American POW freed from Taliban

[Another_David]

RE: the video

the interpreter is initially on the far right. guy in the middle does a quick pat of the prisoner as soon as he puts hands on him. guy on left never breaks eye contact and I'm guessing he uses his left hand to shake because his strong hand is holding something important. then the interpreter nervously runs right in front of the guard on the left staring down the enemy--oops

lol, the NYT reporting the Taliban narration as fact! and awww, can we show more understanding of the culture while we're facing the enemy that would beat a woman for showing skin or talking to a man! thanks NYT, everything is so crystal clear from your view in downtown Manhattan

"They were scared" as if war is a cake walk. It takes balls of steel to be what is probably the first to meet the enemy on the battlefield and not be blown up in a suicide entrapment, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Chapman_attack

 

[Boris]

As I mentioned few posts ago this was an ongoing deal, same deal that the administration tried doing in 2011, but was opposed by the so called Secretary of State HR Clinton for the same reason we are arguing today.

I'm sure that they have plenty of irons in the fire, but I feel like they were rushing to get this done.



Also, one of the Fox contributors was saying that these guys were all about money, so strongly suspect some money may have changed hands as well.

 

[Mass-diver]

RE: the video

the interpreter is initially on the far right. guy in the middle does a quick pat of the prisoner as soon as he puts hands on him. guy on left never breaks eye contact and I'm guessing he uses his left hand to shake because his strong hand is holding something important. then the interpreter nervously runs right in front of the guard on the left staring down the enemy--oops

lol, the NYT reporting the Taliban narration as fact! and awww, can we show more understanding of the culture while we're facing the enemy that would beat a woman for showing skin or talking to a man! thanks NYT, everything is so crystal clear from your view in downtown Manhattan

"They were scared" as if war is a cake walk. It takes balls of steel to be what is probably the first to meet the enemy on the battlefield and not be blown up in a suicide entrapment, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Chapman_attack

Yup, risk of a double cross, suicide attack was obviously very high. Those SEALs are incredibly brave. The afgan interpreter is clearly very nervous.

 

[Yota79]

Do you think it's a coincidence that the chief CIA officer in Afghanistan was "accidentally" outed last week or do you think he had a strong opinion on this matter that went against the grain?

 

[June4th]

My guess is 3. This "deal" seems very rushed, like hey, here is an offer you can't refuse, 5 your guys, some cash but you have to exchange now.

Also remember that US/Talibs had limited time to figure out details of the exchange as well, i.e. they did not even had a green flag and had to use white rag.


So another guess ... may be the VA scandal goes deeper, much deeper. Taking Shinseki's resignation and cobbling some crap as a temp solution seems like a quick fix.

Here's a theory, after the Benghazi killings, the local Al-Qaeda affiliates took possession of evidence of the gun running then buy-back snafu, evidence that directly implicates either Clinton or Obama, maybe both. The evidence were passed on to Al Qaeda/Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Afghani Taliban then blackmailed the White House: release five of our guys, or else.

WH: Come on, if we do that without getting anything in return, we'd be like doofus.

Taliban: OK, we can sweeten the deal by giving your traitor back. You'd still look doofus, but all we have are goats. We don't suppose you need those, plus we need their company.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Do you think it's a coincidence that the chief CIA officer in Afghanistan was "accidentally" outed last week or do you think he had a strong opinion on this matter that went against the grain?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...8e80cc-e444-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html

 

[OfficerObie59]

After some long thought on this:

I'm glad we got him back. Deserter or not, he's a ****ing American.

He should be held accountable for whatever deaths his desertion directly caused.

I don't like the fact we gave up five Taliban commanders who can jump back into the fight. At the same time, I don't have a hard on about the precedent set by such a trade.

First, do we really think the Taliban aren't going to try an kill troops now hoping they can capture them? If Taliban want to try and capture our guys now, fine with me. We should be able to kill them that much easier as hey play the game of war at half speed. Second, if terrorists keep hostages instead of killing people, that seems to me like it's generally a net positive. Third, the rarity of taking troop hostages overseas is so rare as to be a nullity. Fourth, we've done prisoner exchanges in nearly every war in our history. The fact we are now fighting non-state actors doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Just my .02.

 

[Mass-diver]

Do you think it's a coincidence that the chief CIA officer in Afghanistan was "accidentally" outed last week or do you think he had a strong opinion on this matter that went against the grain?

