"Bowe Bergdahl was discharged from the Coast Guard after 26 days of boot camp in 2006, two years before he enlisted in the Army, a Coast Guard official told NBC News on Wednesday. The official would not confirm the nature of Bergdahl’s discharge from the Coast Guard. The Washington Post, citing close friends, reported that he was let go for psychological reasons.
So what prescription pharmaceuticals was he on?
--MORE--"
You know it has when Obummer is throwing Hagel under the bus....
Related: Two More Articles of Impeachment
I'm sticking to my original analysis that this is all a psyop, folks.
"Taliban video shows details of US prisoner handover" by Matthew Rosenberg | New York Times June 05, 2014
KABUL — The Taliban released a video Wednesday showing their fighters handing over Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to American forces, providing a direct look at a dramatic moment in the American military campaign in Afghanistan that is prompting sharp criticism in Afghanistan and the United States.
Who could ever doubt a video cited by the propaganda pre$$, huh?
The video also provided an important moment for the Taliban and for their push to refine their publicity efforts to support an argument that they are a legitimate state in exile.
In the video, Bergdahl is wearing traditional Afghan robes, and his face and head appear to have been recently shaved. For much of the video, he is seen waiting in a silver and red pickup truck surrounded by Taliban fighters.
I'm wondering which CIA film crew shot this.
As a US Black Hawk helicopter approaches, one of the insurgents is heard telling Bergdahl: “Don’t come back to Afghanistan. If you do, you won’t make it out alive next time.” Other insurgents standing nearby laugh at the warning.
Then the helicopter lands and Bergdahl, clutching a plastic bag, is handed over to Americans who are wearing civilian clothes. The Americans quickly lead him away, pat him down, and casually drop the bag he was holding. They board the helicopter and fly off.
But beyond the direct images, the framing of the video by the Taliban, and the commentary heard about it, all go to reinforce the group’s portrayal of the US as a hated invader and of the Taliban fighters’ role as banner-carriers for Islam and Afghan pride.
The video opens with a narrator reading verses from the Koran, then, speaking in Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s two main languages, the narrator encourages Muslims to “fight these infidels.”
The narrator quickly shifts to explaining the agreement to exchange Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. For the insurgents, getting the five men back was “blissful news” and a “historic achievement,” the narrator says, which “filled up the eyes of all Muslims with tears of happiness.”
He then expresses dismay with the Americans, who rushed through the encounter and did not stop to talk or exchange polite greetings, as is customary in Afghanistan, even during hostage releases. He complains that they had managed to shake hands with only two of the Americans, and that one of them had hastily shoved his left hand forward, considered a particularly rude gesture in Afghanistan.
US officials said they were aware of the video and were reviewing it. “We have no reason to doubt the video’s authenticity,” said Rear Admiral John F. Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. “Regardless, we know the transfer was peaceful and successful, and our focus remains on getting Sergeant Bergdahl the care he needs.”
That right there is cause to doubt it.
As for the care, they have to reprogram this guy because we was a Taliban sympathizer and deserting defector from the U.S. Army, in what I view as a cover story for his mission.
--more--"
"Bergdahl’s hometown cancels celebration of release" by Brian Skoloff | Associated Press June 05, 2014
HAILEY, Idaho — The small Idaho hometown of released captive Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has canceled plans for a celebration later this month, citing security concerns after it was inundated with negative e-mails and angry phone calls.
Organizers released a statement Wednesday saying that because of national media attention on Bergdahl’s story, they expect a significant increase in the number of people planning to attend the event — some to protest and others to support the Bergdahl family. The organizers said that the town, with 8,000 people, doesn’t have the infrastructure to support a big event.
And Bergdahl has been outed! Hell, is father is practically a Taliban!
Hailey Police Chief Jeff Gunter said the event has been misrepresented in the media, leading people to think it’s a hero’s welcome.
Awww, you get used to the media! Remember the false accounts and embellished lies regarding Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman?
The town has had an event called ‘‘Bring Bowe Back’’ for several years. That vigil was scheduled for June 28, but when news of Bergdahl’s release broke, organizers quickly announced it would be a welcome-home party instead.
Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. He was handed over by the Taliban in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees.
Questions remain about the events that led to his capture, with some critics calling Bergdahl a deserter.
Hailey Chamber of Commerce president Jane Drussel said that she’s received dozens of hateful e-mails and phone calls after she was quoted in news stories saying the town was jubilant that Bergdahl had been released. “The joy has all of a sudden become not so joyful,’’ she said.
Meaning this WHOLE PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN to DIVERT ATTENTION from the VA MURDERS has BACKFIRED!
--more--"
At least the war-promoting propaganda pre$$ is investigating the desertion:
"Soldier said to walk away before; Report also hits at lax discipline in Bergdahl’s unit" by Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt | New York Times June 06, 2014
WASHINGTON — A classified military report detailing the Army’s investigation into the disappearance of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in June 2009 said he had wandered away from assigned areas before — both at a training range in California and at his remote outpost in Afghanistan — and then returned, according to people briefed on it.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!
Are you serious?!! No BIG DEAL, huh?
Soldiers just wandering off the base a common occurrence, huh? Not like he might get captured or killed by the enemy or anything.
GOOD GOD!
The propagandist shit roll gets more and more ridiculous every day!
