, who was the only remaining American soldier captured from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"A few hours ago, the family of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was informed by President Obama that their long wait for his return will soon be over," Hagel said.

...

U.S. soldier held in Afghanistan is released - CNN.com



I'm extremely happy that this guy is coming home.

The White House says this was a prisoner swap, for five "terrorists" (my word, not theirs) being held at Gitmo.

That said, there are a lot of questions to be answered here. Just a few are:

Why did Bergdahl "wander off" from the base and get captured in the first place? He had sent a number of emails to his parents saying he was having second thoughts about joining the Army, for instance. Technically, he was AWOL when he left the base and got captured. Did he go off base just to take a walk and think? Or, was it desertion? We won't know until he's debriefed.

Why did we agree to release five terrorists? The names of the five released terrorists are Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari. Not just some enemy soldiers doing their job as members of another national army. These guys were hard core terrorists.

What happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists?"

Did they pin these guys before releasing them?

Are they being tracked?

And, many other questions.

None of which should lessen the fact that we've finally lived up to our military creed of Leave No Man Behind. As I started my comments above: I'm extremely happy that this guy is coming home.
 
What happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists?"

We still don't negotiate with terrorists. The Taliban in Afghanistan were never designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the only Taliban group so designated is Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Now, Rep. Howard McKeon of California and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma have said Obama violated the law, by not giving Congress 30 days' notification.
Foreign Terrorist Organizations
News from The Associated Press
 
An interesting turn of events.

Do you actually believe the government when it says things? Including 'we don't negotiate with terrorists?'

It's easy to tell when a politician is lying--his lips are moving.

It might be that the man left his unit on purpose. Some go to war and become more perceptive of the truth, some go and become less perceptive and more brainwashed. Judging from what has been written in the press, this man may have become disgusted with what he was doing.
 
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i support the decision 100%.

one valued life against 5 un-valued lives.
 
There is clearly a lot more to this story than meets the eye. Of course there is the 'no negotiation with terrorists' bit to start with. But it appears that this guy might have been a deserter and just walked away from his camp. Some others that were there with him are telling this story, and they are rightfully pissed off because several good men died looking for him. Apparently the guys father is a very left wing anti-war guy and as recently as the 28th of May was tweeting about how he was working to free all prisoners in Gitmo. Hmm. Of course there is also the 30 day notification and the justification for bypassing it by the administration which is based on the presidents signing statement saying that a 30 day notification was 'unconstitutional'… hmm. And the reality that the 5 people swapped out have some seriously bad history and clearly are very high risk (if free) to America and our allies. If just one of them is found to go back to what they were doing (and they all will), I don't see how this swap can be justified, or how any new blood shed brought on by these 5 would not be all over the hands of the current administration.

I'd love to see the big networks actually dig into all of this, but I doubt they will, and it will back up the whole 'in the pocket' bit that appears to be the case for 6 years now.

So sad journalism is dead.
 
If he is well enough, maybe he can be assigned the task of getting those 5 back.
 
We still don't negotiate with terrorists. The Taliban in Afghanistan were never designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the only Taliban group so designated is Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Now, Rep. Howard McKeon of California and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma have said Obama violated the law, by not giving Congress 30 days' notification.
Foreign Terrorist Organizations
News from The Associated Press

The five that were released were senior members of the Taliban that worked with, coordinated with and in all intents and purposes were members of, Al Qaeda as well. And, that is according to the Obama Administration as shown by my previous post's link. The guy that drives the car to the bank robbery is just as guilty of bank robbery and the guy that hides the murderer before and after the murder is just as guilty of murder. The Taliban is just as guilty of terrorism as Al Qaeda is. These guys can be easily labeled as, described as and found guilty of being, terrorists.
 
i support the decision 100%.

one valued life against 5 un-valued lives.

Serious question: How would you describe any people that die at the hands of these five now that they have been released, because there will undoubtedly be many that do die at their hands now? Valued lives? Or, unvalued lives?
 
Serious question: How would you describe any people that die at the hands of these five now that they have been released, because there will undoubtedly be many that do die at their hands now? Valued lives? Or, unvalued lives?

