Related: The Articles of Obama's Impeachment
Add two more charges to the list:
"Obama poised to announce major climate change plan; Carbon emission by power plants will be key focus" by Peter Baker and Coral Davenport | New York Times June 01, 2014
WASHINGTON — All but giving up on Congress, President Obama has spent the year foraging for actions on various issues he could take on his own, and largely coming up with minor executive orders.
Fancy way of saying diktat.
But on Monday, he will unveil a plan to tackle climate change that may be his last, most sweeping effort to remake America in his remaining time in office.
Two years is a long time! This is implying he is leaving tomorrow.
The far-reaching regulations will for the first time force existing power plants in the United States to curb the carbon emissions that scientists say have been damaging the planet.
And the courts are backing him up. Btw, all this war and militarism? That also damaging the planet.
By using authority already embedded in law, Obama does not need Congress — and so, in this era of gridlock, he has a chance to transform the nation’s energy sector and, at the same time, his presidency.
IMPEACH!
***************
While the administration was still finalizing crucial elements of the plan, it was already clear that the economic stakes are enormous. The new regulation could eventually shutter hundreds of coal-fired power plants.
Critics wasted little time arguing that the president’s unilateral plan abuses his power in a way that will cost jobs and raise energy prices for consumers.
The people will be ready to impeach him then.
“The administration has set out to kill coal and its 800,000 jobs,” Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, the nation’s top coal-producing state, said in response to Obama’s Saturday address. “If it succeeds in death by regulation, we’ll all be paying a lot more money for electricity — if we can get it. Our pocketbook will be lighter, but our country will be darker.”
That is the idea, yeah.
Related: Mt. Tom coal plant to close in fall
Almost by default, climate change looks to be the defining domestic initiative of Obama’s second term.
Meaning he has failed everywhere else!
His aspirations to enact gun control measures, pass a jobs plan, overhaul the tax code, and reach a grand bargain on long-term spending all have eluded him amid Republican opposition. He may yet negotiate legislation liberalizing immigration policy, but otherwise harbors little hope for major new domestic action.
UPDATE: Obama seeks immigration plan’s delay
Gee, all of a sudden he's worried about angering Republicans with executive orders!
In taking on climate change, Obama is returning to one of the themes of his first campaign for president when he vowed that his election would be remembered as the moment when “our planet began to heal.”
That reeks of the arrogance of Deval Patrick!
His inability to live up to that lofty rhetoric has deeply frustrated many supporters, and he personally urged his Environmental Protection Agency chief, Gina McCarthy, to draft an ambitious regulation in time to ensure that it is finalized before he leaves office.
She is a former Romneyite, and I'm sure they were coal-cocked by this marriage!
Having failed to pass climate legislation through the Senate in his first term, Obama has used his own power to advance his goals, including increased fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
Power he is not supposed to have according to that piece of paper that is supposed to govern us. You know, the Constitution of the United States.
In seeking to limit power plants, he is finally addressing the most significant source of carbon pollution, and yet the president seems to have chosen a low-wattage rollout of the plan.
That would be the military operations of the empire he commands as the most significant source, but that is exempt from the discussion.
The attempt to keep the fart quiet is disgusting and offensive. He knows it will piss us all off!
He will not unveil it in a televised East Room address or travel to some out-of-town venue for a big speech, as he has for moves of far less import.
Instead, he will leave it to McCarthy to announce Monday, while he plays a supporting role by making a telephone call to the American Lung Association.
HA!
That may reflect the complicated politics of the issue. Republicans are not the only ones concerned about economic costs, or for that matter political ones. Democrats from coal-producing states are acutely nervous with midterm elections approaching.
OoooooooH!
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PFFFFFFT!
"Tough new rule for power plants" by Coral Davenport | New York Times June 02, 2014
WASHINGTON — The regulation takes aim at the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, the nation’s more than 600 coal-fired power plants....
