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A number of plainly sensible arguments have already been raised in opposition to President Obama's exchange of an American military prisoner for assorted Taliban terrorists. Wherever these arguments have centered on the expected creation of additional and possibly new risks to Americans, they have been compelling, even unassailable. Now, however, it should also be pointed out that there are certain vital and sometimes intersecting issues of U.S. law and international law involved in this matter. These specifically jurisprudential issues warrant immediate and informed clarification. First, however, a non-legal reaction. It goes without saying that any reassurances offered by the government...

June 16, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 38 Late in the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, Barack Obama strode confidently to a lectern in the White House Rose Garden flanked by the parents of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who had gone missing from his platoon in the mountains of Afghanistan in June 2009. “This morning I called Bob and Jani Bergdahl and told them that after nearly five years in captivity, their son, Bowe, is coming home,” Obama said. The president thanked service members who “recovered Sergeant Bergdahl and brought him safely out of harm’s way.” Obama also expressed gratitude...

**SNIP** So which federal law had Obama violated? Section 1028 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibits any funds to be used “to transfer any individual detained at Guantanamo to the custody or control of any other foreign country” unless the secretary of defense certifies to Congress, “not later than 30 days before the transfer,” that the receiving country will detain the individual appropriately and “has taken or agreed to take such actions as the Secretary of Defense determines are necessary to ensure that the individual cannot engage or re-engage in any terrorist activity.” As reported by Elizabeth...

Bergdahl Platoon Mates: Obama Administration “Spit in the Face” of Everyone in the Military (Video) Featured Story: Bergdahl Platoon Mates: Obama Administration “Spit in the Face” of Everyone in the Military (Video) Published June 5, 2014 at 9:13 pm - 48 Comments For the First Time Ever Islamic Prayer Will Be Held at Vatican This Weekend Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, June 6, 2014, 1:56 PM vatican Was this really necessary? For the first time on record Islamic prayers will be held at the Vatican this weekend. It is a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between...

Afghan presidential frontrunner escapes bomb attack KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two blasts struck the convoy of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah as it left a campaign event at a wedding hall in the capital Kabul on Friday, killing at least six people but leaving the candidate himself unharmed, the Interior Ministry said. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told CBS News' Mukhtar Ahmad that 22 more people were wounded in the attack, which saw a suicide bomber detonate his explosives followed by a roadside bomb blast. In a televised statement shortly after the attack, Abdullah, the presidential front runner and former Foreign...

The Haqqani Network, the terrorist group that the U.S. command in Afghanistan says is its most formidable enemy — worse than the Taliban or al Qaeda — has operated for a dozen years across the border in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area with little to fear other than sporadic drone strikes. Now, even the drone strikes have stopped for the family-run gang that held Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five years. ... The Haqqani network maintains a safe haven in North Waziristan, Pakistan, across Afghanistan’s southeastern border. The Pakistani Army has consistently refused to launch a military operation in North...

Enough of foreign affairs for one week, here’s some important news: it’s Key lime season again and that means…the giant Key lime pies are finally back in the coolers at Costco. They are monstrously good, if you like a little tart with your sweet – and who doesn’t? Additionally, it's actually good for you; packed with tons of vitamin C that can prevent scurvy, a disease that has recently reemerged, especially around Washington D.C.. The vitamin C is harvested by scraping off the lime’s incredibly thin skin and then reaming the heck out those little berries orbs. I don’t know...

Moves to free detainees from the US military prison in Guantánamo Bay are gathering pace as the administration works to close the notorious jail, a top US official has said. "There are a significant number of transfers in the pipeline at various stages and I think you're going to be seeing substantial progress this year," the senior administration official said. Of the 149 prisoners still remaining in the jail in southern Cuba since the weekend releases, 78 have been approved to be freed without charge. The group, which includes 58 Yemenis and four Afghans, are awaiting transfer out of the...

It is easy to conclude that President Obama’s release of five hardened terrorists from Guantanamo in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was just another sharp stick in the eye of the American people. There have been many. A major campaign contributor was appointed to lead the investigation of the IRS after an Inspector General report showed that IRS employees routinely abuse confidential IRS information for political purposes. The Department of Justice sued states to stop them from requiring a photo ID to vote while the EPA requires a photo ID for anyone wishing to attend Climate Change hearings this summer....

