I figure this will end up in the political section, but I'll post here so more people see it.

The US just released 5 members of the Taliban from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for this soldier. Something interesting is that a lot of people think this soldier was joining the Taliban. He apparently stopped showering, was learning the language, had a premeditated desertion plan, etc. I guess he left the base with members of the Afghan military while on post (24hr duty). Something that's fucked is apparently Congress was never given any notice, let alone the 30 days required by law, so it was illegal. Something that's even more fucked up is that the Taliban members we traded we the TOP 5 highest rated members we had captured... Not really sure what to think of this situation. On first look, it appears Obama was going for a positive PR stunt and we really got fucked over in the trade.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27651690

Thanks, Obama.

This will definitely get sent to the politics forum. That said, guys is a scum bag, and we just sent 5 bad dudes back to the Middle East. Obama is a complete failure.

Yea this is pretty bad. So we break the whole "we don't negotiate with terrorists" for a guy who didn't even get captured? Seems pretty shady...

SMH

Complete total failure in the White House.

not my president

Don't worry, this story will be swept under the rug by our media as well.

This has a Jack Bauer-esque feel to it. Even BHO ain't as fuckin dumb as this looks to be on the surface. Oh wait...I forgot about Benghazi...yeah this will bite us in the ass big time at some point.

I'm in kauai, has the media given any heat to Obama today? I'm not really an Obama hater, I think they're all crooks..but this seems like a huge huge fucking mistake that he did on his own going over congress' head.. not cool. Then is it true he had the dad at the White house and the fucker praised allah?? After he all the twitter shit with this dude praising American troops being slaughtered??? Wtf

I don't like what Obama did and I feel that this puts the troops that are there in even more danger.

Frankly this guy needs to answer a lot of questions as to why he supposedly went AWOL. Too many differing reports on what actually happened.

This is like Homeland all over again.

Midstate01;1621728 wrote:Then is it true he had the dad at the White house and the fucker praised allah?? After he all the twitter shit with this dude praising American troops being slaughtered??? Wtf

At the end of the brief appearance, Robert Bergdahl delivered a message to his son, in Arabic. His son's English, Bergdahl explained, had suffered in captivity.
"Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim," Robert Bergdahl began. That's a common Arabic phrase meaning, "In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate."

After a few more words in Pashto, Robert Bergdahl closed by saying, "I'm your father, Bowe."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/01/317845670/hagel-u-s-had-to-move-quick-on-pow-because-life-was-in-danger


I don't know about your twitter thing about praising slaughtered troops.....Robert Bergdahl was criticized for this tweet response to the Taliban's Ambassador of Afghanistan or some shit:



He tweeted something similar about Tunisians being held there so my guess is he's a "shut Gitmo down" kind of guy (and that's an entirely different issue)

I would like to think the military will investigate the desertion claims but am doubtful that will happen.

We've known for 2 years that there was probably going to be a trade for this guy and now people are all upset when it happens (btw, the Michael Hastings article on this is fantastic if you have some time). Supposedly Bergdahl was in declining health (hence why congress didn't get their 30 day notice) so something had to be done fast. I think from and administrative standpoint it would have been better to get this guy back and then general court martial him than let him die while in captivity because having 5 of their goat fuckers is waay more important than 1 serviceman's life.

Still waiting on Obama to trade 5 illegals for the Marine imprisoned in Mexico.

Mohican00;1621738 wrote:At the end of the brief appearance, Robert Bergdahl delivered a message to his son, in Arabic. His son's English, Bergdahl explained, had suffered in captivity.
"Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim," Robert Bergdahl began. That's a common Arabic phrase meaning, "In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate."

After a few more words in Pashto, Robert Bergdahl closed by saying, "I'm your father, Bowe."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/01/317845670/hagel-u-s-had-to-move-quick-on-pow-because-life-was-in-danger


I don't know about your twitter thing about praising slaughtered troops.....Robert Bergdahl was criticized for this tweet response to the Taliban's Ambassador of Afghanistan or some shit:



He tweeted something similar about Tunisians being held there so my guess is he's a "shut Gitmo down" kind of guy (and that's an entirely different issue)

I would like to think the military will investigate the desertion claims but am doubtful that will happen.

We've known for 2 years that there was probably going to be a trade for this guy and now people are all upset when it happens (btw, the Michael Hastings article on this is fantastic if you have some time). Supposedly Bergdahl was in declining health (hence why congress didn't get their 30 day notice) so something had to be done fast. I think from and administrative standpoint it would have been better to get this guy back and then general court martial him than let him die while in captivity because having 5 of their goat fuckers is waay more important than 1 serviceman's life.

We don't negotiate with terrorists, but we give them 5 high rankings Taliban officials this time...why?

SportsAndLady;1621756 wrote:We don't negotiate with terrorists, but we give them 5 high rankings Taliban officials this time...why?

That's made up movie shit. We negotiate with all sorts of people.

I Wear Pants;1621757 wrote:That's made up movie shit. We negotiate with all sorts of people.

So it's common to release prisoners in g-bay for us troops held hostage?