It is also likely to stand as President Obama’s last chance to substantially shape domestic policy and as a defining element of his legacy.
Oh, he will have a legacy; one of failure and betrayal to the promise of change.
The president, who failed to push a sweeping climate change bill through Congress in his first term, is now acting on his own by using his executive authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act to issue the regulation....
He doesn't have any goddamn authortiae!
EPA officials hope the approach -- state and regional “cap and trade” programs, in which states agree to cap carbon pollution and buy and sell permits to pollute -- will allow states to comply with the regulation more easily and cost-effectively, by adopting policies tailored to regional economies and energy mixes. But industry groups planning to sue to block or delay the rule have said that approach makes the rule more legally vulnerable.
And just who do you think will be running that trading $y$tem?
Are they really looking out for your be$t intere$t, or are they simply looking for another way to create money out of thin air.
Details of the proposed regulation were first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal online.
Because burning coal is the largest source of the greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists blame for trapping heat in the atmosphere and dangerously warming the planet, the rule is expected to have a powerful environmental impact.
Too keep pushing that lie when it flies in the face of one's own experience simply discredits the government and ma$$ media. I will never believe in them again. I'm only reading them for something to do.
It comes on top of a regulation Obama issued in his first term that sharply increased the required fuel economy of vehicles, the second-largest source of carbon pollution.
Does that include his gas-guzzling limo "The Beast," and it's miles-long caravan?
Experts said the new regulation would set the country on track to meet its target set forth in a United Nations accord in 2009, when Obama pledged that the United States would cut its greenhouse gas pollution 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by 2050.
On Sunday, environmental advocates praised the proposed rule while the coal industry attacked it as a symbol of executive overreach that could wreak economic havoc....
And an impeachable offense in my mind.
The proposal will be a draft, open to comment.
I already have, and once again the headline hype and buildup is nothing close to the reality at the moment. It's all agenda-pu$hing $hit!!!!!!!
There is no deadline for a final regulation, but Obama directed the EPA to issue the rule by June 2015. The timing signals he may be more interested in a legacy-making global deal on climate change than in short-term politics. The rule could make things difficult for Democrats in coal states, but easier for US climate change negotiators this fall at the UN General Assembly.
The globali$t agenda is above country or party, people. It's right there in red, white, black, and blue.
You Democrats deserve to lose in November.
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UPDATE:
"Taking aim at global warming, President Obama introduced a politically charged plan Monday to order big and lasting cuts in the pollution power plants discharge. But the plan, though ambitious in scope, wouldn’t be fully realized until long after Obama’s successor takes office and would generate only modest progress worldwide."
PFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTT!!!!
Related:
Off the Cape, a time capsule
Finally, US gets serious about climate change
At this point, impeachment is not being seriously considered. Investigations into Benghazi and the IRS are for scoring political points in 2014 and 2016, not for getting at the truth.
As for this next item I have long believed this was a complete psyop, and the timing of it is very suspicious in light of the (and also impeachable) VA scandal. I saw the breaking news report Saturday afternoon while in the bar/restaurant before the game and that is thought that instantly crossed my mind.
"American POW freed in exchange with Taliban; Soldier in good condition after 5 years’ captivity" by Eric Schmitt and Charlie Savage | New York Times June 01, 2014
WASHINGTON — The lone US prisoner of war from the Afghan conflict, captured by insurgents nearly five years ago, has been released to US forces in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Obama administration officials said Saturday.
The soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, 28, was handed over to US Special Operations troops inside Afghanistan near the Pakistan border about 10:30 a.m. Saturday in a tense but uneventful exchange with 18 Taliban officials, US officials said.
Moments later, Bergdahl was whisked away by the helicopter-borne commandos, US officials said. He was found in good condition and able to walk.
Must have been a nice CIA safe house then.
The five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo, including two senior militant commanders said to be implicated in murdering thousands of Shi’ites in Afghanistan, were being transferred to the custody of officials from Qatar, who will accompany them back to that Persian Gulf state, where they will be subject to security restrictions, including a one-year travel ban.
