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A U.S. soldier held by Afghan militants will not be harmed despite the Obama administration's decision to declare his alleged captors a terrorist group, a senior member of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network told The Associated Press on Saturday. However, the United States and NATO can expect stepped up attacks, he said. The commander, who spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location, denied that the Haqqanis held the only American prisoner of war of the Afghan conflict, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, as the U.S. believes. He did however say that Bergdahl was a captive of another branch of the Taliban, and...

The mediating role Qatar has played in freeing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last American soldier held captive in Afghanistan, in exchange for releasing five senior Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has raised once again skepticism in the U.S. Congress and media about Qatar’s commitment to monitor these hardened militants who should remain in their custody for a year, and suspicions about its complex relations with a myriad of radical Islamist groups operating in an area stretching from South Asia to North Africa. The exchange occurred in the wake of unprecedented public tensions between Qatar and its three immediate neighbors...

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...

Some of the men held here for more than a decade have been drafting plans for work and marriage on the outside or studying languages, preparing for a not-too-distant future beyond the coiled razor wire that surrounds the U.S. prison perched at the edge of the Caribbean Sea. Until the past week, they had good reason to believe their ticket out might be imminent, if not home then at least to another country. President Barack Obama and others in the administration say they are committed to closing the Guantanamo detention center and military officials say they can resume transfers at...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "An Iranian-backed Shia terror group that claims it seeks reconciliation with the Iraqi government has kidnapped a US civilian in Baghdad. The US recently released the top leader of the group under the guise of a reconciliation program, but the release actually was related to a hostage exchange. The Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US civilian contractor, in Baghdad in late January. Salomi went missing in Baghdad sometime after Jan. 23, the US Department of Defense noted in a press release on Friday. The League of the...

The British hostage Peter Moore was dramatically set free yesterday after the United States handed over an Iraqi insurgent suspected of planning the deaths of five American servicemen. Mr Moore, an IT consultant, was freed by League of the Righteous, or Asaib al-Haq (AAH) — an extremist Shia group allied to Iran — after 31 months and spent his first night of freedom at the British Embassy in Baghdad. He is expected to fly home today.

A UK man held hostage in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half years has revealed harrowing details of the torture meted out to him by his captors. In media interviews two months after his release, Peter Moore told how he was subject to mock executions and hung from a door by his arms as a punishment. The computer expert was released unharmed in December after 31 months in captivity during which all four of his bodyguards - abducted with him - are thought to have been killed. Moore, 36, told The Times newspaper how guards put a gun to his head...

Not all of this can be an oversight: 1. Obama goes to Afghanistan on a surprise visit. 2. CIA Station Chief is outed (oops). 3. A deal is made for a known deserter they didn't know was a deserter with possible Talibani leanings (oops). 4. WH forgets to tell Congress (oops. 5. WH frees five top terrorists, allegedly transfers $5M into the enemy's bank account, and brings Bergdahl home. I know Michelle Malkin cruises FR. You can't fire the CIA Chief of Station for disagreeing with the trade, but if you out him its the same thing, right? Is there...

The following is a listing of corporate sponsors supporting the homecoming of the self-professed America hating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was traded for five top Taliban terrorists by President Barack Hussein Obama ... From BringBoweBack2014.com website: Sponsors Thank you to all our sponsors. The City of Hailey The Hailey Police Department The Hailey Chamber of Commerce Luke’s pharmacy Wood River Motors Silver Creek Ford Sun Valley Aminal Center Wayne Willich and Friends Brennans Carpet Hailey Auto Exchange Candace Ireland Insurance The Snow Bunny Tim Jeneson Insurance Valley Paint & Floor Mountain Lifestyles Property Services, Inc. Wood River Insurance Copy And...

Late Monday night, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, posted a note on Facebook regarding the swap of five senior Taliban commanders for SGT Bowe Bergdahl. Dempsey addresses the accusations that Bergdahl may have deserted his post in Afghanistan, but allows that any investigation will depend on what Bergdahl says. If thatÂ’s the case, there will be no true investigation. Dempsey also fails to acknowledge the six Americans who were killed during searches for Bergdahl. In response to those of you interested in my personal judgments about the recovery of SGT Bowe Bergdahl, the questions about...

