The political people pursued the swap dispute intense internal discord, huh?
Did that discord include the Kabul Chief of Station..?
If it did, how utterly amazing that he got caught up in that most unfortunate subsequent paperwork contretemps, in which he was OUTED, huh..?
Hey, but I’m sure ValJar the NightStalker would NEVAR do that deliberately, riiiiiight?
OH NO WAY..!!!
Sounds to me like Hussein got between a rock and a hard place. Someone told him he better release or else, so he found a way, come hell or high water to get those 5 out of there. It wasn’t to save the deserter,(he could have been part of it all along) it was to save his bony a$% from whomever was threatening him.