It's hard to tell whether this administration is conducting some massive conspiracy, or if it's just incredibly incompetent. I'm not sure which is more frightening.

 

[xtry51]

After some long thought on this:

I'm glad we got him back. Deserter or not, he's a ****ing American.

He should be held accountable for whatever deaths his desertion directly caused.

I don't like the fact we gave up five Taliban commanders who can jump back into the fight. At the same time, I don't have a hard on about the precedent set by such a trade.

First, do we really think the Taliban aren't going to try an kill troops now hoping they can capture them? If Taliban want to try and capture our guys now, fine with me. We should be able to kill them that much easier as hey play the game of war at half speed. Second, if terrorists keep hostages instead of killing people, that seems to me like it's generally a net positive. Third, the rarity of taking troop hostages overseas is so rare as to be a nullity. Fourth, we've done prisoner exchanges in nearly every war in our history. The fact we are now fighting non-state actors doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Just my .02.

I would agree with this if we were pulling troops out of that entire hemisphere, but we're not. Just more intentionally putting young people's lives at risk for zero gain.

 

[BostonVI]

The big question here is why would Obama trade five guys for a guy he knew was a deserter? He's not stupid. He knew this would blow up. So, the direction of questioning should be is this guy in on something else they had to shut him up for? Or is this headline grabber just a diversion for other things happening right now that would otherwise be headline news? Like negative GDP revisions?

Obama is not a moron. He and all of his staff knew about the desertion and knew this is how the news would respond. That leaves about three possibilities:

1) The soldier knows something damaging to the administration. Like Snowden level.
2) The administration needs those five guys back out there wreaking havoc somewhere else and released them to get some dirty work done.
3) Theres some other story worse than this that got buried/ignored by making the trade.

Also knowing that this would blow up, why parade him around like a hero?

Marcus Luttrell has an interesting perspective on this.

“That’s the part that kind of got me off-guard, was the fact that they held him,” Luttrell continued, expressing surprise that Bergdahl was kept alive this long. “They don’t normally do that.”

Given that any information he had was likely already known to his captors, it does pose an interesting question. Why did they keep him alive for so long?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...rell-off-guard-in-bergdahl-prisoner-exchange/

 

[Hoover]

It's hard to tell whether this administration is conducting some massive conspiracy, or if it's just incredibly incompetent. I'm not sure which is more frightening.

A conspiracy takes thinking. Just look at this group, do any in the admin impress you are bright? They are morons to the highest order. If there was one screw up, it could be understood better but where have they succeeded? The economy sucks, healthcare is a mess, foreign policy everywhere is a clusterf$#k, etc. And no, they don't want to implode the country, they certainly want to make us socialists but they want to do that with successfully remaking the economy, hc, etc. Obama has done more to hurt big gov't than anyone on the opposite side could.

It's much easier to ask where the admin has been competent, not if they are incompetent.

 

[Blitz1]

Yup, risk of a double cross, suicide attack was obviously very high. Those SEALs are incredibly brave. The afgan interpreter is clearly very nervous.

This.

 

[Blitz1]

This whole thing stinks.

It's hard to tell whether this administration is conducting some massive conspiracy, or if it's just incredibly incompetent. I'm not sure which is more frightening.

Some think the administration is corrupt and has an agenda to take this Country down from the inside.

 

[GPP]

Can I get in on this?



Yes, in every way.

i think you'd be forced to insult the Marine Corps or the Legion, but then you'd have to be prepared for the double team lol. Plus, I'm pretty sure French and I may fall under the title of professional beer drinkers, so you'd need to be on your game.

 

[Another_David]

A conspiracy takes thinking. Just look at this group, do any in the admin impress you are bright? They are morons to the highest order. If there was one screw up, it could be understood better but where have they succeeded? The economy sucks, healthcare is a mess, foreign policy everywhere is a clusterf$#k, etc. And no, they don't want to implode the country, they certainly want to make us socialists but they want to do that with successfully remaking the economy, hc, etc. Obama has done more to hurt big gov't than anyone on the opposite side could.

It's much easier to ask where the admin has been competent, not if they are incompetent.