We are going to need them then after the attack on Iran.
All five Taliban members being released are considered to be among the most senior militants at Guantánamo and would otherwise be among the last to leave.
The worst of the worst, most of whom are innocent. Probably why the WH made the deal.
Senior administration officials cautioned that the discussions over the prisoner swap, which were secretly restarted last fall after collapsing several months earlier, would not necessarily lead to the resumption of broader peace talks to end the 13-year war.
“This is the only issue we’ve discussed with the Taliban in recent months,” said one senior Obama administration official involved in the talks. “We do hope that having succeeded in this narrow but important step, it will create the possibility of expanding the dialogue to other issues. But we don’t have any promises to that effect.”
A Western official in Kabul said the Afghan government was not told ahead of time that the Taliban were going to hand over Bergdahl or that the release of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay was proceeding, though the Afghans were broadly aware that the talks had been rekindled. US officials feared leaks could scuttle the deal.
President Obama personally telephoned the soldier’s parents Saturday, shortly after Bergdahl was transferred to the US military; the Bergdahl family was in Washington after a visit for Memorial Day.
“Sergeant Bergdahl’s recovery is a reminder of America’s unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield,” Obama said in a statement.
This IS STARTING TO SMELL LIKE RANK ROT PROPAGANDA and a COMPLETE HOAX on the heels of the VA scandal!
Bob and Jani Bergdahl, the parents of the Hailey, Idaho, soldier, have waged a tireless campaign for their son’s release, and have sometimes criticized the Obama administration’s lack of action. But in a statement from the family released Saturday, they praised the US and Qatari governments for their help.
“We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son,” they said. “Today, we are ecstatic!”
Reminds me of the actor Arredondo.
Related: Bergdahl’s Story and His Taliban-Loving Dad
And he was right there by Obama's side, huh? STINK!
During an appearance later Saturday in the Rose Garden, Obama said that while Bergdahl was gone, ‘‘he was never forgotten.’’ The president was joined at the White House by the soldier’s parents.
Bergdahl’s father thanked all those who took part in his son’s recovery, saying it was difficult to put his feelings into words.
He did on Twitter!
Negotiations and internal deliberations over the potential for a swap have waxed and waned for years, but they intensified in the past several weeks as an agreement appeared within reach, according to an official familiar with the matter.
Yeah, what timing in light of the VA scandal.
This is ALL STAGED and SCRIPTED GARBAGE, folks!
Among other complications, there was a potential legal obstacle: Congress has imposed statutory restrictions on the transfer of detainees out of the prison at Guantánamo Bay.
The statutes say Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel must determine that a transfer is in the national security interest, that steps have been taken to substantially mitigate a future threat by a released detainee, and that he must notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of his determination.
In this case, the administration did not notify Congress ahead of time, officials said.
Looks IMPEACHABLE to ME!
They noted that Obama has said that the transfer restrictions are a potentially unconstitutional intrusion on his powers as the commander-in-chief. Last December, he issued a signing statement saying that he could lawfully override them.
If that is true, then he could have ordered Gitmo shut!!
As for the signing statements, wasn't that a problem under Bush?
An administration official said the circumstances of a fast-moving prisoner exchange deal made it appropriate to act outside the statutory framework for transfers.
That, to me, LOOKS ILLEGAL!!!!
The top Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, and Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said the release of the Taliban prisoners “clearly violated laws” governing the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay.
The transfer reduces the detainee population at Guantánamo to 149. They include 12 Afghan nationals — each of whom was deemed far less important and dangerous than the five who were included in the swap.
Bergdahl was believed to have been held by the militant Haqqani network in the tribal area of Pakistan’s northwest frontier, on the Afghan border. He was captured in Paktika province in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.
What a crock of crap.
The circumstances of how he was separated from his unit and captured have remained a mystery.
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
That means the pre$$ is hiding, omitting, and covering up part of the story.