WHO is WRITING THIS STUFF for you guys?
No wonder the NYT is dying!
So WHAT INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS was he being SENT OUT ON?
The roughly 35-page report, completed two months after Bergdahl left his unit, concludes that he most likely walked away of his own free will from his outpost in the darkness of night, and it criticized lax security practices and poor discipline within his unit. But it stops short of concluding that there is solid evidence that Bergdahl intended to permanently desert.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!
Thank you, NYT! I needed a good laugh!
Of course, we know from his unit that he intended exactly that.
And WHAT is this about LAX SECURITY and POOR DISCIPLINE in the -- and I paraphrase my leaders -- GREATEST MILITARY in the HISTORY of the WORLD??!!
Whether Bergdahl was a deserter who never intended to come back, or simply slipped away for a short adventure amid an environment of lax security and discipline and then was captured, is one of many unanswered questions about his disappearance.
Oh, he was just on an ADVENTURE now, huh? In a WAR ZONE!?
Readers, this is NOT ONLY OFFENSIVE PROPAGANDA, this is INSULTING PROPAGANDA and can only be seen as DISRESPECT!
The issue is murky, the report said, in light of Bergdahl’s previous episodes of walking off.
MURKY is a MOUTHPIECE MEDIA CODE WORD for COVER-UP!
The report cites accounts from his unit mates that in their predeployment exercise at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., he sneaked or crawled off a designated course or range either to see how far he could go or to see a sunrise or sunset.
He risked his life and those of his unit for that? No wonder his unit despises the shitter!!
The report is also said to cite members of his platoon as saying that he may have taken a shorter unauthorized walk outside the concertina wire of his combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan before he left for good, in an incident that was apparently not reported up the chain of command. The Military Times on Wednesday first reported that claim, also citing officials familiar with the military’s report.
This cover story crap gets better and better with each paragraph!
What a SLOPPY ARMY lacking in DISCIPLINE!
But the report is said to contain no mention of Bergdahl having left behind a letter in his tent that explicitly said he was deserting and explaining his disillusionment, as a retired senior military official briefed on the investigation at the time told the New York Times this week.
So you can believe the official story (fool); the limited hangout version (this piece of NYT shit); or the truth (my analysis).
Asked about what appeared to be a disconnect, the retired officer insisted that he remembered reading a field report discussing the existence of such a letter in the early days of the search and was unable to explain why it is not mentioned in the final investigative report.
I can! I can!
Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to discuss the report or make it available.
“The Department of Defense does not discuss information contained within classified investigations,” he said. “The department is making every consideration regarding the disposition of its continued classification.”
Translation: stone wall being erected
The narrative about Bergdahl over the past few days has undergone a rapid evolution based on accounts by current and former soldiers, growing increasingly darker. They have gone from saying he should not be treated as a hero because he was a deserter and blaming the subsequent search for him for every US combat death in the province over a three-month period, to alleging that there is evidence that he was trying to meet up with the Taliban.
Amid the controversy, a planned celebration in his hometown, Hailey, Idaho, to celebrate his return has been canceled. But the accounts of the investigative report, which was described as meticulous and thorough, suggest that even basic facts necessary to understand how he came to disappear have yet to be definitively established.
This is a meticulous and thorough investigation, this vague piece of shit-slop cover up?!!!
As if I needed any more confirmation, this was in my print version but cut from the web version.
"The people briefed on the “15-6 report,” named for the army regulation covering such investigations, described it on the condition of anonymity because it remains classified. The report was written by an investigating officer in July and August of 2009 after extensive interviews with members of Sergeant Bergdahl’s unit, including his squad leader, platoon leader, and company and battalion commanders.
It is said to confirm certain other details relayed in recent accounts, including that Sergeant Bergdahl shipped his computer and a journal home before he disappeared. It also confirms that he left behind his body armor and weapon — an unwieldy SAW machine gun — taking with him water, knives and a compass. The report speculates that he most likely left in darkness after the moon had set, following one of two possible routes through the concertina wire.
While much of the report is said to focus on disciplinary problems in his unit and a lack of accountability in its chain of command, it is also said to portray Sergeant Bergdahl as a free-spirited young man who read martial-arts books, drank tea with Afghan soldiers."
This guy is starting to have an OSWALD feel to him!
That is where my print ended; my web search added this:
"Its portrayal of him as a soldier is said to be positive, with quotes from both commanders and squad mates — apparently including some of the men now criticizing him — describing him as punctual, always in the correct uniform and asking good questions. It quotes colleagues as saying that he expressed some boredom and frustration that they were not “kicking down doors” more to go after insurgents who were destroying schools.
The report is also said to contain no mention of any alleged intercepts of radio or cellphone traffic indicating that Sergeant Bergdahl was asking villagers if anyone spoke English and trying to get in touch with the Taliban, as two former squad mates told CNN this week in separate interviews; they both said they remembered hearing about the intercepts from a translator who received the report.
MORE COVER UP! I guess the NSA isn't doing its job!
A leaked military activity report that contemporaneously logged significant events during the initial eight-day search for Sergeant Bergdahl says that at 10:12 a.m. on June 30, about six hours after he was reported missing, an unidentified man was overheard on a radio or cellphone saying that an American soldier with a camera “is looking for someone who speaks English.”
