Obama Violated the Law with Prisoner Exchange

jem · Jun 5, 2014

this is too much to accept.
he could have had this guy out in other ways?
They are trying to call criticism partisan even though senior Democrats are pissed too?

JamesL said:
Obama ignored chances to rescue Bergdahl on the ground because he WANTED a terror trade to help close down Guantanamo Bay, claim Pentagon sources

'The president wanted a diplomatic scenario that would establish a precedent for repatriating detainees from Gitmo,' a Pentagon official says

He described a conversation with a State Department liaison who said 'the president isn't going to leave office with Gitmo intact, and this was the best opportunity to see that through'

Obama has promised to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2008 and tried to order it shuttered on his first day in office

The White House hurried its decision-making about retrieving Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, leaving intelligence officials too little time to assess how damaging it would be to release five Taliban leaders in exchange for him

Military commanders, meanwhile, were unwilling to mount a dangerous rescue operation to save a presumed U.S. Army deserter

The result, sources say, was the perfect storm as Obama aims to be rid of 'Gitmo' before he leaves office in 2017

The Obama administration passed up multiple opportunities to rescue Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl because the president was dead-set on finding a reason to begin emptying Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon official.

'JSOC went to the White House with several specific rescue-op scenarios,' the official with knowledge of interagency negotiations underway since at least November 2013 told MailOnline, referring to the Joint Special Operations Command. 'But no one ever got traction.'

'What we learned along the way was that the president wanted a diplomatic scenario that would establish a precedent for repatriating detainees from Gitmo,' he said.

The official said a State Department liaison described the lay of the land to him in February, shortly after the Taliban sent the U.S. government a month-old video of Bergdahl in January, looking sickly and haggard, in an effort to create a sense of urgency about his health and effect a quick prisoner trade.

'He basically told me that no matter what JSOC put on the table, it was never going to fly because the president isn't going to leave office with Gitmo intact, and this was the best opportunity to see that through.'

While military commanders wavered on the value of rescue plans, a second Pentagon source said Wednesday, they were advised by their chain of command that the White House was pushing hard for a prisoner swap, over the objections of the intelligence community.

That official told MailOnline that at least two separate intelligence agencies cautioned against taking the January video at face value.

The Daily Beast reported Monday, however, that the White House moved the process along too fast to permit a formal intelligence assessment of the impact of allowing what some on Capitol Hill are now calling the Taliban's 'dream team' to return to the Middle East.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday that the Obama administration 'bypassed the intelligence community' to make the deal, adding that 'I believe he bypassed Congress because this was done for political reasons. There was no policy justification for this.'

The result, according to multiple published reports, was an environment in which the White House could insist on moving forward quickly on the basis that a soldier's health was at immediate risk â using that justification also to explain its failure to keep Congress informed.

The White House has yet to explain why the deterioration of Bergdahl's health, seen in a video in January, was sufficient reason to steamroll a decision that ended up taking four months to execute.

In a video distributed Wednesday morning by the Taliban, Bergdahl appeared to be strong and in good health as he was handed over to U.S. Special Forces on Saturday

The Washington Times reported that a congressional aide said JSOC never forwarded specific military rescue plans to the White House, judging independently that President Obama was more interested in a diplomatic solution.

But both the Times' sources and MailOnline's also agreed that commanders on the ground were not in favor of sending Special Forces into the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and risking their lives to rescue a presumed deserter from the terrorist Haqqani network.

'Military commanders were loath to risk their people to save this guy,' a former intelligence official told the Times. 'They were loath to pick him up and because of that hesitancy, we wind up trading five Taliban guys for him.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-help-close-Guantanamo-Bay.html#ixzz33mVGN3a1
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Trader666 · Jun 5, 2014

NBC's Richard Engel: Taliban Has Been More Forthcoming About Bergdahl Than U.S. Government
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...coming_about_bergdahl_than_us_government.html

Trader666 · Jun 5, 2014

Outraged by Bergdahl case, fellow soldiers break secrecy pledge to tell story
http://washingtonexaminer.com/outra...-secrecy-pledge-to-tell-story/article/2549344

Admin Official Suggests Bergdahl Squadmates are âPsychopathsâ
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/admin-official-suggests-bergdahl-squadmates-are-psychopaths/

Trader666 · Jun 5, 2014

'Suck It Up and Salute'
Bergdahl, Kerry and the left's view of the military.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/best-of-the-web-today-suck-it-up-and-salute-1401912754

Ricter · Jun 5, 2014

"On Wednesday, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer expressed his support for the Obama administration's decision to negotiate Bowe Bergdahl's freedom.

