Posted on 05/31/2014 2:48:30 PM PDT by jazusamo
Top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committee criticized President Obama on Saturday for negotiating with the Taliban in releasing five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
"Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Berghdal's release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans," said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the Senate Armed Services ranking member and House Armed Services chairman, respectively, in a joint statement.
A senior White House official said the U.S. transferred five Afghan Guantanamo detainees to Qatar as part of a "broader reconciliation framework" was part of "successful indirect talks with the Taliban's political commission." "The five detainees transferred are in the custody and of Qatar and will be subject to restrictions on their movement and activities," the senior official said.
"As the Administration has repeatedly affirmed, we will not transfer any detainee from Guantanamo unless the threat the detainee may pose to the United States can be sufficiently mitigated and only when consistent with our humane treatment policy," the official said.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement that he was "eager to learn what precise steps are being taken to ensure that these vicious and violent Taliban extremists" do not return in fighting against the U.S. or its allies.
"These particular individuals are hardened terrorists who have the blood of Americans and countless Afghans on their hands," McCain said
Earlier Saturday, White House officials announced that the Taliban released Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for nearly five years. Then came multiple reports that U.S. officials released five Taliban members from Guantanamo Bay. Those members are: Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari, according to multiple reports.
According to CNN: Khairkhwa was believed to be "directly associated" with Osama Bin Laden, as well as a "drug lord" and a friend of former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai; Fazi, Normi and Wasiq were top Taliban military officials, while Omari is the Taliban's former chief of communications.
Inhofe and McKeon said that Obama "clearly violated laws which require him to notify Congress thirty days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay."
"Our joy at Sergeant Berghdal's release is tempered by the fact that President Obama chose to ignore the law -- not to mention sound policy -- to achieve it," they said in their statement.
Inhofe and McKeon also said that Taliban terrorists will now have a "strong incentive to capture Americans," arguing that Obama's actions set a precedent where terrorists will think the administration will trade prisoners to release others.
This story was updated at 5:14 p.m.
Step One: Find out where Boehner has passed out today.
Step Two: Sober him up.
Step Three: Convince him he needs to actually do his job.
If the resident buffoon, Clown Prince had friends, this is what they’d look like.
We’ll never know how many Americans those terrorists are directly responsible for murdering nor how many more. Hanging would have been too good for them.
And how many soldiers were killed searching for Bergdahl, too? His outpost was attacked a day or so after he went AWOL.
Attack on U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan kills two soldiers
U.S. military officials say ‘several’ U.S. soldiers also were wounded in the assault on the remote outpost in Paktika province. It’s the same area where an American soldier disappeared on Tuesday.
July 05, 2009|M. Karim Faiez and Laura King
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/05/world/fg-afghanistan5
Hope the injected nanotracking devices work.
Amen
Dear Congress. FU. For once, Obama has done the right thing. Welcome home, soldier.
My thoughts exactly...
The only reason we are there is to protect the opium trade.
The Taliban actually want to destroy the poppy fields and stop the cultivation of opium.
Rolling Stone magazine quoted emails Bergdahl is said to have sent to his parents that suggest he was disillusioned with Americas mission in Afghanistan, had lost faith in the U.S. Armys mission there and was considering desertion.
Bergdahl told his parents he was “ashamed to even be American.” Bergdahl, who mailed home boxes containing his uniform and books, also wrote: “The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong.”
Bergdahls family has not commented on the allegations of desertion, according to Col. Tim Marsano, a spokesman for the Idaho National Guard.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/03/03/3212011/will-bergdahl-be-left-behind.html
They should have injected them with the ebola virus.
I don’t know about Obama doing the right thing but it has at least a partial good result. I do know that getting in a fight with him over it will only harm the GOP.
Better to warn him to go through proper channels in the future and welcome the soldier home.
Exactamundo. Here's what the 77th Congress did when America was attacked: "...the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."
The Congress cravenly cooperated with Bush's phony war, as predicted by myself here on FR on September 13, 2001, instead of making actual war on our enemies. As such, they share the shame of our defeat along with Bush and "Obama", whose election resulted in no small measure from Congress's cowardice and Bush's ridiculous fantasies about Islam.
Once a Muslim, always a Muslim. Obummer was raised by Muslim fathers, biological (?) and step father were both Muslims.
“”Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Berghdal’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans,”
That’s what hussein is counting on. He’ll be able to pass out even more candies when these pieces of pig poop kill more of our soldiers.
The new starting rotation for the Boston Red Sox?
We better get used to it until we learn to fight wars to win again.
whatever happened to we do not negotiate with terrorists? Although I know Israel does and I respect the Jewish intellect.
Every single republican ignored the law when Obama was illegally installed in office.
What price did America pay, to release Senator McCain from captivity?
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