I Wear Pants;1621757 wrote:That's made up movie shit. We negotiate with all sorts of people.

Most people that bring that up live in a made up world.

TedSheckler;1621739 wrote:Still waiting on Obama to trade 5 illegals for the Marine imprisoned in Mexico.

That won't happen. He's a former Marine and he crossed the boarder with a bunch of weapons. Kinda hard to cross the boarder down here without a million warnings.

SportsAndLady;1621760 wrote:So it's common to release prisoners in g-bay for us troops held hostage?

I didn't say that. It's likely rare. But I honestly don't see the issue in releasing them to get soldiers back. Hell we need to do something with them unless you think it's morally acceptable to just keep them there forever which isn't how POWs are usually treated. And if they aren't POWs then what the hell are they and why do we have them?

Anyway, there's lots of instances of us negotiating and dealing with less than savory people to advance our own interests. Not only do we negotiate with these sorts but it would be stupid not to.

I Wear Pants;1621767 wrote:I didn't say that. It's likely rare. But I honestly don't see the issue in releasing them to get soldiers back. Hell we need to do something with them unless you think it's morally acceptable to just keep them there forever which isn't how POWs are usually treated. And if they aren't POWs then what the hell are they and why do we have them?

Anyway, there's lots of instances of us negotiating and dealing with less than savory people to advance our own interests. Not only do we negotiate with these sorts but it would be stupid not to.

Do you have a specific example so that I can take your word for it? And in this examples would the president be asking for congress' approval or was that bypassed?

Is his name Brody and has he been living with Abu Nazir?

SportsAndLady;1621772 wrote:Do you have a specific example so that I can take your word for it? And in this examples would the president be asking for congress' approval or was that bypassed?

• After the North Koreans captured the U.S.S. Pueblo in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson apologized for spying as part of negotiations to secure the release of 83 American prisoners.
• In 1970, President Richard Nixon pressured Israel, Switzerland, West Germany and Britain to release Palestinian prisoners after two airlines were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• During the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, President Jimmy Carter agreed to unfreeze $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets after more than a year of negotiations with the Iranian revolutionaries.
• In perhaps the most famous swap, after seven Americans were captured in Beirut, Lebanon, President Ronald Reagan agreed to send missiles to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
• President Bill Clinton’s administration sat down with Hamas in attempts to negotiate peace with Israel. His administration also worked directly with the Taliban nearly two decades ago on several occasions to see if the group would hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

Reiss also noted that President George W. Bush engaged in negotiations with Iran and North Korea even after decreeing them part of the "Axis of Evil."
James Jeffrey, a former ambassador to Iraq under Obama and deputy national security adviser for George W. Bush, agreed that "there have been many cases of negotiations with terrorists or rogue regimes for the return of Americans."


But he added: "releasing terrorists in exchange for captives, however, is rare."


One recent example came in 2010, when the United States released Shia cleric Qais al-Khazali to the militia group Asaib al-Haq in exchange for Peter Moore, a private British contractor, and the bodies of Moore’s security officers. Asaib al-Haq is a militia group allegedly funded by Iran and headed by al-Khazali and staged and executed several attacks in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of U.S. soldiers.


Taken from Politifact.

I Wear Pants;1621778 wrote:

• After the North Koreans captured the U.S.S. Pueblo in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson apologized for spying as part of negotiations to secure the release of 83 American prisoners.
• In 1970, President Richard Nixon pressured Israel, Switzerland, West Germany and Britain to release Palestinian prisoners after two airlines were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• During the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, President Jimmy Carter agreed to unfreeze $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets after more than a year of negotiations with the Iranian revolutionaries.
• In perhaps the most famous swap, after seven Americans were captured in Beirut, Lebanon, President Ronald Reagan agreed to send missiles to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
• President Bill Clinton’s administration sat down with Hamas in attempts to negotiate peace with Israel. His administration also worked directly with the Taliban nearly two decades ago on several occasions to see if the group would hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

Reiss also noted that President George W. Bush engaged in negotiations with Iran and North Korea even after decreeing them part of the "Axis of Evil."
James Jeffrey, a former ambassador to Iraq under Obama and deputy national security adviser for George W. Bush, agreed that "there have been many cases of negotiations with terrorists or rogue regimes for the return of Americans."


But he added: "releasing terrorists in exchange for captives, however, is rare."


One recent example came in 2010, when the United States released Shia cleric Qais al-Khazali to the militia group Asaib al-Haq in exchange for Peter Moore, a private British contractor, and the bodies of Moore’s security officers. Asaib al-Haq is a militia group allegedly funded by Iran and headed by al-Khazali and staged and executed several attacks in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of U.S. soldiers.


Taken from Politifact.

Were these done without congress approval?

I'm happy that a family gets to be reunited. Other than that, this kinda blows.

Obama broke the law in this deal. He bypassed Congress yet again. Congress was supposed to be notified of any Gitmo transfers with at least a 30-day notice.

like_that;1621783 wrote:Were these done without congress approval?

I have no idea. I wasn't commenting on the congressional approval part but on the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" thing.