Posted on 05/07/2012 5:25:34 PM PDT by smoothsailing
May 7, 2012
Bethaney Mandel
Today, the Washington Post reported,
The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks.
As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic release” program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.
Almost exactly four years ago, in May 0f 2008 during an address before the Israeli Knesset then-candidate Barack Obama stated,
George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.
Besides a general easing of tension which this policy is trying to foster, there is one very real concession that the president has seemed to ignore in his concessions to the devil (they’re only called deals if you get something in return, which we have not).
On June 30, 2009, almost three years ago, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho was kidnapped by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network. He is the only prisoner of war currently held by the Taliban and recent video releases seem to indicate that he is being kept alive for ransom by the group. A month after his capture the president issued a statement, explaining that he was “heartbroken” over Sgt. Bergdahl’s situation and vowed to bring him home. In three years, this seems to be the only public statement made by the President about Bergdahl.
In December, The Daily Beast was the only outlet to report on a heroic escape attempt by the sergeant. After working for over two years to gain the trust of his captors, Bergdahl jumped out of a first-story window, running into the wilderness. The Daily Beast tells the story,
Mullah Sangin and his brother Mullah Balal, who had been put in charge of the prisoner, organized a search as soon as the escape was discovered. Nevertheless, the sources say, Bergdahl successfully avoided capture for three days and two nights. The searchers finally found him, weak, exhausted, and nearly naked—he had spent three days without food or water—hiding in a shallow trench he had dug with his own hands and covered with leaves.
Even then, he put up a ferocious fight. The two gunmen who found him first were unable to subdue him. “He fought like a boxer,” Hanif was told. It took five more militants to overpower him. Now back in custody, he is kept shackled at night, and his jailers are taking no chances.
This is the caliber of soldier that the United States and its military produces, the American that the president seems to have forgotten about for almost three years.
Shortly before Bergdahl’s kidnapping, the United States was comfortable negotiating the release of terrorists in exchange for British hostages. Andrew McCarthy at National Review made the connection:
And although the administration has attempted to pass off Laith Qazali’s release as a necessary compromise of American national interests for the purportedly greater good of Iraqi reconciliation, the camouflage is thin indeed. Transparently, the terrorist has been freed as a quid pro quo for the release of British hostages. According to the New York Times, Sami al-Askari, another Maliki mouthpiece, told an interviewer:
This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. . . . So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join in the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned.
In 2008 it was Barack Obama’s policy not to engage with terrorists under any circumstances. In 2009, his administration was comfortable exchanging American prisoners for British hostages. In 2012, it has become clear it was the long-standing policy of the administration to release American-held terrorist prisoners while asking for nothing in exchange, not even an American POW.
Excellent question.
If this was WW II these morons would release any captured Kamikazi pilots back to serve the Emperor.
It is a foolish question as the answer is obvious. Since Obama , we have become the largest muslim nation. Those jihadis? Are no longer terrorists.... there no longer is a war on terror BECAUSE.... they are freedom fighters. That is why we sent the Palestinians 192 million. That is why there was a Arab spring. That is why Nato troops were involved in overthrowing Libya.
Glad I should mention Libya. These people are now our allies.
Our old Allies? The free industrialized west AKA G7? The thing that made all great inventions and the world its progressive state? Thrown under the bus by our fearless (and west bitter) leader. Allah Akbar!
Only one problem, the west fought and established its freedoms rights and liberties long ago. It was even codified by the Magna Carta. Obama needs to learn this.
FUBO
Make more sense if we did what they did in Argentina:
An Argentinian former naval officer who threw prisoners, drugged and naked, to their death from planes was convicted of crimes against humanity and jailed for a total of 640 years by a Spanish court yesterday for his part in the “dirty war” against dissidents conducted by the Argentinian military regime in the 1970s.
Captain Adolfo Scilingo killed 30 leftwing prisoners, who were thrown out at 4,000 metres (13,000ft) above the Atlantic, on two flights.
I know you were being facetious. We both know Libya has never been, nor shall it ever be, our ally. Along with Pakistan. And Amen to the rest of your post.
ouch!!!
It’s a Fast and Furious Tactic.
Another reason why we, who know and love Congressman Allen West, hope the Republican President in November will call on Allen West to be our Secretary of Defense!
In case you haven’t guessed by now, the Teliban and Democrat Party are on theame side and have the same goals. To wit: The destruction of the United States and then Israel. And thanks to the American voters, they are accomplishing both goals.
"If the winds of change blow in the wrong direction, I will stand with the Muslims!"
... we can’t forget this quote from Obama’s book Audacity of Hope
“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
The idiot never thought it through. So you collapse the America and the free industrialized world, plunder the ruins and then what?
WHAT has islam ever done for modern man? Not one invention. All the free industrialized world AKA G7 “business” is the product of Christianity.
His goal is to take the world into Chaos ////and that is all that will be left.
ANd this idiot is in OUR White House? WTF is wrong with us???
What was he convicted of - wasting fuel by taking two flights when he could have done it in one(?)
because we have a rotten president and a corrupt administration of the worst kind
That Guy who Is Being held By the terrorists and Begging for the Preezy of the United Sleezy to intervene on his Behalf would find it interesting that they are Negotiating in one place and Releasing terrorists and saying they dont negotiate with terrorists in his case
Releasing so that we can lose and run out of there with Obama’s tail beneath our brave troops’ legs.
http://blog.american.com/2012/05/ten-burning-questions-for-obamas-secret-terrorist-release-program/
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