Still, the log says nothing about the unidentified man’s saying that the American wanted to get in touch with the Taliban."
The Globe's web version replaced the cuts with this:
Also Thursday, a senior Obama administration official said the operation to free Bergdahl was kept a closely held secret because of fear that splits within the Taliban could lead gun-wielding guards to kill the soldier before he was turned over to US forces last weekend.
And that Congressional sources would leak it.
The group holding Bergdahl, a Taliban faction called the Haqqani network, has sometimes been at odds with the Taliban’s leadership.
Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha
Not funny anymore, sorry.
Since Obama first announced the prisoner swap from the Rose Garden of the White House on Saturday, there has been rising anger from members of Congress who say the administration ignored a statute requiring 30 days’ notice before prisoners are released from the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, where the five Taliban members were held.
In other words, OBAMA BROKE the LAW! That is IMPEACHABLE!
Although the White House has said that the need for secrecy explained why it had to ignore the statute, Obama’s aides have had a difficult time explaining why they could not have warned a small group of Senate national security leaders, called the “Gang of Eight,” that often receives briefings on covert or highly sensitive programs.
NOT AN EXCUSE, sorry!!!!!!!
--more--"
"As criticism mounts, focus trained on Bowe Bergdahl’s platoon; Report cited unit for lax discipline, security troubles" by Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Eric Schmitt | New York Times June 08, 2014
NEW YORK — In the years since Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, and even more since his release last week in a contentious prisoner exchange for five Taliban fighters, much has been written suggesting that he was a misfit soldier in something of a misfit platoon that stumbled through its first months in Afghanistan and may have made it too easy for him to walk away, as his fellow soldiers say he did.
The cover story crapola is misfitting.
Indeed, an internal Army investigation into the episode concluded that the platoon suffered from lapses in discipline and security in the period before Bergdahl — a private first class at the time who was later promoted while in captivity — disappeared into Paktika province, two officials briefed on the report said.
But their problems in many ways reflected those of the Pentagon’s strategy writ large at that moment of the Afghan War. The platoon was sent to a remote location with too few troops to seriously confront an increasingly aggressive insurgency, which controlled many villages in the region.
The river beds they used as roads were often mined with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs; simply getting supplies or traveling back to their home operating base could be a nerve-racking ordeal.
Bergdahl’s former platoon mates gave sharply contradictory accounts of how he viewed the war, and America’s proper role in it.
To many of those soldiers, Bergdahl was viewed as standoffish or eccentric, smoking a pipe instead of spitting tobacco, as so many soldiers do, and reading voraciously when others napped or watched videos. But he was not isolated from his platoon mates, some said.
Sounds like Oswald, doesn't it?
And while he was, like other soldiers in the platoon, often disappointed or confused by their mission in Paktika, some peers also said Bergdahl seemed enthusiastic about fighting, particularly after the platoon was ambushed.
“He’d complain about not being able to go on the offensive, and being attacked and not being able to return fire,” said Gerald Sutton, who knew Bergdahl from spending time together on their tiny outpost, Observation Post Mest Malak, near the village of Yahya Khel, about 50 miles west of the Pakistani border.
Right, U.S. soldiers never return fire. C'mon!
Sutton said he had struggled to square the popular portrayal of Bergdahl as brooding and disenchanted with the soldier he knew. “He wanted to take the fight to the enemy and do the mission of the infantry,” he said, adding, “He was a good soldier, and whenever he was told to do something, he would do it.”
That settles it. This WHOLE THING was a PSYOP from the START! Bergdhal was simply DOING WHAT HE HAD BEEN ORDERED!!!
Josh Cornelison, the platoon’s medic, made it his job to get to know the men he might someday have to save. He said Bergdahl was cagey, never telling anyone his full personal story, sharing a snippet with one soldier, another snippet with someone else.
He sure is acting like an intelligence agent!
“He got excited during certain parts of fighting, but for the vast majority of the time, he was disillusioned when we had to be boots-on-the-ground infantrymen,” Cornelison said. However, he said, Bergdahl showed more interest in humanitarian activities, like passing out food or medical supplies to Afghan villagers or helping Afghan soldiers repair their building, and seemed disappointed that the Army was not more like “a kind of Peace Corps.”
But he wanted to take the fight to them and was angry the military wouldn't let him, yup!
*************
Just how and why Bergdahl disappeared remains a mystery to his fellow soldiers, and they vehemently disputed reports that implied he had seen a vehicle from his unit run over an Afghan child, which Bergdahl had apparently told his parents in an e-mail before his disappearance. That never happened, his fellow soldiers said.
How he slipped of the base is another matter of debate. Some soldiers have theorized....
Stinky psyop!
--more--"
And look who is talking tough!
"John Kerry talks tough on 5 freed Taliban members; Defends deal that led to release of American POW" by Brian Knowlton | New York Times June 09, 2014
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that he felt confident the five Taliban detainees freed in a swap for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl posed little risk to Americans, adding that Qatari officials were not the only ones monitoring them — and that while the five might be able to return to the battlefield, “they also have the ability to get killed doing that.”
That reminds me of George Bush saying "Bring 'em on" in Iraq!
