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<p>U.S. and Qatari officials began talks Wednesday about extending security assurances for five senior Taliban members who were released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and whose transfer to Qatar triggered an outcry on Capitol Hill.</p> <p>The talks could lead to an extension of at least some aspects of a one-year arrangement that required Qatar to keep the former prisoners under supervision and ban them from leaving. They could also lead to the former detainees being transferred to another country, according to individuals familiar with the discussions. The agreement expires at the end of May.</p>

The head of a powerful House panel is threatening to withhold defense funding over the department's alleged stonewalling in a probe of the controversial swap of five Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had initially pledged to respond to questions, when lawmakers first demanded to know why the Pentagon had not given Congress the requisite 30-day notice before proceeding with the May 31 prisoner trade. But nearly a year later, the Pentagon has released only a trickle of highly redacted emails from before the swap. Republican lawmakers now plan to attempt the unusual step of...

Bowe Bergdahl was a hero who survived approximately five years of imprisonment amongst the Taliban, so spun the Obama administration. They secured his release by trading five high-ranking Taliban. People cheered his return until his fellow soldiers spoke out, calling him anything but a hero. There are rumors that the Coast Guard turned him down for psychiatric reasons, that he went AWOL while in basic training, that he left the base to go drinking with locals, and that he gave actionable intelligence to the enemy. Just recently the Army decided to charge him with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy....

In the Bible, Esau sold his birthright for a mess of potage -- some red lentil soup, to be exact. Looking at the week’s events, it seems that this country has sold its glorious birthright of constitutional government by honest men and women for a mess of potage -- a false promise of hope and change delivered by a glib huckster and his shady friends. The deceit and lawlessness of Obama and those around him and the consequences have never been clearer than they were this week. Nothing shows better the unprincipled nature of the administration and the acquiescence of...

At least three of five Taliban fighters swapped for the freedom of Bowe Bergdahl, a Taliban captive now being charged with desertion, are reportedly actively making efforts to join the terrorist cause once again. Catherine Herridge of Fox News decided to check up on them after news of Bergdahl’s desertion charges broke. It turns out that according to an unnamed government source, at least three of the Taliban 5 have “tried to plug back into their old terror networks.”

Obama to Hold Talks w/Taliban Leaders He FreedPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 19, 2015 @ 1:02 pm In The Point | 13 Comments Now we know why Obama is freeing so many terrorists from Gitmo on any thin shred of an excuse he can find. He’s just looking for peace partners to negotiate with and appease all their legitimate grievances. (Like the Gitmo mashed potatoes having too many chunks, synagogues having too much security and Christian heads being too hard to chop off.) Members of the Afghan Taliban were due to hold direct talks with American officials in Qatar...

Doha, Feb 19 (IANS) Qatar said Thursday it has recalled its ambassador to Cairo for consultations following an Egyptian official's statement accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. "The state of Qatar recalled its ambassador to Cairo for talks following the statements made by Egypt's envoy at the Arab League," the official Qatar News Agency reported, citing a Qatari foreign ministry source. Earlier, Saad ben Ali Almohanady, a Qatari foreign ministry official in charge of Arab affairs, rejected the Egyptian statement by Tariq Adel, as "mixing terrorism with the murder and burning of civilians in a barbaric manner". The official repeated Doha's...

Problematic, in a very big way even if the offer was made.Qatar’s ties to Al Qaeda and ISIS aren’t news. They’ve effectively served as intermediaries in everything from ransom exchanges for hostages to Taliban negotiations. But actually trying to secure terrorist swaps for prisoners on their own behalf would have been a new frontier. Before he was released from a U.S. maximum-security prison last week, a confessed al Qaeda sleeper agent was offered up in a potential prisoner swap that would have freed two Americans held abroad.According to two individuals with direct knowledge of the case, the proposition was...

Despite promising that most detainees released from Guantanamo Bay “live quietly” and do not return to terrorism, at least one of the so-called Taliban Five, who were released by the Obama Administration in exchange for alleged-deserter Bowe Bergdahl, has returned to terrorist activities. “We are now learning that at least one of these men has returned to a life of terrorism,” reported CNN’s Jake Tapper this evening. Barbara Starr, a Pentagon Corespondent, then stated that she has learned that the government will not release the name of the terrorist, but that he has contacted militants to either offer support, join...

