CY(fat)A. Dude is working for Hillary now. How does this all play with her secret WH lunch?
Dude, spin much?
https://twitter.com/TVietor08/with_replies
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Does The Obama Administration Know the Difference Between The Taliban and Haqqani Networks?
by DEBRA HEINE 2 Jun 2014
EXCERPT
From CNN’s transcript of the interview:
CROWLEY: Point-blank, did the U.S. negotiate with terrorists in his release?
RICE: Candy, what we did was ensure that, as always, the United States doesn’t leave a man or a woman on the battlefield.
CROWLEY: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
RICE: And in order to do this, it’s very important for folks to understand, if we got into a situation where we said, because of who has captured an American soldier on the battlefield, we will leave that person behind, we would be in a whole new era for the safety of our personnel and for the nature of our commitment to our men and women in uniform.
CROWLEY: Sure.
RICE: So, because it was the Taliban that had him did not mean that we had any less of an obligation to bring him back.
CROWLEY: Right. In fact, it was the Haqqani Network, which is really listed as a terrorist. And this is not a judgment question. It’s just a question. You had to negotiate with terrorists to secure the release of the sergeant.
RICE: We actually negotiated with the government of Qatar, to whom we owe a great debt.
CROWLEY: Well, right.
RICE: But the point is, he was being held by the Taliban. We had the opportunity to bring him back. He’s back safely in the hands of the United States. And that’s a great thing.
CROWLEY: Yes, and I don’t think anyone argues.
I think the question now is — and you point to the kinds of warfare we’re having now — that no longer can it be said that the U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists?
RICE: I wouldn’t put it that way, Candy. I wouldn’t say that at all.
CROWLEY: How would you put it?
RICE: Well, when we are in battles with terrorists and terrorists take an American prisoner, that prisoner still is a U.S. service man or woman. We still have a sacred obligation to bring that person back. We did so, and that’s what’s to be celebrated.
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FLASHBACK:
July 20, 2009
Calling the Taliban’s capture of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl “a real sign of desperation,” Secretary of State Clinton said Monday the U.S. is working non-stop to find the Idaho soldier.
“We are attempting to do everything we can to locate him and free him,” Clinton said in New Dehli.
“I mean, it’s just outrageous. It’s a real sign of desperation and inappropriate criminal behavior on the parts of these terrorist groups, so we are going to do everything we can to get him.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/world/asia/us-afghanistan-pakistan/
Clinton: U.S. would negotiate with Taliban leader
October 27, 2011
Clinton last week disclosed a meeting this past summer between the United States and a representative of the Pakistan-based Haqqani insurgent network at the request of Pakistan’s intelligence service. She said such meetings are part of a strategy in which “we want to fight, talk and build all at the same time.”
“Part of the reason for that is to test whether these organizations have any willingness to negotiate in good faith,” she said. “There’s evidence going both ways, to be clear. Sometimes we hear that they will, that there are elements within each that wish to pursue that. And then other times that it’s off the table. So I think that with respect to the Haqqani network, it illustrates this point.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/29/some-taliban-at-gitmo-could-go-to-afghanistan/
June 29, 2012
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is considering a new gambit to restart peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan that would send several Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials told The Associated Press.
Under the proposal, some Taliban fighters or affiliates captured in the early days of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and later sent to Guantanamo under the label of enemy combatants would be transferred out of full U.S. control but not released. It’s a leap of faith on the U.S. side that the men will not become threats to U.S. forces once back on Afghan soil. But it is meant to show more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency that the U.S. is still interested in cutting a deal for peace.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others have said that while negotiations with the Taliban are distasteful, they are the best way to settle the prolonged war.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/07/haqqani-network-terrorist-hillary-clinton
Haqqani network is a terrorist body, announces Hillary Clinton
Afghan rebels allied to Taliban branded biggest threat to US-Nato forces and put under sanctions
7 September 2012
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607page=7#ixzz33a6NMMPf
By MICHAEL HASTINGS
JUNE 7, 2012
Some top-level officials within the administration, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. “Panetta and Hillary don’t give a shit about getting him home,” says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. “They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn’t look like they are cutting and running. (Both Clinton and Panetta, by law, would have to sign off on any exchange.)
What did Hillary know and when did she know it???
Thanks Maggie - gonna plow through all of that.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-bowe-bergdahl-20140602
Your link to the Hastings story was 404. Above is a current RS story with a good link to Hastings.