The same as you would describe 5 others killed in an automobile accident--dead. Signal 7, as the local cops say.

Automobile accident or any other cause, including from a US drone strike.
 
U.S. soldier held in Afghanistan is released - CNN.com



I'm extremely happy that this guy is coming home.

The White House says this was a prisoner swap, for five "terrorists" (my word, not theirs) being held at Gitmo.

That said, there are a lot of questions to be answered here. Just a few are:

Why did Bergdahl "wander off" from the base and get captured in the first place? He had sent a number of emails to his parents saying he was having second thoughts about joining the Army, for instance. Technically, he was AWOL when he left the base and got captured. Did he go off base just to take a walk and think? Or, was it desertion? We won't know until he's debriefed.

Why did we agree to release five terrorists? The names of the five released terrorists are Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari. Not just some enemy soldiers doing their job as members of another national army. These guys were hard core terrorists.

What happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists?"

Did they pin these guys before releasing them?

Are they being tracked?

And, many other questions.

None of which should lessen the fact that we've finally lived up to our military creed of Leave No Man Behind. As I started my comments above: I'm extremely happy that this guy is coming home.

Knowing the sneaky military, I'd say he might've been trying to gain some "black op" intel and was ready to crack, unless they traded for him. It would explain why he was off base and why the US broke their code of no negotiations. Him speaking other languages is sort of a hint. Just guessing.

Either that or it's a PR stunt to deflect Media attention away from the VA - Shinseki debacle. Or maybe both?
 
Serious question: How would you describe any people that die at the hands of these five now that they have been released, because there will undoubtedly be many that do die at their hands now? Valued lives? Or, unvalued lives?

there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?
 
there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?

So when they get back to wherever, and go back to doing as they did, and kill more 'rival' muslims and kill more Americans… that's ok with you?

You can quit saying 'politics', because that is a lost fight… we aren't talking politics, we are talking about repercussions for setting free 5 people who have a history (most of them) of mass murder.
 
So when they get back to wherever, and go back to doing as they did, and kill more 'rival' muslims and kill more Americans… that's ok with you?

You can quit saying 'politics', because that is a lost fight… we aren't talking politics, we are talking about repercussions for setting free 5 people who have a history (most of them) of mass murder.

lets flip the argument.

so you would rather have Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl stay a prisoner for how long? so you would rather have his family and friends suffer thru not knowing whether he is alive or DEAD for how long?

your post is naive in thinking that these 5 people will make a difference in how many get killed. it wont!!

i place the most value on his life and his well being, the confront his family and friends now have because he is FREE!!

get rid of your politics in evaluating this situation.
 
lets flip the argument.

Let's not… just answer the question rather than avoiding it.

The only 'politics' in this situation is being played by the politicians. There are valid concerns about this whole situation and those involved, and those questions don't care who was president when such a thing happens, so continuing on with 'this is just politics' is beyond moronic.

your post is naive in thinking that these 5 people will make a difference in how many get killed. it wont!!

These are the people released:

Mullah Mohammad Fazl (Taliban army chief of staff): Fazl is wanted by the UN for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shiites. Fazl was associated with terrorist groups currently opposing U.S. and Coalition forces including al Qaeda, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, and an Anti-Coalition Militia group known as Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami. In addition to being one of the Taliban’s most experienced military commanders, Fazl worked closely with a top al Qaeda commander named Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, who headed al Qaeda’s main fighting unit in Afghanistan prior to 9/11 and is currently detained at Guantanamo.

Mullah Norullah Noori (senior Taliban military commander): Like Fazl, Noori is wanted by the United Nations for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shiite Muslims. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Noori fought alongside al Qaeda as a Taliban military general, against the Northern alliance. He continued to work closely with al Qaeda in the years that followed.

