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Bowe Bergdahl freed by Taliban after five years of captivity
- Thread starter Marcus
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Incredibly bizarre. Any chance that Bergdahl was a double agent?
It just doesn't make any sense to give up five prisoners for one solider, a guy who has a questionable at best past, to break precedent when they had many other opportunities to do so. They could have a much better fluff piece than picking Bergdahl.
We may never know the real story behind this, but I refuse to believe that the guy who runs the most advanced military and espionage service in the world would make such a catastrophic blunder. There are many ways they could divert attention from the VA scandal than this seemingly world class blunder.
Very...odd.
It just doesn't make any sense to give up five prisoners for one solider, a guy who has a questionable at best past, to break precedent when they had many other opportunities to do so. They could have a much better fluff piece than picking Bergdahl.
We may never know the real story behind this, but I refuse to believe that the guy who runs the most advanced military and espionage service in the world would make such a catastrophic blunder. There are many ways they could divert attention from the VA scandal than this seemingly world class blunder.
Very...odd.
AZ_
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I want to learn more about the guys they let go. Not who they were, but who they are now after a decade or so in Gitmo.
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AZ_
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I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking the same.
It's almost naive not to believe it's possible.
Personally, I just want oasis to get involved here.
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Not sure what that means in non-PR terms, but I'll just say it's obvious as hell that they misjudged the degree of blowback.
If they anticipated this, they wouldn't have gone to such pains to have the President himself so visibly linked to the decision by having him host a soiree in the Rose Garden with the press. They'd have delegated some State Department spokesman to make the announcement and pretend it was no big deal. And likely denied that there was any quid pro quo at all.
They wouldn't have had Hagel also make a photo op out of his announcement to troops in Afghanistan of what had been done. The reaction of the troops was to just sit there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/w...hl-release-in-surprise-afghan-visit.html?_r=0
And, they would have had Susan Rice much better prepared so she didn't say that Bergdahl served with "distinction and honor", a characterization that practically invites negative comment about the circumstances of his capture.
In any case, the answer to "why would they do this" is already out there. Hagel himself has already spilled the beans. Apparently, the Administration believes that releasing those 5 prisoners will foster better relations with the Taliban and make peace easier to achieve. Seriously.
In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" from Bagram, Hagel said the prisoner trade could provide a window of opportunity for peace in Afghanistan. "So maybe this will be a new opening that can produce an agreement," he said, noting that the United States had engaged in talks with the Taliban in the past....
http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-unannou...lYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTM5OF8x
In other fun, news Bergdahl was pronounced to be in "good condition". Amazing recovery from the apparently dire straits he was in health-wise (according to Hagel) that demanded immediate action and no Congressional notification.
http://news.yahoo.com/released-us-s...nM2hxBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTM5OF8x
Damage
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Amazing indeed. In fact, Harry Reid attached a note to Nancy Pelosi's dildo which stated Bergdahl is 100% ready to start his Target sporting goods department clerk position by the end of the fucking week.
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With the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance no longer in any substantial doubt, the remaining outrage has focused on the Obama administration's decision to trade five high-value Taliban terror detainees for him – several years after the Pentagon decided he wasn't worth recovering.
Yet it appears the administration believed it would win a PR victory big enough to eclipse any legalistic hand-wringing on Capitol Hill, and whatever objections might surface among the military rank-and-file.
A White House official told MailOnline on Monday morning that Obama's deputies were caught flatfooted by the intensity of public outrage in some quarters after Bergdahl's rescue by Special Forces.
'Everyone thought this would be a January 1981 moment,' the insider said, referring to the negotiated release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran after 444 days in captivity.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ms-lead-Obamas-IMPEACHMENT.html#ixzz33ZvmasoF
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
AZ_
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It isn't?
I mean honestly, I'll we've seen to this point is speculation and second hand accounts on what people thought of him.
Rest of the post is well taken, but...This seemed pretty matter of fact.
Of course, it's an article about potential Obama impeachment from another wildly unobjective source, so I guess I should take that into account.
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I think they believed they could control the narrative, and that's the reason they didn't tell Congress ahead of time. According to the Rolling Stone article, troops were required to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding the search for Bergdahl, etc.. Maybe they figured the troops wouldn't talk about it. Fat fucking chance right there for anyone who's had much contact with troops.
I've gotten some e-mails from friends who are just seething over this. One is a former, recently-retired DSS agent who has nabbed a couple of bad guys, and he's livid. Another from a guy whose brother is extremely high up in the Spec. Ops community, and a few others. It's not pretty.