Free Republic

Ron Paul, House representative of the 14th district of Texas, believes that US foreign policy must be reformed to avoid conflicts around the world. The interview was conducted outside the Foreign Relations Committee. Press TV: What is your opinion on the idea of the US blocking Iran's oil exports and preventing its gasoline imports from reaching the country (based on H. Con. Res. 362 previously sought by US congressmen)? Paul: I think it is an outrage I think it is a blockade. It is the use of force to stop the inflow of petroleum products and people and goods,...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered an aircraft carrier — the USS George H.W. Bush — to move from the northern Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf as President Barack Obama considers possible military options for Iraq.</p>

Bowe Bergdahl: a Prisoner of WAR, a deserter taken hostage by the Taliban or an enemy combatant? If it isn't the first of the three rather the second, why then are all cable news outlets describing this as a prisoner swap? Why aren't they calling this an enemy combatant ( Taliban 5)/deserter or a EC/deserter swap? If Bowe Bergdahl deserted, then would he have then as well forsake the military, and thus his uniform? Would Bowe Bergdahl then be an enemy combatant?

The last question asked at Monday night's closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban's lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl? According to Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, the Obama administration's briefers told he gathered House members that the person responsible for the decision to make the deal was not President Obama but Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense. "Now wait a minute, are you...

Susan Rice, United States National Security Advisor under the Obama administration, said that Bowe Bergdahl 'served the United States with honor and distinction.' Sounds like praise to me. But Chuck Hagel, who said very recently that Americans should not pre-judge Bowe Bergdahl, seems to take one line with - I guess "regular" Americans - and another with Susan Rice. Hmmm... Should Hagel and Rice both say that Bowe Bergdahl should be neither judged nor praised until all the facts are in? Funny how some WH aides can accuse Bergdahl's fellow soldiers of 'swift boating,' but won't tell people to not...

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with members of the special operations team who participated in the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in Afghanistan, Sunday. He also spoke before a large group of US troops in a Bagram Air Field hangar, and when he announced the "happy" news about Bergdahl, he was met with complete silence. "This is a happy day. We got one of our own back," Hagel said cheerfully. *Crickets*

I mean, we shouldn't have a "rush to judgment" and pre-praise him...right? Hailey, Idaho Mayor, Fritz Haemmerle released a written statement Monday urging people not to judge Bowe Bergdahl until all the facts are in, given that there are opposing sides to this issue. Does that also mean that since there are opposing sides that Bergdahl shouldn't be pre-praised either until all the facts are in? But how can all of the facts come in if Obama is going to hamper an investigation from occuring?

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan—There is excitement and enthusiasm among the senior leadership of the military now that Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. soldier held as a prisoner of war, is on his way home. But among rank-and-file troops at Bagram Air Field on Sunday, there was much more ambivalence. SNIP Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived for a two-hour stop at Bagram and met briefly with some of the elite special-operations forces who brought back Sgt. Bergdahl from a group of Taliban officials. Speaking before a group of more than 200 troops, Mr. Hagel thanked those "who had something to...

Does the WH believe that all terrorists are equal, it's just some terrorists are more equal or rather worse than others? If the Obama administration is willing to use third parties (such as Qatar) to procure the release of individuals such as Bergdahl, and in the process, undesirables such as the 5 GITMO detainees are released, then the issue isn't the use of third parties, the issue(s) rather are which terrorists will the WH consider for release/swapping? If the WH says that they won't ever swap Al Qaeda for U.S. soldiers because AQ are terrorists (and they are terrorists --...

Yesterday, Jani Bergdahl and Bob Bergdahl, the parents of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, were invited to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington DC. Bob Bergdahl spoke about the release of his son Bowe. Then he praised Allah and Obama hugged him.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sgt. Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. The Daily Caller reported: At the end of brief event, the soldier’s father, Bob Bergdahl, recited the most frequent phrase in the Koran — “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” —which means “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate.” After Bergdahl finished his...