I agree. I see this as a purely political SNAFU. Obama TWICE campaigned on promises to end wars, bring troops home and close down gitmo. So he sends 5 gitmos packing and gets the one POW back. Hell, somewhere in his administration is some pencil pusher that wanted to send all the prisoners to Qatar so they could just shut down gitmo already!

from a recent CNN article, http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/us/gitmo-detainees-history/

How many freed detainees have returned to terrorism?

At its peak, Guantanamo Bay had 770 men believed by the U.S. government to be involved in terrorist activity or military attacks.

That number has dwindled significantly. As of last month, the facility had 154 detainees.

A September 2013 report from the director of national intelligence reflected on what happened to the roughly 600 people who left Gitmo between its opening in 2002 and July 2013.

Of those, 100 -- or 16.6% of the released prisoners -- were "confirmed" to have returned "to terrorist activities." Seventeen of those died, while 27 ended up in custody, according to the DNI report.

An additional 70 are "suspected of reengaging," it said.

"Based on trends identified during the past 10 years, we assess that if additional detainees are transferred without conditions ... some will reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities," the report said.

So in all likely hood, Obama would have sent these gitmos back anyway. Only plus side in this whole f'd situation is maybe we'll get to drop a tomahawk on these 5 when they go back to the Stan. That would fit the new Obama model that he didn't mention in the Democratic campaign: it's easier to drone kill people where they live than bring them to a US territory where they have rights. Call it the Osama solution.

 

[drgrant]

I don't know if razors are provided to the TB POWs, but I do know how that culture lives.

A little aside.... when the Taliban captured Viktor Bout's russian pilots (Viktor was flying tons of goodies into trashcanistan and selling it to the Northern Alliance, among others) they ended up coming back with beards, too... it was rather comical (and epic) how they escaped, too.... they tricked the guards into believing they were checking systems on the airplane to keep it flightworthy. One day they they got lucky and most of the guards were out doing the allah snackbar prayer thing, and they beat up the remaining guards, fired up the airplane and flew away.

ETA: Viktor may not have owned the plane but there is substantial evidence he was connected to this somehow.... only so many guys can run guns through the UAE.

-Mike

 

[GPP]

A little aside.... when the Taliban captured Viktor Bout's russian pilots (Viktor was flying tons of goodies into trashcanistan and selling it to the Northern Alliance, among others) they ended up coming back with beards, too... it was rather comical (and epic) how they escaped, too.... they tricked the guards into believing they were checking systems on the airplane to keep it flightworthy. One day they they got lucky and most of the guards were out doing the allah snackbar prayer thing, and they beat up the remaining guards, fired up the airplane and flew away.

ETA: Viktor may not have owned the plane but there is substantial evidence he was connected to this somehow.... only so many guys can run guns through the UAE.

-Mike

Viktor Bout sure had a giant set of brass ones didn't he? I think he armed Massouds guys and then the Northern Alliance as well. His relationship with Bentley Colleges' most infamous alum is quite legendary as well. He had quite the fleet of Antonovs and some other shitty Russian birds.

 

[AngelKing]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/ar...wn-cancels-celebration-amid-furor-5526951.php

Now his hometown is cancelling celebrations.

 

[warwickben]

Any one hear from snackbar

 

[JCV]

ummmmm anyone else watch Homeland?

 

[Mr Weebles]

A Pentagon "source" is now claiming the President turned down several rescue operations proposed by JSOC so he could use the POW transfer as a start to close down Gitmo.

Not sure if I believe it, but if so that's a hell of an accusation.

Anyway, Bergdahl may be an a$$hole, but he's our a$$hole so I'm glad we have him back. If he's suspected of desertion put him on trial.

 

[Boston_Shooter]

If the US Gov was an NFL team they just traded Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Larry Fitzgerald, Ray Rice, and Rob Gronkowski for Norm from room 403.....

- - - Updated - - -

ummmmm anyone else watch Homeland?

Dupe. Page 1 Post #35

 

[Palladin]

This gets better and better

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinio...ky_dems_abandon_president_obama_amid_election

 

[Boris]

Here's a theory, after the Benghazi killings, the local Al-Qaeda affiliates took possession of evidence of the gun running then buy-back snafu, evidence that directly implicates either Clinton or Obama, maybe both. The evidence were passed on to Al Qaeda/Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Afghani Taliban then blackmailed the White House: release five of our guys, or else.