Kerry, in some of his first public remarks on the exchange, struck a decidedly tough tone, dismissing as “baloney” the suggestion that terrorists would have new incentive to kidnap Americans.
Why is that baloney after what they just saw?
He also hinted, without offering details, that the United States had the means to monitor the Taliban members, who are now in Qatar, and act against them if necessary.
Well, we KNOW THAT! They are collecting ALL COMMUNICATIONS on the PLANET!
So HOW MUCH is that COSTING TAXPAYERS before we have to drone strike them to death?
The Qataris “aren’t the only ones keeping an eye on them,” Kerry said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added, “These guys pick a fight with us in the future or now or at any time at enormous risk.”
The arrogant hubris is appropriate seeing as the empire is being to rapidly collapse. They have lost Libya, lost Syria, Iraq is going to hell, Ukraine is a mess, the BRIC nations are dumping the dollar, and AmeriKan leaders have not a clue what to do!
Broadly defending the swap, Kerry said that it would have been “offensive and incomprehensible” to leave Bergdahl in the hands of people who might torture him or “cut off his head.”
Wouldn't they have done that by now?
I'm wondering how the CIA hotel room was all these years.
Despite the determined defense of administration decisions by such officials as Kerry, the firestorm of criticism about the exchange continued unabated Sunday, with Republican lawmakers and one senior Democrat publicly expressing fresh doubts.
They would be smart to cut him loose.
The administration received key support, however, from an influential retired military leader, General James N. Mattis, who said that the exchange would make it easier now to attack the extremist groups involved in Bergdahl’s detention.
Up to now, the general said, every time commanders weighed an attack on the Haqqani network, which operates on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, “we were concerned that Bowe Bergdahl could end up dead.”
PFFFFT!
That concern is gone, he said, also on CNN. “There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t fully enjoy,” he said.
Mattis, who headed the US Central Command from 2010 to 2013, with responsibility for Afghanistan, also argued that the Qataris, with “some of their own prestige at stake,” had reason to monitor the Taliban officials closely.
Related: Qatar and Saudi Arabia Reportedly Funding and Sponsoring ISIS
But they are keeping an eye on the terrorists.
Like Kerry, the general dismissed the idea that the swap might inspire terror groups to kidnap Americans, saying, “It’s not like all of a sudden they have a new impulse here.”
Key members of Congress have expressed serious concerns that the administration failed to inform them in advance of the Bergdahl exchange.
On Sunday, the leaders of the intelligence committees in both chambers, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, raised the question of why the administration had backed away from a goal enunciated in 2011: to make the Bergdahl deal the first step in a broader, behind-the-scenes effort to reach a reconciliation agreement with the Taliban.
I will tell you why: VA
Feinstein, a Democrat, also said that she found it hard to accept Kerry’s assurances that the Taliban members could be kept securely in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Previous negotiations, she said, had included a requirement for the house arrest of the five, in contrast to the current arrangement, which reportedly will allow them to move about the country.
“You can’t help but worry about them in Doha,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And we have no information on how the United States is actually going to see that they remain in Doha, that they make no comments, that they do no agitation.”
Rogers, a Republican, said that he was convinced at least three of the Taliban members, and perhaps all five, would try to return to the battlefield.
In the meantime, he said on ABC’s “This Week,” they can meet in Qatar with other Taliban figures, or with family, and send messages by courier to Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Rogers said he did not expect the five to plan anything “operational,” that is, to plan attacks. But he said the conditions of their time in Qatar would allow them “to prepare for what’s next.”
I am glad I no longer watch those programs.
Bergdahl, who was released a week ago, is being treated at the American military medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany. He has told officials there that he was tortured, beaten, and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape.
I don't believe that, and Bergdahl is being reprogrammed before they let the public see him. SOP.
The Idaho soldier, now 28, was captured in June 2009 after he disappeared from his infantry unit. He was held for nearly five years by Taliban militants.
Taliban spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday on the torture report. On Friday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that Bergdahl was held under ‘‘good conditions.’’ The claim could not be independently verified.
Isn't it odd that the ma$$ media knows how and where to contact Taliban, but the NSA can't find them?
Military doctors at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center said that while Bergdahl is physically able to travel he is not yet emotionally prepared to be reunited with his family.
That is a big load of shit! The FIRST THING HE WOULD BE LOOKING TO DO were this legitimate would be REUNITING with FAMILY!
--more--"
"House panel to investigate prisoner swap" by Donna Cassata and Bradley Klapper | Associated Press June 10, 2014
WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee will investigate the Obama administration’s swap of an American prisoner held for five years for five Taliban figures that caused a political firestorm over the lack of congressional notification and fears the high-level Taliban could return to the Afghanistan battlefield.
It could and SHOULD lead to IMPEACHMENT!
‘‘We ought to look at the price,’’ Representative Howard ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon, Republican of California and chairman of the panel, told reporters after administration officials held a tense 90-minute, closed-door briefing for House Democrats and Republicans.
Officials from the White House, State and Defense departments, and the intelligence community defended the exchange of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, captured in June 2009 in Afghanistan after he disappeared from his infantry unit, for five Taliban militants from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In the week since the deal, lawmakers have raised questions about whether Bergdahl was a deserter and whether the United States gave up too much for his freedom. Republicans emerged from the Monday night session incensed that 80 to 90 people in the government knew about Bergdahl’s release ahead of time and not one member of Congress got a head’s up.