Hopes for Bergdahl’s release were lifted once again last November when the Taliban signaled it was prepared to engage the United States on the limited issue of a prisoner swap, but not on wider issues including reconciliation with the government of Afghanistan, a senior administration official said.
The discussions resumed with the Qatari government acting as an intermediary for messages between the sides.
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"Freed soldier arrives at US base in Germany" by Lolita C. Baldor and Calvin Woodward | Associated Press June 02, 2014
WASHINGTON — Five years a captive in the Afghanistan war, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is back in American hands, freed for five Guantanamo terrorism detainees in an exchange that has stirred sharp debate in Washington over whether the United States should have negotiated with the Taliban over prisoners.
US officials said Sunday that Bergdahl’s health and safety appeared in jeopardy, prompting rapid action to secure his release.
Republicans said the deal could place American troops in danger, especially if the freed detainees return to the fight.
Bergdahl, 28, was taken to Bagram Air Field for medical evaluations, then transferred Sunday to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the US military hospital in Germany, where he will receive a medical evaluation and go through a reorientation process.
It was not immediately known when he will be reunited with his family in the United States.
Visiting troops in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stepped forward at Bagram Air Field to thank the special operations forces who retrieved Bergdahl, who was said to be the only American prisoner of war still held by insurgents in Afghanistan.
Oh, HOW CONVENIENT Hagel just happened to be in the neighborhood!!!
Marine General Joseph Dunford, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, spoke of the excitement that spread through the ranks when the sergeant’s release was confirmed. ‘‘You almost got choked up,’’ he said. ‘‘It was pretty extraordinary.’’
This guy is shoveling!
Tireless campaigners for their son’s freedom, Bob and Jani Bergdahl held a press conference in Idaho to thank all who were behind the effort to retrieve him.
‘‘You were not left behind,’’ Bob Bergdahl said, as if speaking to his son. ‘‘We are so proud of the way this was carried out.’’ He spoke in Boise, as residents in the sergeant’s hometown of Hailey prepared for a homecoming celebration.
For a deserter and traitor?
The Taliban handed Bergdahl over to special operations forces Saturday in an area of eastern Afghanistan, near Pakistan, US officials said. In a statement on its website, the Taliban put the location on the outskirts of Khost province.
Officials did not offer details about Bergdahl’s health. National security adviser Susan Rice said he had lost considerable weight and faced an acute situation. Yet she said he appeared to be ‘‘in good physical condition’’ and was able to walk.
Questions persisted about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture. Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters ‘‘will be dealt with later,’’ he said.
More soldiers need to do that.
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Hagel was met with silence when he told troops in a Bagram hangar: ‘‘This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.’’
It was unclear whether the absence of cheers and applause came from a reluctance to display emotion in front of the Pentagon chief or from any doubts among the troops about Bergdahl.
In weighing the swap, US officials decided it could help the effort to reach reconciliation with the Taliban, which the United States sees as key to more security in Afghanistan.
Then WHAT THE HELL are we STILL DOING THERE and WHY are we LEAVING TROOPS BEHIND after the end of this year!!
WTF?
Are you telling me all the death, blood, and destruction was FOR NOTHING!!??!!
But they acknowledged the risk that the deal would embolden insurgents, perhaps encouraging them to grab US troops or citizens as bargaining chips for the release of others in US custody.
And then all the Obama scandals would be forgotten as the war operations would expound to protect our people!
Folks, this is starting to look like a REAL STEAMING STINKER, sorry!
It's ALL PROPAGANDA!
Republicans pressed that point. ‘‘Have we just put a price on other US soldiers?’’ asked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. ‘‘What does this tell terrorists, that if you capture a US soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists?’’
President Obama, joined in the Rose Garden on Saturday by the sergeant’s parents, said the deal was struck because the United States ‘‘does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind.’’
Yeah, THEY just don't take care of them when they come back! I mean, C'MON GUYS!!!!