Only hours after appearing at a press conference to give thanks for the freeing of his POW son in exchange for five top Taliban leaders, Bob Bergdahl returned to Twitter to promote a Guardian video in which family members lobby for the release of five Tunisians held at Guantanamo Bay. Earlier, Bergdahl had apparently deleted a tweet reading, “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners.”

1.) If they believe that the Taliban aren't terrorists, then is this behind their reasoning that no negotiations took place with terrorists in the release of Bowe Bergdahl for 5 GITMO detainees? 2.) If they state that there was a third party involved (Qatar) and thus neither side (the WH or the Taliban) spoke directly with each other, then does that constitute their position that no negotiations took place with terrorists? The problem with #1 is that when the WH slammed Karzai over some of his statements concerning joining the Taliban, what could/can the WH say to Karzai now? Breitbart.com...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of the only American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That’s a normal process in getting your prisoners back.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday, with the government of Qatar serving as a go-between. Qatar is taking custody of five...

“Obama Hates America,” reads a comment on The Hill about veterans’ groups slamming a Commander in Chief who is in charge of a 267% increase in military deaths since taking office in 2009. (1) A second comment provides stats which show 1,681 (military) deaths in the 62 months between February 2009 and 2014, an absolutely obscene mortality rate for a “non hot” war. And a third comment sums it all up: “When are you people going to realize that Obama hates the Military?” I learned long ago that when I couldn’t figure out what was going on at the college...

Shame on Chuck Hagel, Barack Obama and Eric Shinseki. While honorably discharged veterans are dying from neglect in Veteran’s Administration hospitals, the Regime response is a sex change for Bradley Manning and new furniture for Veteran’s Administration headquarters. Last week, quisling Chuck Hagel spit in the face of sick and injured veterans throughout the country. In an insult to all of America’s veterans, Hagel has approved sending the traitorous Army Private Bradley Manning, now known as “Chelsea Manning,” to a civilian prison that will see that he gets a sex change operation. Manning was convicted of stealing and distributing classified...

The prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military "continually should be reviewed," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Sunday. Hagel did not indicate whether he believes the policy should be overturned. However, he said "every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it." A transgender individual is someone who has acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or presents themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. A panel convened by a think tank at San Francisco State University...

While much of last week's news was about the smoking gun that linked the White House to the false talking points about the attack in Benghazi, another email that would have shed light on how those talking points came about was nearly completely redacted by the government. The email has as its subject, "SBU/CLOSEHOLD: 0800 SVTS on Movie Protests/Violence." SBU stands for "Sensitive But Unclassified" and SVTS most likely refers to "Secure Video Teleconference System." Ironically, though labeled unclassified, nearly the entirety of the email was redacted before it was given to Judicial Watch. It was written by Eric Pelofsky,...

WASHINGTON — Some legislators are going to battle with the Defense Department over Army uniform regulations they say discriminate against African-American women wearing their hair naturally.The Army issued AR 670-1 changes in a 57-page directive [1] in mid-March addressing male and female grooming standards, fingernails (“males may not wear nail polish”), jewelry, tattoos, and other items for clarification.The male standards focused on strips of hair left on otherwise shaved heads, sideburn length (no lower than the bottom of the ear opening), and how wide a regulation mustache can be (not up into the nose and not past the corners of...

The commander of NATO is insisting that the West do more to protect Ukraine from a possible Russian invasion. But the Obama administration has other plans. Late last month, as the world was still reeling from Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO was warning Congress that Moscow was preparing to make another move. During classified briefings on March 26 and March 27, Gen. Philip Breedlove painted for members of the House Armed Services Committee a bleak picture of Russia’s actions—and warned that the United States was not taking steps it could to help Ukraine better defend...

This is a bad morning. I was greeted by a headline in the New York Times that said Defense Secretary “Chuck Mullet” Hagel was planning to submit a budget to Congress to cut the size of the military to a level not seen since 1940, before the U.S. entered World War II. The article went on to say that the Pentagon realized that this would be an inadequate force for even very small wars and certainly would not allow the U.S. to police the world and keep control of contingencies like a North Korean attack on the South or a...