Looks like -- dare I say it -- a CONSPIRACY of SILENCE!
How could they KEEP THE SECRETS, huh!??
I mean, THAT is the reason we are given from government and mouthpiece media as to WHY there COULD NOT BE GOVERNMENTAL CONSPIRACIES!
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will testify Wednesday before the Armed Services Committee.
Hagel being hung out dry. Asshole.
--more--"
Also see: Benghazi, Bowe Bergdahl, and manufactured brouhaha
Can't be any worse than the manufactured fabrications that litter my newspaper every day.
"After Bergdahl briefing, senators still doubtful on prisoner swap" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times June 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — Senators emerged from a classified, closed-door briefing on the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl on Tuesday seemingly less convinced about the wisdom of swapping five high-level Taliban prisoners for the Army soldier after he spent years in captivity.
Senior Defense Department and military officials briefed members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, again presenting a united front in their support of the prisoner exchange, said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee’s chairman.
It's called closing ranks.
But they appeared to make little headway in defusing the festering political controversy that has again pitted the administration against Republicans — and some Democrats — who question President Obama’s judgment on national security.
I question his judgement on all matters, the promise-breaking liar!
The terms of the exchange signaled “a lack of understanding of the reality of the conflict we’re engaged in,” Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, said as he emerged from the secure hearing room. “It’s got to be demoralizing for our allies. It’s got to be demoralizing for our soldiers. It’s got to embolden the people we’re fighting against.
“We’re in a war,” he continued. “I think this White House does not understand that.”
I was told we were winding it down.
After the hearing, Levin offered perhaps the strongest defense yet of the prisoner exchange before congressional testimony Wednesday by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
“When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs tell me as chairman of the Armed Services Committee — and try to tell the public — that they very much supported this deal despite the fact that they knew Bergdahl had left his unit and despite the fact that they knew these five Taliban were bad guys, that has a big impact on me,” he said.
But even some fellow Democrats would not join in the defense. “Was it a good deal or a bad deal?” said Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. “In my mind it’s still a bad deal. I still can’t explain it back home to my fellow West Virginians why these five who they’ve tried repeatedly to get some exchange for over the last 10 years, why these five all of the sudden all were released.”
Isn't he up for reelection this fall?
Lawmakers in both chambers moved toward some kind of legislative confrontation. The House Appropriations Committee voted 33 to 13 on Tuesday to bar the use of federal money to transfer detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Six Democrats voted yes. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, has drafted similar legislation.
The briefers to the Senate Armed Services Committee included Robert O. Work, the deputy defense secretary; Admiral James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the Joint Chiefs’ Pakistan and Afghanistan coordinator, the Pentagon’s general counsel, and the assistant defense secretary for special operations.
But they did not prove persuasive. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was a prisoner of war, said the administration’s rationale kept shifting.
A hallark of lies!
At one point, the administration used a video from early this year to show that Bergdahl was in ill health, and it later asserted that the Taliban were threatening his life.
“They’re not going to kill an American prisoner,” McCain said. “That’s why they keep him alive. It is of utmost value to them to keep an American prisoner alive. Look what they got for it.”
Got what? I was told they got nothing, not a damn thing!
Militants in Pakistan and Iraq have killed US captives, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the US contractor Nick Berg.
Related: Nick Berg: Mossad operator with 9/11 connections?
So was Pearl.
Maybe Weinstein will be the next to get a deal done (unless the drone strike got him).
Manchin did say that the briefers described the conditions Bergdahl was kept in as “pretty horrific.”
Related: Dinner at Guantánamo
Levin said of the attacks against Bergdahl: “I think there’s been too much prejudgment. Before people reach any conclusion about whether he did anything improper, he’s an American soldier, and he ought to be given due process. That means we should hear from him before people jump to a conclusion.”
Pathetic.
Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, also cautioned, “There’s still an awful lot to be discovered from Bergdahl himself, as well as from other folks involved, and that’s still ongoing.”
I thought the meticulous and thorough report took care of that.
The Defense Department officials were not able to alleviate concerns about the threat posed by the five prisoners released to the government of Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. Sessions said the five had been “taken basically to a resort town” where they and their families were being supported financially for a year.
Try to think of it as further punishment.
"In video, couple pleads for freedom" by Eric Tucker | Associated Press June 06, 2014
WASHINGTON — The married couple with a taste for exotic travel set out for Central Asia in the summer of 2012, moving as tourists through a region not normally visited by Westerners.
Meaning this is their NON-OFFICIAL COVER, folks!
Related: Operation Mockingbird
They are mocking you!
It was a risky venture by any standards, not least because the young travelers were expecting their first child. They crossed into Afghanistan where, one day, Joshua Boyle e-mailed relatives from a part of the country he said was unsafe.
Then the child should be taken away! What irresponsible parents!!
Oh, I forgot, Afghanistan has one of the best healthcare and medical systems in the world. That's why they went.
Readers, this is INSULTING and OFFENSIVE CRAP PROPAGANDA!!
No wonder this is was a ONE-DAY WONDER!
The message from Oct. 8, 2012, was the last anyone heard from the Canadian man or his pregnant wife, Caitlan Coleman.