The five detainees left Guantanamo Saturday aboard a US military aircraft flying to Qatar, which served as go-between in the negotiations. They are to be banned from leaving Qatar for at least a year.
Among the five: a Taliban deputy intelligence minister, a former Taliban interior minister with ties to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and a figure linked by human rights monitors to mass killings of Shi’ite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001.
Related: Bin Laden Stories Show AmeriKan Media Not to be Believed
And you want me to believe them now?
Administration officials and lawmakers pressed their points on the Sunday news shows. Republicans said the deal violated requirements that Congress be given 30 days’ notice before any exchange of captives at Guantanamo.
Rice said ‘‘an urgent and an acute situation,’’ which she did not specify, did not allow that time.
‘‘We did not have 30 days to wait,’’ she said. ‘‘And had we waited and lost him, I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.’’
Several dozen US special operations forces, backed by multiple helicopters and surveillance aircraft, secured Bergdahl’s transfer from about 18 Taliban members. He is believed to have been held by the Haqqani network since June 30, 2009.
I wonder if they will start getting killed off like the members of Navy Seal Team 6.
Haqqani operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and claims allegiance to the Afghan Taliban but operates with some degree of autonomy.
Always leave 'em laughing.
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The smirk says it all to me.
And what is he doing with his wife when the article told me he hadn't reunited with family?
Then again, I may be wrong about the psyop, unless this is a limited hangout of sorts:
"US soldier freed by Taliban abandoned unit, report says" by Ken Dilanian | Associated Press June 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — A Pentagon investigation concluded in 2010 that Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military decided not to exert extraordinary efforts to rescue him, according to a former senior defense official who was involved in the matter.
Why would they when the CIA billeted him in a safe house?
Instead, the US government pursued negotiations to get him back over the following five years of his captivity, a track that led to his release over the weekend.
Bergdahl was being checked and treated Monday at a US military hospital in Germany as questions mounted at home over the swap that resulted in his freedom in exchange for the release of five detainees who were sent to Qatar from the US prison at Guantanamo, Cuba.
Even in the first hours of Bergdahl’s handoff to US special forces in eastern Afghanistan, it was clear this would not be an uncomplicated yellow-ribbon celebration.
What? After the glowing articles I read the last two days?
Five terrorist suspects also walked free, stirring a debate over whether the exchange would heighten the risk of other Americans being snatched as bargaining chips and whether the released detainees — several senior Taliban figures among them — would find their way back to the fight.
US officials said Sunday that Bergdahl’s health and safety appeared in jeopardy, prompting rapid action. ‘‘Had we waited and lost him,’’ said national security adviser Susan Rice, ‘‘I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.’’ She said he had lost considerable weight and faced an ‘‘acute’’ situation. Yet she also said he appeared to be ‘‘in good physical condition.’’
One official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the subject by name, said there were concerns about Bergdahl’s mental and emotional condition as well as physical health.
On Monday, a US military hospital in Germany reported Bergdahl in ‘‘stable condition and receiving treatment for conditions requiring hospitalization.’’
The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center said Bergdahl’s treatment ‘‘includes attention to dietary and nutrition needs after almost five years in captivity’’ but declined to release further details. It said no timetable has been established for the care of the 28-year-old soldier.
Two officials said Monday the Taliban may have been concerned about his health, as well, since the United States had sent the message it would respond harshly if any harm came to him in captivity.
Republicans in the United States said the deal for Bergdahl’s release could set a troubling precedent. Senator John McCain of Arizona, a POW during the Vietnam War, said of the Guantanamo detainees who were exchanged for Bergdahl: ‘‘These are the hardest of the hard core.’’
That's what Rumsfeld said, and it turned out to be a lie.
And in Kabul Monday, the Afghan Foreign Ministry called the swap ‘‘against the norms of international law’’ if it came against the five imprisoned Taliban detainees’ will. The ministry said: ‘‘No state can transfer another country’s citizen to a third country and put restriction on their freedom.’’
