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As many as 12 Western soldiers -- including several Americans -- were shot in a deadly attack on high-level officials visiting a military academy Tuesday near Afghanistan's capital. U.S. officials told NBC News that most, if not all, of the victims were American. They said a lone gunman opened fire at a group that included American officials at the Camp Qargha training facility. Three Western soldiers died - including a high-ranking officer - and about a dozen were wounded, according to senior U.S. defense officials. The officials said the death toll is expected to rise. Earlier, a spokesman for the...

The headlines out of the Middle East leave the reader with the unmistakable impression that Islamic State militants are on the advance. A combined assault on a variety of positions in Lebanon by ISIS fighters resulted in the fall of a series of border posts and a small city to the Sunni militant group. The fighting in Lebanon worsened on Monday. “It’s another front for ISIS and another sign containment of the Syria crisis has failed, a Middle East analyst told The New York Times. Reports indicate that ISIS has also expanded the front in Iraq’s north and has...

The unintended consequences of military intervention are nearly impossible to predict. ___ "Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya," The New York Times reported on September 12, 2012. " The attack, which killed the American ambassador and three staffers, would ultimately reveal that the CIA was running a secret mission out of Benghazi. Ross Douthat: The worst-case situation has not come to pass in Libya itself. But thanks to the ripple effects from Colonel Qaddafi’s fall, it’s well on its way to happening in nearby Mali. Not...

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former Taliban POW who was just returned to active duty, has lawyered up, asking prominent military affairs attorney Eugene Fidell to take his case. Fidell, who teach military justice at Yale Law School, told ABC News today that he has been representing Bergdahl for about a week and is working pro bono.

Partly blaming unrest in the Middle East on President Barack Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday that Obama has not spoken firmly and forcefully on Israel’s behalf and that the country no longer trusts it has the full support of the United States because of him. The Republican governor’s remarks came as Israel targeted civilian institutions with suspected ties to the militant organization Hamas and declared it would step up its bombardment of northern Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas rockets. …

The Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI) has uncovered a tweet containing a photo of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl standing and smiling with a Taliban commander. Bergdahl became the center of intense media scrutiny when stories of his desertion and sympathy for the Taliban dominated news that Obama had traded five Gitmo prisoners for his release on May 31. According to Fox News, the photo MEMRI found is "an undated photo" showing "an apparently happy Bergdahl posing with Taliban Commander Badruddin Haqqani."

Rival filmmakers plan Bowe Bergdahl movies Team behind Zero Dark Thirty in race to tell controversial story of American soldier held captive by Taliban for five years By Rob Crilly Two movie production teams are already gearing up to tell the story of Bowe Bergdahl, even before an investigation has worked out how and why he ended up in Taliban hands. Sgt Bergdahl, 28, arrived back on American soil five days ago after spending almost five years in captivity. He was released last month in exchange for five Guantánamo Bay prisoners. Two versions of his politically-charged story are already in...

WASHINGTON — An official at the department of Housing And Urban Development whose criticized tweets suggesting that there could be questions about the military records of former platoon mates of Bowe Bergdahl apologized Thursday to service members and the Obama administration. “While I just wanted to make the point that the public should wait before passing judgment, I unfortunately used my own poor judgment in choosing inappropriate language that many view as disparaging to U.S. service members,” said Brandon Friedman, deputy assistant secretary of public affairs at HUD. “That was certainly not my intent and I regret making the comments...

Just Breaking on AP wires.......I have heard it all now.......lies lies and more lies.

HAILEY, Idaho — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's hometown abruptly canceled plans Wednesday for a welcome-home celebration, citing security concerns over the prospect of big crowds — both for and against the soldier. The town of 8,000 has been swamped with hate mail and angry calls over Bergdahl, whose release after five years of Taliban captivity in Afghanistan has touched off a debate over whether the 28-year-old should be given a hero's welcome or punished as a deserter.