But now there is a new wrinkle to the story.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
In two short videos received by Coleman’s parents last year, Boyle and Coleman are seen calling on the US government to free them and their child — who would be about 18 months old — from Taliban captors. The video files, provided to the Associated Press, were e-mailed to Coleman’s father last July and September by an Afghan man who identified himself as having Taliban ties.
They were able to get VIDEOS OUT from TALIBAN CAPTIVITY in an E-MAIL?
So the NSA KNOWS where they ARE, huh?
SIGH!!
You guys REALLY CAN'T WRITE BETTER PROPAGANDA THAN THIS?
This is BAD!!! This is RANK ROT PROP!
The recordings offer the first and only clues about what happened to Coleman and Boyle after they lost touch with their families 20 months ago while traveling in a mountainous region near Kabul.
Hey, they wanted an ADVENTURE like Bergdahl!
Great place to go for an EXOTIC VACATION!
But they leave unanswered basic questions, including the couple’s whereabouts and their current welfare. And if she indeed had her baby, where is the child?
Yeah, IF INDEED!
Yup, QUESTIONS UNANSWERED but they always seem to know and understand the power structure hierarchy of terrorist groups.
And HOW CAN THEIR WHEREABOUTS BE UNKNOWN? Certainly the NSA know WHICH ISP SERVER was USED to send the parents the E-MAIL!
Readers, this is reading more and more like a COMPLETE FABRICATION and PSYOP!
‘‘I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child, and I to safety and freedom,’’ the 28-year-old American says in one recording, wearing a conservative black garment that covers all but her face. Her husband, with a long and untrimmed beard, sits beside her.
Just wondering why this is the FIRST I HAVE SEEN or HEARD of them!
The TIMING of this article SURE IS SUSPICIOUS, almost as if they have to REINFORCE the cratering NARRATIVE!
US law enforcement officials investigating the couple’s disappearance consider the videos authentic but said they hold limited investigative value since it’s not clear when or where they were made.
Why should it matter? Video all have signatures, and the NSA can simply sift through all the communications it collected at that time?
Though Coleman said in the video that the trio is in Taliban captivity, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Associated Press in Kabul that the group had no information about the couple and was unaware of the kidnapping.
Then this is a ANOTHER STAGED and SCRIPTED PIECE of PROPAGANDA PRE$$ and GOVERNMENT THEATER and FICTION!
Once again, something coming from the ma$$ media is a DISTORTION at BEST, a COMPLETE FAKE and LIE at WORST! Not a very good choice for someone seeking trustworthiness in a newspaper!
The families decided to make the videos public now, in light of the publicity surrounding the weekend rescue of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed from Taliban custody in exchange for the release of five high-level Taliban detainees at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Are you telling me they sat on these videos all this time?
What type of awful parents would do that when the FBI and law enforcement advise making an appeal immediately to humanize the captives?
They SAT on the VIDEOS even after their CHILDREN APPEALED to them for HELP? Those parents be charged with negligence and child abandonment.
Either that, or this is ALL FAKE FOLKS! It is ALL STAGED and SCRIPTED PROPAGANDA!
The families said they were disappointed that their children and grandchild were not freed as part of the same deal but were appealing for help from anyone who could give it, including and especially the couple’s captors.
This after they sat on the videos for 18 months!
Does that MAKE SENSE to YOU!!??!! And why did the NIGERIAN VIDEO that apparently has FADED AWAY (mission accomplished; AmeriKan drones and troops now in theater!)
‘‘It would be no more appropriate to have our government turn their backs on their citizens than to turn their backs on those who serve,’’ Patrick Boyle, a Canadian judge and the father of Joshua Boyle, said in a telephone interview.
You sat on the video for 18 months.
Btw, what idiots go vacationing in a war zone?
The families said their children were prisoners just as Bergdahl was and should be recognized as ‘‘innocent tourists.’’
PFFFFT!
Though the couple made a mistake by venturing on their own into dangerous territory, they — and especially their child — should not be penalized more than they already have been, the families contend.
I guess it is true; AmeriKa's ejewkhazional $y$tem is $hit.
In a joint written statement Wednesday night, the families called for a humanitarian effort to bring their children and grandchild home and asked for ‘‘compassion’’ from the captors.
--more--"
Maybe Qatar can help them:
"Qatar’s behind-the-scenes role designed to reap benefits" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press June 08, 2014
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar’s behind-the-scenes role in securing the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban operatives was a classic move by a tiny but natural gas-rich Gulf state with outsize ambitions that extend to hosting soccer’s World Cup in eight years.
Won't it be a little hot to play soccer then?
Related: Corruption Claims Cast Cloud on Qatar’s World Cup Bid
The OPEC member has shown a knack for keeping channels to conservative Islamists open while it curries favor with an array of world powers. For Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family, it is a hedge that ensures influence and security in a volatile part of the world.
It means they are playing both sides!
In this case, Qatar was able to act as a broker because of longstanding links to the Taliban. The Islamic militant movement last year opened a representative office in Qatar, but effectively shut it weeks later in a dispute over its use of the name ‘‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’’ and of a flag flown when it ruled Afghanistan beginning in the 1990s.
That was a waste of time, just as is this.