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says Obama may be impeached if the Obama administration “flows prisoners out of Gitmo.” So what happens when Obama flows them straight into Graham’s own state, like the brig at Joint Base Charleston? What will Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) do when Gitmo detainees show up at the brig at Camp Pendleton? President Obama defended the release of five top Taliban terrorists by saying that’s what happens when “wars end.” Never before have we had a president so detached from the realities of the world as we do now, at this moment. The war in Afghanistan is...

The story line is that our government leaves no soldier behind and if this is to be believed, one has to ask, why did we leave behind the team at Benghazi? Is the qualifier that if combat is necessary, we’d leave our folks behind? Can the leftists praising the Bergdahl transaction, in their new found interest in the welfare of our military, explain why this “rescue” was necessary but the guys in Benghazi weren’t worthy? Or is it simply a matter of, “what difference, at this point, does it make”? Incidentally, with this Administration, the outing of the CIA Chief...

Robert Bergdahl said he began growing the beard as soon as he received news of his son’s capture. ...those attempts to understand the Taliban have occasionally shaded into acts and gestures that strike some critics as a little too close for comfort. Just recently, reports surfaced of a tweet deleted from Bob Bergdahl’s Twitter account that directly addressed a Taliban spokesman. “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners,” it read. “God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.”

Time magazine is rushing to President Obama´s side to defend him against the charge that he negotiated with terrorists to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The magazine tells readers that the maxim that America doesn´t negotiate with terrorists is more of a general ideal than a hard-bound policy and cites several other presidents who, the magazine claims, did negotiate with terrorists. Time notes that during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis Jimmy Carter negotiated with the Iranian Mullahs who took over Iran after deposing the Shah. Reagan also negotiated with the Mullahs, Time notes. Of course, in both cases

The five Guantanamo detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for America’s last prisoner of war arrived in Qatar today. As Brian Ross reported on ABC: “The terror group is calling their release a major victory. New video posted this morning on an Afghan news website shows the five former detainees arriving in Qatar with no sign they are under any sort of custody or guard.… They received a hero’s welcome.”

Flashback: A reminder about Bowe Bergdahl’s desertion problem By Michelle Malkin • May 31, 2014 08:51 PM While many people jumped aboard the Bowe Bergdahl bandwagon, I was not one of them. His release today in exchange for five Taliban commanders who had been in custody at Gitmo underscores troubling questions that have persisted since his alleged abduction. Longtime readers will recall questions raised here about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance. Here’s a flashback from my July 20, 2009 blog post:

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...

San Francisco State University (SFSU) spent more than $7,000 to send two of its professors to the Middle East for a series of meetings with two convicted terrorists, according to funding documents obtained from a California Public Records Act. SFSU professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker were awarded the money by the university for a trip to Jordan and the West Bank where they met with two notorious terrorists tied to Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both of which are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department. Abdulhadi, an ethnic studies professors,...

Public Records Inquiry Indicates Professor Lied to University About Middle East Trip 8 Groups Demand Investigation... San Francisco State University (SFSU) Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 from SFSU to fly to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel to meet with members of known terrorist organizations. Abdulhadi was the faculty advisor to the SFSU knife-wielding student investigated by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force. She was also caught on tape glorifying terrorism to SFSU students. “On at least four official University documents signed by several SFSU and CSU administrators, including SFSU President Wong and CSU Chancellor White, Abdulhadi...

GOOGlE TRANSLATE Russian gunmen, who fight in the East of Ukraine on the side of terrorists, leave corpses of their compatriots and cover them with soil in the nearby wood and rubbish tips. The editorial of “Glavnoe” received photographs taken in the suburbs of Slavyansk. On the photo an abandoned corpse of a citizen of Russia, which was covered with soil by militants in woods nearby. According to our source there were two corpses, but one of them was taken away by terrorists, the second was dumped in the woods. Judging from the documents in the pocket of the killed...

Chechens in Donetsk on the side of terrorists pic.twitter.com/nc2YyNezdh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3lKAzS2AVs