President Barack Obama, it seemed like the right thing to do, according to officials in his administration: Release five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison in return for Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. As a political firestorm engulfs the White House over that deal, Reuters interviews with current and former Obama administration officials involved in the negotiations, along with U.S. lawmakers, reveal how a close-knit circle in the Obama administration pursued the plan despite intense discord in the past over similar proposals. The White House was ultimately persuaded to go ahead, in part, after...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Wednesday evening lashed out at “un-American” rush to judgment over the military record of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, following an all-senators briefing on the prisoner swap that led to the soldier’s release. One of the last senators to leave the two-hour meeting with administration officials, McCaskill said she hopes that eventually all the facts surrounding Bergdahl’s service are declassified “in fairness to the soldier and his family.” “What’s unfortunate is that many people have spoken out about this episode without having all the facts,” McCaskill said in an interview. “I’m not going to make a judgment....

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's hometown abruptly canceled plans Wednesday for a welcome-home celebration, citing concerns over its ability to handle the large crowds — both for and against the soldier — that were expected. The town of 8,000 has been swamped with hate mail and angry calls over Bergdahl, whose release after five years of Taliban captivity in Afghanistan has touched off a debate over whether the 28-year-old should get a hero's welcome or be punished a deserter.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's hometown in Idaho on Wednesday canceled an event to celebrate his release after city officials were bombarded with angry phone calls and emails. *SNIP* The city said the June 28 event was canceled "in the interest of public safety."

A public welcome home celebration featuring Grammy-winning singer Carole King in honor of freed POW Bowe Bergdahl in the tiny town of Hailey, Idaho was abruptly cancelled today. The official reason given was a concern for public safety, but MailOnline has learned that it was not the only reason the party was scrubbed. Today's decision follows a row that erupted in Hailey between Mayor Fritz Haemmerle and US Army Platoon Commander Jonathan Kennedy, who lives in Hailey. And Kennedy wasn't the only towns person who voiced disapproval of a celebration for the soldier under fire. Mayor Haemmerle wanted to throw...

The hometown of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has canceled a rally planned for later this month celebrating his release from five years of Taliban captivity, a municipal official told Reuters on Wednesday, amid allegations that he was a deserter.

Just when it seemed like the outrage on the political right over Benghazi had subsided to the point where only the announcement of House hearings put it back in the headlines, the exchange of captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban fighters at Guantanamo Bay came along. Now President Obama finds himself amid another foreign policy and national security controversy with fresh legs that even features Susan Rice — the White House official who played a prominent early role in the Benghazi controversy — making an encore. While it's still too soon to know whether the trade for...

Bergdahl's hometown is carrying on with a celebration for the returned sergeant at the end of the month, despite a rising backlash A rally in U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s Idaho hometown celebrating his release after nearly five years of captivity will go on as planned, despite growing questions about the circumstances of the soldier’s capture. The joy over the soldier’s return among residents of the small mountain community of Hailey, Idaho has been dampened by claims that he abandoned his post. Some have also claimed that the subsequent search for Bergdahl cost the lives of up to six soldiers,...

Acting as a stenographer on Wednesday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd parroted the Obama administration's new attack against critics of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange: "They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself. I've had a few aides describe it to me as, 'We didn't know that they were going to swift boat Bergdahl'.... MSNBC quickly seized on the "swift boat" line, with Last Word fill-in host Ari Melber declaring Tuesday night: "We're gonna look at the right-wing play book for the newly released American POW, a wounded man who isn’t even out of the hospital...

Congratulations, Mr. President! And identical congrats to your sorcerer’s apprentice, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. By trying to sell him as an American hero, you’ve turned a deserter already despised by soldiers in the know into quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military. I have never witnessed such outrage from our troops. Exhibit A: Ms. Rice. In one of the most tone-deaf statements in White House history (we’re making a lot of history here), the national-security advisor, on a Sunday talk show, described Bergdahl as having served “with honor and distinction.” Those serving in uniform...