The five detainees left Guantanamo aboard a US military aircraft flying to Qatar, which served as a go-between in the negotiations.
They are to be banned from leaving Qatar for at least a year. Among the five: a Taliban deputy intelligence minister, a former Taliban interior minister with ties to the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and a figure linked by human rights monitors to mass killings of Shi’ite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001.
Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters ‘‘will be dealt with later,’’ Hagel said.
After they have had a chance to manipulate this guy's mind a sweep it under the rug.
But the former Pentagon official said it was ‘‘incontrovertible’’ that he walked away from his unit.
The military investigation was broader than a criminal inquiry, this official said, and it did not formally accuse Bergdahl of desertion. In interviews, members of his unit portrayed him as a naive, ‘‘delusional’’ person who thought he could help the Afghan people by leaving his post, the official said.
US military and intelligence agencies had made every effort to monitor Bergdahl’s location and his health, the official said.
Not what I was told at the beginning of this piece.
Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served as an officer in Bergdahl’s unit, said in an article Monday on the Daily Beast website that Bergdahl was not on patrol, as some reports have suggested.
‘‘There was no patrol that night,’’ he wrote. ‘‘Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon — including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.’’
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Related:
[Obama is turning loose 5 of the top Taliban leaders and some of the most bestial killers of Shia. According to the following, Berghdahl may have surrendered to the Taliban in the first place (SEE: Is Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a hero or a deserter?).] -- Obama Returns 5 Top Taliban To Afghanistan, for One Potential Deserter
Also see: Horse's Mouth
Here is what came out the other end:
"Administration defends prisoner swap with Taliban" by Brian Knowlton | New York Times June 02, 2014
WASHINGTON — Top Obama administration officials pushed back Sunday against Republican criticism that a deal freeing the last American held prisoner in Afghanistan could allow dangerous Taliban leaders to return to the fight, might encourage terrorist groups to seize American hostages and possibly violated a law requiring notification of Congress.
Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser, spoke a day after years of fitful negotiations had finally yielded the release in Afghanistan of the prisoner, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. The deal, brokered with Qatari help, also freed five high-level Taliban members from the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The release of the Taliban officials was sharply assailed by Republicans, including Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, as a dangerous transgression of long-standing policy against negotiating with terror groups.
“If you negotiate here, you’ve sent a message to every Al Qaeda group in the world — by the way, some who are holding US hostages today — that there is some value now in that hostage in a way that they didn’t have before,” Rogers said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added, “That is dangerous.”
But Rice said: “Sergeant Bergdahl wasn’t simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield. We have a sacred obligation that we have upheld since the founding of our republic to do our utmost to bring back our men and women who are taken in battle, and we did that in this instance.” She was speaking on ABC’s “This Week.”
I'm glad I no longer watch those programs.
Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for six years, welcomed the return of Bergdahl, who had spent five years in Taliban hands.
But McCain said he had serious concerns about the release of the five Taliban detainees, calling them “the hardest of the hard core.”
He added, “It is disturbing that these individuals would have the ability to reenter the fight, and they are big, high-level people, possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands” of Shi’ite Muslims in Afghanistan.
Rice, appearing separately on CNN, noted that President Obama had received “very specific assurances” regarding the handling of the freed detainees when he spoke by phone Tuesday with the emir of Qatar. That country is taking in the five.
“They enable us to have confidence that these prisoners will be carefully watched and their ability to move will be constrained, and we believe that this is in the national security interest of the United States,” she said.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said while visiting troops in Afghanistan on Sunday said he would not have agreed to the detainees’ release unless suitable security arrangements were in place.
Asked whether the sergeant, who by some reports was captured after leaving his base without authorization, might be subject to military discipline, Hagel replied, “This is a guy who probably went through hell for the last five years,” according to NBC News.
Republican lawmakers also questioned the failure of the administration to give Congress the required notice of releases from Guantanamo.