It is unclear how many of the Taliban envoys left Qatar — but the foundation had been laid for ongoing talks.
‘‘It’s really a continuation of Qatar’s strategy of making itself useful to other powerful countries, and helping them sort out their problems,’’ said Christopher Davidson, a specialist in Gulf affairs at Britain’s Durham University.
He likened Qatar to an ‘‘Arab Switzerland’’ and does not see a contradiction in it cultivating ties with both the United States and Islamist groups.
‘‘They’ve always tried to keep a foot in both camps,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a way of having a response to accusations that Qatar is un-Islamic. . . . It can always pull out of the bag that it’s one of the few states that have a direct line to Kandahar, or Kabul, or wherever else.’’
Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah described the nation’s role in the talks as a humanitarian gesture when asked about it at a news conference last week. American officials have since said Qatari intermediaries acted as go-betweens for months, including during the final days of negotiations that led to the detainee swap.
The deal that eventually emerged led to the Taliban leaders’ quiet arrival in Qatar as an international aviation conference was getting underway following the opening of a sleek new airport in Doha — and as the country was coming under renewed international scrutiny for its winning but controversial bid to host the World Cup in 2022.
Why was the bid controversial?
Related: What Happened at Hanscom?
Did that crash ever fade quick, huh?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Philadelphia Inquirer deal completed
Just thought I would slip that in there. Lenfest benefited, huh?
The role of mediator is not new for Qatar.
The emirate was the site of peace talks between Sudanese officials and Darfur rebels, and it more recently has hosted gatherings of Syrian opposition groups — of which it is a major backer — fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
And both Sudan and Syria have gone to hell, as well as the Libyan terrorists Qatar supported.
Qatar has worked hard to strengthen its ties to the United States, including a $100 million pledge in 2005 to help Americans recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani was not shy about his nation’s rationale for cultivating American friendship. According to a 2009 diplomatic cable exposed by Wikileaks, he responded to American thanks for the Katrina donation by noting ‘‘we might have our own Katrina,’’ apparently hinting at a possible quid pro quo.
Wikileaks has also faded because everyone knows it was an Israeli collection operation. That's why Assange was dispatched and Snowden surfaced.
--more--"
Time to quit for the night. Sorry.
WASHINGTON — The married couple with a taste for exotic travel set out for Central Asia in the summer of 2012, moving as tourists through a region not normally visited by Westerners.
Meaning this is their NON-OFFICIAL COVER, folks!
Related: Operation Mockingbird
They are mocking you!
It was a risky venture by any standards, not least because the young travelers were expecting their first child. They crossed into Afghanistan where, one day, Joshua Boyle e-mailed relatives from a part of the country he said was unsafe.
Then the child should be taken away! What irresponsible parents!!
Oh, I forgot, Afghanistan has one of the best healthcare and medical systems in the world. That's why they went.
Readers, this is INSULTING and OFFENSIVE CRAP PROPAGANDA!!
No wonder this is was a ONE-DAY WONDER!
The message from Oct. 8, 2012, was the last anyone heard from the Canadian man or his pregnant wife, Caitlan Coleman.
But now there is a new wrinkle to the story.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
In two short videos received by Coleman’s parents last year, Boyle and Coleman are seen calling on the US government to free them and their child — who would be about 18 months old — from Taliban captors. The video files, provided to the Associated Press, were e-mailed to Coleman’s father last July and September by an Afghan man who identified himself as having Taliban ties.
They were able to get VIDEOS OUT from TALIBAN CAPTIVITY in an E-MAIL?
So the NSA KNOWS where they ARE, huh?
SIGH!!
You guys REALLY CAN'T WRITE BETTER PROPAGANDA THAN THIS?
This is BAD!!! This is RANK ROT PROP!
The recordings offer the first and only clues about what happened to Coleman and Boyle after they lost touch with their families 20 months ago while traveling in a mountainous region near Kabul.
Hey, they wanted an ADVENTURE like Bergdahl!
Great place to go for an EXOTIC VACATION!
But they leave unanswered basic questions, including the couple’s whereabouts and their current welfare. And if she indeed had her baby, where is the child?
Yeah, IF INDEED!
Yup, QUESTIONS UNANSWERED but they always seem to know and understand the power structure hierarchy of terrorist groups.
And HOW CAN THEIR WHEREABOUTS BE UNKNOWN? Certainly the NSA know WHICH ISP SERVER was USED to send the parents the E-MAIL!
Readers, this is reading more and more like a COMPLETE FABRICATION and PSYOP!
‘‘I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband, child, and I to safety and freedom,’’ the 28-year-old American says in one recording, wearing a conservative black garment that covers all but her face. Her husband, with a long and untrimmed beard, sits beside her.
Just wondering why this is the FIRST I HAVE SEEN or HEARD of them!
The TIMING of this article SURE IS SUSPICIOUS, almost as if they have to REINFORCE the cratering NARRATIVE!
US law enforcement officials investigating the couple’s disappearance consider the videos authentic but said they hold limited investigative value since it’s not clear when or where they were made.
Why should it matter? Video all have signatures, and the NSA can simply sift through all the communications it collected at that time?
Though Coleman said in the video that the trio is in Taliban captivity, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Associated Press in Kabul that the group had no information about the couple and was unaware of the kidnapping.