Abdul Haq Wasiq (Taliban deputy minister of intelligence): Wasiq arranged for al Qaeda members to provide crucial intelligence training prior to 9/11. The training was headed by Hamza Zubayr, an al Qaeda instructor who was killed during the same September 2002 raid that netted Ramzi Binalshibh, the point man for the 9/11 operation. Wasiq was central to the Taliban’s efforts to form alliances with other Islamic fundamentalist groups to fight alongside the Taliban against U.S. and Coalition forces after the 11 September 2001 attacks, according to a leaked JTF-GTMO threat assessment.

Khairullah Khairkhwa (Taliban governor of the Herat province and former interior minister): Khairkhwa was the governor of Afghanistan’s westernmost province prior to 9/11. In that capacity, he executed sensitive missions for Mullah Omar, including helping to broker a secret deal with the Iranians. For much of the pre-9/11 period, Iran and the Taliban were bitter foes. But a Taliban delegation that included Kharikhwa helped secure Iran’s support for the Taliban’s efforts against the American-led coalition in late 2001. JTF-GTMO found that Khairkhwa was likely a major drug trafficker and deeply in bed with al Qaeda. He allegedly oversaw one of Osama bin Laden’s training facilities in Herat.

Mohammed Nabi (senior Taliban figure and security official): Nabi was a senior Taliban official who served in multiple leadership roles. Nabi had strong operational ties to Anti-Coalition Militia groups including al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, some of whom remain active in ACM activities. Intelligence cited in the JTF-GTMO files indicates that Nabi held weekly meetings with al Qaeda operatives to coordinate attacks against U.S.-led forces.

Who is naive?????
 
there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?

These 5 guys are the Jodl, Himmler, Keitel, Geobbels and Hess of the Taliban, so yes, these 5 guys could very well make a difference.
 
lets flip the argument.

so you would rather have Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl stay a prisoner for how long? so you would rather have his family and friends suffer thru not knowing whether he is alive or DEAD for how long?

your post is naive in thinking that these 5 people will make a difference in how many get killed. it wont!!

i place the most value on his life and his well being, the confront his family and friends now have because he is FREE!!

get rid of your politics in evaluating this situation.

If Bergdahl hadn't deserted his unit, he wouldn't have been captured. That one decision cost several American lives and placed no telling how many more in danger.
 
The Taliban is just as guilty of terrorism as Al Qaeda is. These guys can be easily labeled as, described as and found guilty of being, terrorists.

I agree with what you've said, but the fact is the Afghanistan Taliban were never designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization under either the Obama or W. Bush administrations' State Department.
 
there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?

This sounds very nice, but very little truth lies in the history of this thinking. It only takes one Hitler, one Mao, one Stalin to shape a movement that tricks people into thinking killing mass amounts of people is ok. So to say 5 high ranking terrorists will have no effect because there are thousands out there is just ignorant.
 
there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?

I stated that I am glad the guy is coming home. Maybe you missed that. That doesn't mean that I have to shut up about how it was done. Or, ask questions.

I would think that the people that these 5 kill, would think that it should have mattered and that it does make a difference. What difference does it make? Are you the speech writer for Hillary Clinton also?
 
I agree with what you've said, but the fact is the Afghanistan Taliban were never designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization under either the Obama or W. Bush administrations' State Department.

True. I agree. A title doesn't matter as much as the actions of a person or a group, as you obviously agree.
 
I thought we were going to try or release all the Guantanamo Bay prisoners a few years ago. 161 left.
 
there are 1000's of people just like these 5 individuals who are killing. 5 more makes NO difference!! again 5 more makes NO difference!!

NONE!!!!!!!

this person will be back with his family and friends, those who love and care about him.

what's your care? politics?

Thsi deal puts every American at risk to be taken hostage..
 
Going to withhold coming to my final initial judgement on this until a bit more information, but my gut is very uncomfortable with this. I understand the emotional argument of this guys family and such that's been placed in this thread. Emotional arguments as a matter of foreign and defense policy is idiotic and a poor foundation to work from.

I will say that initially this looks like a CLEAR breach of the law from the President. You don't get to sign a law and simultaneously sign a signing statement that says you disagree the laws constiutional and will ignore it. That absolutely should be persued, even if it's simply a manner of the SCOTUS ruling in on the constitutionality of the reporting requirement.
 
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