Barack Obama may be in Warsaw as part of a European tour, but in a real sense he’s stuck in Washington. At a joint press conference after a state meeting in Poland, Obama got questioned about the deal that exchanged Bowe Bergdahl for five high-ranking Taliban detainees, including two wanted by the UN for crimes against humanity. Obama mainly avoided discussing the detainees, although he insisted that he was “confident” that the US could prevent them from being a threat to American security in the future.Instead, Obama defended the action by focusing on Bergdahl, perhaps learning a lesson from...

Mullah Omar, the reclusive head of the Taliban, has purportedly released a statement hailing the transfer of top five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo to Qatar. Omar says their freedom is a "great victory."The five Taliban leaders were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held by the Taliban since 2009.A copy of the statement attributed to Omar has been posted on the Taliban's Urdu-language web site.Omar thanks the government of Qatar, as well as its emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, for his help in brokering the deal and for hosting the Taliban leaders. In earlier statements, both President Barack Obama and...

The prisoner exchange which brought back the only known American alive in Taliban custody did not get a ringing endorsement from the men who served with him in Afghanistan. While President Obama celebrated Bowe Bergdahl’s release with Bergdahl’s father in the Rose Garden, other soldiers lifted their voices in outrage over the high cost of the swap and called Bergdahl a deserter. Those protests have grown loud enough to grab the attention of CNN’s Jake Tapper: The sense of pride expressed by officials of the Obama administration at the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is not shared by...

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The Haqqani network, a particularly intransigent faction of the Taliban occupying the Paktika Province in eastern Afghanistan, seems to have no interest in the recent overtures for peace talks emanating from the brand new Taliban office in Doha, Qatar. This radical jihadist faction is holding the only American POW, one young Idaho native, U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who claimed to have been captured when he lagged behind on a patrol. But some U.S. defense officers suggested that he had been drinking and left the base at night with some Afghan soldiers. The problem is that the olive branch extended...

Just weeks after TheBlaze’s exclusive report that claimed the U.S. State Department was “actively considering” transferring Omar Abdel-Rahman, or the “Blind Sheikh” to Egypt, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi publicly called on the U.S. to allow the convicted terrorist to serve out the rest of his sentence at home in Egypt, state media reported on Thursday, according to AFP. “I will do everything in my power to secure freedom for… detainees, including Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman,” Morsi said. “What I want is to intervene for humanitarian reasons, not to interfere in a court ruling,” Morsi reportedly told members of the Egyptian...

(title continued) Americans held in Egypt Shocking. This would be the nadir of Obama's craven foreign policy of surrender, releasing the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Treason. Al-Arabiya: US in talks to swap jihad terror Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman & 49 others for 19 Americans held in Egypt thanks to Robert Spencer

Terrorists aren’t supposed to get visas. But Hani Nour Eldin was apparently invited to D.C. this week to meet with top officials. Did no one Google him? It was supposed to be a routine meeting for Egyptian legislators in Washington, an opportunity for senior Obama administration officials to meet with new members of Egypt’s parliament and exchange ideas on the future of relations between the two countries. Instead, the visit this week looks like it’s turning into a political fiasco. Included in the delegation of Egyptian lawmakers was Hani Nour Eldin, who, in addition to being a newly elected member...

(Reuters) - For nine years, Qahera Assadi dreamed she would one day be free to embrace her four children again. From the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Assadi was handed three life terms for offences including homicide and possession of a bomb and could well have lived out her days in an Israeli jail. But a prisoner swap on Tuesday, when hundreds of Palestinians were exchanged for one Israeli soldier, returned the 34-year-old to her family, and the shock proved too great. Assadi fainted when greeted by her loved ones after her release in the West Bank....

The government of Israel has agreed to a transaction with the Hamas terrorist regime for the release of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, held hostage for more than five years. In exchange, Israel is asked to release more than one thousand prisoners, all of them terrorists, many of them convicted murderers who have been sentenced to multi terms of life imprisonment. The list is long, but one terrorist in particular - a woman of 31 - stands out. Her name is Ahlam Tamimi and she is serving 16 life terms for a massacre which she engineered and helped to carry...