"Speaking on "Special Report," Krauthammer told Fox News host Bret Baier that Bergdahl should face an investigation over allegations that the soldier left his post in Afghanistan on the night he went missing. However, he insisted that the White House did the right thing by bringing him home first.

"Look, had the choice been mine, I would have made that same choice," Krauthammer said. "It's a difficult decision and I would not attack those who would have done otherwise."

"The United States negotiated the release of Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for the past five years, in exchange for five Guantanamo detainees.

"Krauthammer said that the United States, along with other Western countries, "always comes out on the short end" in hostage swaps. He included Israel in this, pointing to when the country gave up 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for one sergeant.

"The reason we put a value on the individual human life the way that the ones at the other end of the table don't," Krauthammer said. "That's why we always end up with unequal swaps."

Tsing Tao · Jun 5, 2014

Ricter said:
"On Wednesday, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer expressed his support for the Obama administration's decision to negotiate Bowe Bergdahl's freedom.

"Speaking on "Special Report," Krauthammer told Fox News host Bret Baier that Bergdahl should face an investigation over allegations that the soldier left his post in Afghanistan on the night he went missing. However, he insisted that the White House did the right thing by bringing him home first.

"Look, had the choice been mine, I would have made that same choice," Krauthammer said. "It's a difficult decision and I would not attack those who would have done otherwise."

"The United States negotiated the release of Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for the past five years, in exchange for five Guantanamo detainees.

"Krauthammer said that the United States, along with other Western countries, "always comes out on the short end" in hostage swaps. He included Israel in this, pointing to when the country gave up 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for one sergeant.

"The reason we put a value on the individual human life the way that the ones at the other end of the table don't," Krauthammer said. "That's why we always end up with unequal swaps."
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Krauthammer also said he would have done it legally and notified Congress.

jem · Jun 5, 2014

massive difference... thanks for pointing that out.

Tsing Tao said:
Krauthammer also said he would have done it legally and notified Congress.
More...

Ricter · Jun 5, 2014

GOP Congressman Criticizes Own Party Over Bowe Bergdahl Response
Posted: 06/05/2014 12:53 pm EDT Updated: 1 hour ago

"WASHINGTON -- Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) chastised some members of his party Tuesday for their reaction to the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, saying they should stop acting like the prisoner swap President Barack Obama arranged was unprecedented.

"I'm a little bit disturbed by some of the Republicans out there who keep saying this has never happened before," Labrador said during an interview with the radio station 670 KBOI in Boise, Idaho. "That is not entirely true. If you look historically, at the end of any conflict, you have a swap of prisoners, and that happens. Usually our side will release people that are less than desirable in order to get some of our people back in these swaps. So I would suggest that anybody who's being hyper-critical about this, they should look at the history. This has happened before."

[Listen to Labrador's interview above.]

"Obama has received a significant amount of opposition from conservatives for releasing five former members of the Taliban who were being held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bergdahl, who was the United States' only known prisoner of war in Afghanistan. The five men will be under a travel ban in Qatar for a year.

"Some of the most critical members of Congress were also the ones who have been pressing the Obama administration for months, if not years, to "do all it can" to bring Bergdahl home. Many Republicans are worried that releasing the detainees risks American lives.

"But John Bellinger, who served as a national security adviser to President George W. Bush, said in a Fox News interview Tuesday that he believed Obama did the right thing in recovering Bergdahl. He noted that because the war in Afghanistan is winding down -- U.S. troops will be out by the end of 2016 -- the administration would have had to release the five detainees soon anyway."

More>>

jem · Jun 5, 2014

1st of all, the issue is the release of 5 heavy duty dangerous terrorists. Terrorist who would not have to have been released at the end of the war. They were not or do not have to be POWs... they are terrorists.

2nd -- the president did not consult with Congress as required by law. that is very serious and could lead to an impeachment.

no one is arguing that getting bergdahl back is bad... its Obama did it.
its especially stupid if Obama had other options.

Max E. · Jun 5, 2014

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