Then this is a ANOTHER STAGED and SCRIPTED PIECE of PROPAGANDA PRE$$ and GOVERNMENT THEATER and FICTION!
Once again, something coming from the ma$$ media is a DISTORTION at BEST, a COMPLETE FAKE and LIE at WORST! Not a very good choice for someone seeking trustworthiness in a newspaper!
The families decided to make the videos public now, in light of the publicity surrounding the weekend rescue of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed from Taliban custody in exchange for the release of five high-level Taliban detainees at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Are you telling me they sat on these videos all this time?
What type of awful parents would do that when the FBI and law enforcement advise making an appeal immediately to humanize the captives?
They SAT on the VIDEOS even after their CHILDREN APPEALED to them for HELP? Those parents be charged with negligence and child abandonment.
Either that, or this is ALL FAKE FOLKS! It is ALL STAGED and SCRIPTED PROPAGANDA!
The families said they were disappointed that their children and grandchild were not freed as part of the same deal but were appealing for help from anyone who could give it, including and especially the couple’s captors.
This after they sat on the videos for 18 months!
Does that MAKE SENSE to YOU!!??!! And why did the NIGERIAN VIDEO that apparently has FADED AWAY (mission accomplished; AmeriKan drones and troops now in theater!)
‘‘It would be no more appropriate to have our government turn their backs on their citizens than to turn their backs on those who serve,’’ Patrick Boyle, a Canadian judge and the father of Joshua Boyle, said in a telephone interview.
You sat on the video for 18 months.
Btw, what idiots go vacationing in a war zone?
The families said their children were prisoners just as Bergdahl was and should be recognized as ‘‘innocent tourists.’’
PFFFFT!
Though the couple made a mistake by venturing on their own into dangerous territory, they — and especially their child — should not be penalized more than they already have been, the families contend.
I guess it is true; AmeriKa's ejewkhazional $y$tem is $hit.
In a joint written statement Wednesday night, the families called for a humanitarian effort to bring their children and grandchild home and asked for ‘‘compassion’’ from the captors.
--more--"
Maybe Qatar can help them:
"Qatar’s behind-the-scenes role designed to reap benefits" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press June 08, 2014
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar’s behind-the-scenes role in securing the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban operatives was a classic move by a tiny but natural gas-rich Gulf state with outsize ambitions that extend to hosting soccer’s World Cup in eight years.
Won't it be a little hot to play soccer then?
Related: Corruption Claims Cast Cloud on Qatar’s World Cup Bid
The OPEC member has shown a knack for keeping channels to conservative Islamists open while it curries favor with an array of world powers. For Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family, it is a hedge that ensures influence and security in a volatile part of the world.
It means they are playing both sides!
In this case, Qatar was able to act as a broker because of longstanding links to the Taliban. The Islamic militant movement last year opened a representative office in Qatar, but effectively shut it weeks later in a dispute over its use of the name ‘‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’’ and of a flag flown when it ruled Afghanistan beginning in the 1990s.
That was a waste of time, just as is this.
It is unclear how many of the Taliban envoys left Qatar — but the foundation had been laid for ongoing talks.
‘‘It’s really a continuation of Qatar’s strategy of making itself useful to other powerful countries, and helping them sort out their problems,’’ said Christopher Davidson, a specialist in Gulf affairs at Britain’s Durham University.
He likened Qatar to an ‘‘Arab Switzerland’’ and does not see a contradiction in it cultivating ties with both the United States and Islamist groups.
‘‘They’ve always tried to keep a foot in both camps,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a way of having a response to accusations that Qatar is un-Islamic. . . . It can always pull out of the bag that it’s one of the few states that have a direct line to Kandahar, or Kabul, or wherever else.’’
Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah described the nation’s role in the talks as a humanitarian gesture when asked about it at a news conference last week. American officials have since said Qatari intermediaries acted as go-betweens for months, including during the final days of negotiations that led to the detainee swap.
The deal that eventually emerged led to the Taliban leaders’ quiet arrival in Qatar as an international aviation conference was getting underway following the opening of a sleek new airport in Doha — and as the country was coming under renewed international scrutiny for its winning but controversial bid to host the World Cup in 2022.
Why was the bid controversial?
Related: What Happened at Hanscom?
Did that crash ever fade quick, huh?
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Philadelphia Inquirer deal completed
Just thought I would slip that in there. Lenfest benefited, huh?
The role of mediator is not new for Qatar.
The emirate was the site of peace talks between Sudanese officials and Darfur rebels, and it more recently has hosted gatherings of Syrian opposition groups — of which it is a major backer — fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
And both Sudan and Syria have gone to hell, as well as the Libyan terrorists Qatar supported.
Qatar has worked hard to strengthen its ties to the United States, including a $100 million pledge in 2005 to help Americans recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani was not shy about his nation’s rationale for cultivating American friendship. According to a 2009 diplomatic cable exposed by Wikileaks, he responded to American thanks for the Katrina donation by noting ‘‘we might have our own Katrina,’’ apparently hinting at a possible quid pro quo.
Wikileaks has also faded because everyone knows it was an Israeli collection operation. That's why Assange was dispatched and Snowden surfaced.
--more--"
Time to quit for the night. Sorry.