Rice said the administration had felt compelled to move swiftly because Bergdahl’s health seemed at risk and the opportunity to retrieve him possibly fleeting.
“We had reason to be concerned that this was an urgent and acute situation,” she said on ABC, adding that “had we waited and lost him, I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.”
The remaining 149 prisoners at Guantanamo fall into several categories. Nearly 80 have been approved for transfer to their homelands or a third country. Those moves have gradually resumed after coming to a halt because of security restrictions imposed by Congress that were eased somewhat last year.
The fear that freed Guantanamo detainees could help the Taliban resume hostilities against the United States prompted Congress to impose the restrictions on the transfer of prisoners out of the detention center.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Little evidence to tie Bergdahl search to US deaths" New York Times June 04, 2014
WASHINGTON — As the White House argued on Tuesday that the “unique circumstances” to return Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl gave President Obama the authority to lawfully bypass a federal statute, questions continued to arise about whether the search for Bergdahl cost the lives of US soldiers.
This public relations piece of propaganda is already backfiring.
A number of the men who served with him have called him a deserter. Some have gone further, blaming him for the deaths of six to eight soldiers.
That second claim is hardening into a news media narrative, including on CNN, which has reported as fact that “at least six soldiers died” looking for Bergdahl after senior US military officials say he wandered off his base. The Daily Beast published an essay by a former member of Bergdahl’s battalion, Nathan Bradley Bethea, who linked the search to the deaths of eight soldiers whom he named. “He has finally returned,” Bethea wrote. “Those men will never have the opportunity.” But a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths are far murkier than definitive — even as critics of Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika province in the four months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault.
What we have here is a damage control cover up by the New York Times! The term "murky" gives it up.
And what this article shows you is the New York Times is definitely on the defensive and dying. They are now responding to charges first outed on blogs!
All across Afghanistan, that period was a time of ferocious fighting. Obama had decided to send a surge of additional troops to improve security, but they had not yet arrived. In Paktika, the eight deaths during that period were up from five in the same three months the previous year.
In addition, a senior insurgent commander known as Mullah Sangeen, who was part of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network, had been carrying out attacks in the area for several years.
Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha
It really just is not that funny anymore.
Two soldiers died during the most intense period of the search after Bergdahl’s June 30 disappearance. Both were inside an outpost that came under attack, not out patrolling and running checkpoints looking for him. The other six soldiers died in late August and early September.
Where those incidents are identifiable in the logs, they do not mention any link to Bergdahl search operations, although the logs are terse and contain few contextual details.
I'm so glad the U.S. military keeps such shoddy record keeping.
Related: $600 billion squandered in Afghanistan
Globe didn't report that.
WTF?!!!????!!!!!!!!
A retired senior US military officer, who was briefed at the time on the search for Bergdahl, said that even though soldiers were instructed to watch for signs of the missing American, they would have been conducting patrols and performing risky operations anyway.
“Look, it’s not like these soldiers would have been sitting around their base,” he said.
The level they are going to cover up this guy's treason is astounding!
On Tuesday, the White House said that Obama had the authority to bypass the statute requiring the Pentagon to notify Congress a month before he transferred the five Taliban detainees necessary to complete the deal.
Beyond the complete lie and fabrication all this is based on, that is an impeachable offense. This attempt to get the public's mind off the murderous VA scandal to show how much Obummer cares about veterans backfired big time!
The IRS is one thing, Libya another, those investigations aimed at scoring political points; this, in the context of the conventional narrative, is MUCH WORSE! Obama RELEASED TERRORISTS for a DESERTER so he could SHIFT ATTENTION AWAY from the MUSHROOMING VA SCANDAL, and it was ILLEGAL!!
But the White House was forced by turns to defend its decision not to notify Congress and send important aides to Obama to try to apologize to angry lawmakers who said they were left out of the decision.
Yeah, they don't like that. They don't care about criminality; they just want to know about it.