Judicial Watch on the Case: Three Lawsuits over Terrorist Release Photos Show Bloody Consequences of Fast and Furious Corruption Obama Continues to Fly High at Taxpayer Expense District of Corruption Documentary Movie Now Available on iTunes Judicial Watch on the Case: Three Lawsuits over Terrorist Release According to the Obama administration, the five Guantanamo terrorists they traded for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are “no longer a threat to U.S. national security.” That’s what now former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel concluded when he signed the document setting them free. But we’re not so sure. We’d like to know what...

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer, author of The Last Line, and Ret. Col. David Hunt joined Bill O’Reilly to give an update on the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap. Lt. Colonel Shaffer told Bill the Obama administration paid $5 billion and released five top Taliban Gitmo detainees in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl. Obama celebrated the release of deserter Bowe Bergdahl with a White House press conference in the Rose Garden in May 2014.Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, who was part of the negotiations, told Bill O’Reilly the US paid out $5 billion and traded five top Taliban detainees for Bergdahl. Bill O’Reilly:...

The Pentagon is under fire for making a ransom payment to an Afghan earlier this year as part of a failed bid to win the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, according to U.S. officials. Sgt. Bergdahl was released in May after nearly five years in captivity as part of a controversial exchange for five terrorists held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ransom payment was first disclosed by Rep. Duncan Hunter in a Nov. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Mr. Hunter stated in the letter that Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made...

The Pentagon is under fire for making a ransom payment to an Afghan earlier this year as part of a failed bid to win the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, according to U.S. officials. Sgt. Bergdahl was released in May after nearly five years in captivity as part of a controversial exchange for five terrorists held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ransom payment was first disclosed by Rep. Duncan Hunter in a Nov. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Mr. Hunter stated in the letter that Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made...

Except it didn’t work. In a letter to the Pentagon released Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) said a payment was made to an Afghan intermediary early this year to help secure the May 31 release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for nearly five years by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan, which is classified as a terrorist organization.Pentagon officials have denied paying cash to secure the release of Sgt. Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2009. A senior defense official reiterated that denial when asked about Mr. Hunter’s letter.According to Mr. Hunter, the intermediary took the money...

Beau Bergdahl was a proven risk in Afghanistan going back as far as 2009, when more than once he left his post telling some in his unit he no longer believed in the American mission and wanted to do something else. A full (AR-15-6) investigation began then and remains classified. Bergdahl has a charge sheet and there is indisputable evidence that he willingly and with purpose left his base. It must be noted and remembered that at least 6 fellow soldiers died looking for Bergdahl and an unknown number to date were injured due to IED’s. So, it is important...

Three and a half months have come and gone and the Pentagon has offered no clarity on what happened to alleged Army deserter and Taliban collaborator Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Fellow soldiers and other critics fear the military’s now-delayed investigation is shaping up to be a whitewash. The case has become a political powder keg for President Obama. Since he traded five imprisoned Taliban leaders for Bergdahl, the US Government Accountability Office has declared the swap illegal, and nearly two dozen House Democrats have joined Republicans in officially condemning the move for making “Americans less safe.” ... His platoon mates... “Bergdahl...

Trading five terrorists for a deserter isn’t just bad policy, it’s against the law President Obama was wrong earlier this year to trade five hardened terrorists from the prison at Guantanamo Bay for a deserter. All but the president’s most dedicated supporters understood then that the trade was a really bad idea. Now, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has confirmed what many suspect, that the swap violated a “clear and unambiguous” law. For this White House, the law is little more than an annoyance to be swatted away when inconvenient. Mr. Obama makes and remakes the law as he goes...

Vanity: Has anyone been able to followup to see where the 5 Taliban terror leaders Obama released, ended up? Are they fighting or even helping to lead ISIS? Were they involved in Foyle's bloody saw action murder? They certainly didn't behave like good little muslim boys and stay home.

The Pentagon recently notified members of Congress that it intends to transfer six low-level detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Uruguay soon, including a Syrian man who is legally challenging the manner in which the military force-feeds some prisoners, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The men — four Syrians, a Palestinian and a Tunisian — are among the more than 70 detainees who have long been cleared for release from the U.S. detention facility because they are not deemed an ongoing threat. The move would mark a significant step in the Obama administration’s long-stymied quest to shut down Guantanamo Bay, where...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel quietly notified Congress last week that the military is set to transfer six Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Uruguay as soon as next month, The New York Times revealed Wednesday. The deal has been waiting for Mr. Hagel’s approval since March, but stalled after the Obama administration received a wave of backlash for releasing five Taliban detainees to Qatar in exchange for the release Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The administration did not give Congress 30-days notice in that deal, but argued it was still legal because any delay could have risked Sgt. Bergdahl’s life. Of the six...