WH: Come on, if we do that without getting anything in return, we'd be like doofus.

Taliban: OK, we can sweeten the deal by giving your traitor back. You'd still look doofus, but all we have are goats. We don't suppose you need those, plus we need their company.

I think that's highly plausible. Also keep in mind that Afga-rapistan produces close to 80% of opiates of the world's supply. How ****ing hard is it to spot a poppy field? With US supposedly controlling the country and having complete air superiority (aside from Talib's few flying carpets with DShK mounts), I think that there is a lot of shit going on involving drugs and guns.


Another thing from the Soviet conflict ... Moscow made a whole lot of deals with various warlords, because effectively these are tribes with no one loyalty or unity (except to goat and boy rape) so in some cases there were sweet deals made with the same warlords who involved in massacres and war crimes. I get that it was a chess game, but nevertheless, some shitty PR moves. I bet things haven't changed now, they never do in this backward country.

 

[cekim]

After some long thought on this:

I'm glad we got him back. Deserter or not, he's a ****ing American.

He should be held accountable for whatever deaths his desertion directly caused.

I disagree - if he did indeed defect/desert, then he gave that up.

It would be one thing if we were talking about someone taken against their will who did bad things. I would agree in that case, bring him back and throw the book (but not by trading terrorists, that is flat out treason - aid and comfort has been given to the enemy and in violation of other separation of powers laws on top of that).

If someone walked into the Soviet Embassy in 1981, he would have rightfully relinquished all claim and sympathy to loyalty for being "An American". I see no difference here so far from the info we have.

 

[Boris]

well, is there a positive confirm on that letter that he left stating he is renouncing his citizenship and goes to join Taliban? If that note exists, that's pretty hard to argue about his motives.

 

[GPP]

I disagree - if he did indeed defect/desert, then he gave that up.

It would be one thing if we were talking about someone taken against their will who did bad things. I would agree in that case, bring him back and throw the book (but not by trading terrorists, that is flat out treason - aid and comfort has been given to the enemy and in violation of other separation of powers laws on top of that).

If someone walked into the Soviet Embassy in 1981, he would have rightfully relinquished all claim and sympathy to loyalty for being "An American". I see no difference here so far from the info we have.

I have zero problem with the U.S. accepting him back into the country, he wants to come back? Fine, come on back and face the music. He's the same as Snowden in my opinion. Trading him for 5 all stars is absolutely disgusting. There is a reason that we didn't go after him as early as 2010, even though it appears we knew his whereabouts. Something's missing. I'm starting to think he may never set foot on US soil again. His return to the US has been delayed for medical reasons, and it's quite clear the sentiment in this country is not in his favor. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he's given the option of moving to the Swat Valley or some shit.

 

[cekim]

well, is there a positive confirm on that letter that he left stating he is renouncing his citizenship and goes to join Taliban? If that note exists, that's pretty hard to argue about his motives.

and again, it vaporizes, "but he's still an American" justification for anything other than letting him enjoy the sun and freedom of Afghanistan for the rest of his days.

 

[drgrant]

I have zero problem with the U.S. accepting him back into the country, he wants to come back? Fine, come on back and face the music. He's the same as Snowden in my opinion.

Except that, what Snowden did, to the best of my knowledge, probably didn't result in other americans getting killed.

-Mike

 

[cekim]

I have zero problem with the U.S. accepting him back into the country, he wants to come back? Fine, come on back and face the music. He's the same as Snowden in my opinion. Trading him for 5 all stars is absolutely disgusting. There is a reason that we didn't go after him as early as 2010, even though it appears we knew his whereabouts. Something's missing. I'm starting to think he may never set foot on US soil again. His return to the US has been delayed for medical reasons, and it's quite clear the sentiment in this country is not in his favor. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he's given the option of moving to the Swat Valley or some shit.

Seriously? You'd lump Snowden in this guy? No one was traded away for him and he's managed to kick-start a conversation we should have had 30 years ago about limiting government power and abuse of technology.

Even if you still think he should be tried for treason, he's nothing like some idiot who walked off a base and likely provided much more practically useful tactical information than Snowden.

Not even in the same ballpark... You would be stretching really hard to find a good life taken in Snowden's actions. This guy has a pile of bodies on him from those who tried to rescue him to anyone hurt or killed from info he divulged.