And remember from above, they REALLY DIDN'T MAKE SEARCHING FOR HIM A TOP PRIORITY ALL THESE YEARS before making this deal right quick! This is SUCH an OBVIOUS PIECE of PROPAGANDA it is SAD!
A timeline of the negotiations with the Taliban, provided by the White House, made clear that it knew an imminent transfer was possible by mid-May, roughly two weeks before it took place. And officials familiar with the sequence of events said it was a desire to keep the talks secret for fear that it would scuttle the negotiations — and perhaps a reluctance to reengage with Democratic and Republican members of Congress who were critical of the proposed swap in 2011 and early 2012 — that motivated the White House decision.
Arriving in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday on the first leg of a four-day European trip, Obama also found himself on the defensive over whether Bergdahl deserved special efforts to bring him home. “The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is, we don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind,” he said.
Except WE DO!! This government DID IT in VIETNAM!
What a DELUDED ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The White House’s problem has its roots in a federal statute that requires the secretary of defense, before transferring a detainee from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to notify Congress 30 days beforehand. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel provided that notice only as the transfer was already taking place.
Republican lawmakers have accused Obama of violating that law.
Meaning he is a LAW-BREAKER, isn't he?
That means he SHOULD BE IMPEACHED!
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Also see: Questions about Bergdahl release should be addressed at hearing
Yeah, it's all good even with the questions. Pfft!
UPDATE:
My printed pos carried this:
"Obama defends decision to trade 5 Guantanamo detainees for Bergdahl" by ZACHARY A. GOLDFARB and ED O’KEEFE, Washington Post, June 4, 2014
Amid mounting congressional criticism about the operation, senior military leaders also responded to criticism within the ranks toward Bergdahl, who walked off his base and away from his unit five years ago after becoming disillusioned with the war effort. In statements, both the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Army Secretary John McHugh appeared to leave open the possibility that the young soldier could face a reprimand of some kind....
Oh, how brutal! A reprimand for deserting and abandoning this nation. Should be put to death!
Nothing, I repeat, nothing must stand in the way of the illusion and imagery of administration public relations. They lied about Pat Tillman; lying about this puke is nothing to propagandists.
Obama also refused to rule out that Bergdahl could face punishment for, as some allege, abandoning his unit in Afghanistan. But he said that question is not the priority as Bergdahl recovers from captivity.
“We obviously have not been interrogating Sgt. Bergdahl,” Obama said. “He’s going to have to undergo a significant transition back into life. He has not even met with his family yet.”
Yeah, sure you haven't! His father is a Taliban sympathizer and this guy Bergdahl willing joined them! All being spun and distorted for public relations purposes so the administration can say they care about veterans after having neglected them so long here at home -- to the point of death!
Obama added that regardless of the circumstances of his capture, “we still get back an American soldier if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop.”
Obama framed the war decisions he faced as the natural sorts of choices that come with the end of the war.
That's the problem with our leaders: war is a "natural" thing.
“It’s what happened to George Washington. It’s what happened to Lincoln. It’s what happened to FDR,” he said.
Not only is the guy arrogant, he's delusional insane!! He's putting himself up there with those big three!
Bergdahl, 28, is believed to have slipped away from his platoon’s small outpost in Afghanistan’s Paktika province June 30, 2009. He was captured shortly afterward by enemy forces and held captive in Pakistan by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban. Some U.S. troops resented risking their lives in the weeks that followed to search for someone they considered a deserter....
The outlines of the proposed Bergdahl swap had been public since the spring of 2012. Obama administration officials first discussed with senior House Republicans the possibility of swapping five detainees from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for the release of Bergdahl in late November 2011, according to senior GOP aides.
Still, House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday in a statement that the administration “has invited serious questions into how this exchange went down and the calculations the White House and relevant agencies made in moving forward without consulting Congress despite assurance it would reengage with members on both sides of the aisle.”
Meaning they were worried about leaks!
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