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Pentagon got duped, made ransom payment for Bowe Bergdahl to con man
Washington Times ^ | November 20, 2014 | Bill Gertz

Posted on 11/20/2014 5:15:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

The Pentagon is under fire for making a ransom payment to an Afghan earlier this year as part of a failed bid to win the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, according to U.S. officials.

Sgt. Bergdahl was released in May after nearly five years in captivity as part of a controversial exchange for five terrorists held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ransom payment was first disclosed by Rep. Duncan Hunter in a Nov. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Mr. Hunter stated in the letter that Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made the payment covertly as part of a release deal. But the money was stolen by the Afghan intermediary claiming to represent the Haqqani terrorist network.

“Given the significance of this matter, as well as the fact that Pentagon officials have denied that a payment was even considered — and you also said you were unaware of any such attempt — I ask you to immediately inquire with JSOC to determine the specific order of events,” said Mr. Hunter, California Republican and member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Hunter also asked Mr. Hagel whether ransom payments are being considered for other captives.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: 201311; 20131105; 201405; 20140531; bergdahl; bergdahlransom; bowebergdahl; cashforhostages; chuckhagel; defector; duncanhunter; hagel; haqqani; haqqaninetwork; hostage; obamasfault; pentagonduped; prisonerswap; ransom; taliban; taliban5; terrorism
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1 posted on 11/20/2014 5:15:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Friend of Obama’s?


2 posted on 11/20/2014 5:17:38 AM PST by jsanders2001
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

This too will be denied and ommitted from any media stories.

Our president is negotiating with terrorists, iran, north korea, etc. And he is routinely outwitted and made a fool of.


3 posted on 11/20/2014 5:17:39 AM PST by Tenacious 1 (POTUS shall now be referred to as POPOF. President Of Pants On Fire.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

They paid obama?


4 posted on 11/20/2014 5:17:45 AM PST by refermech
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To: refermech

Paid Gruber


5 posted on 11/20/2014 5:18:43 AM PST by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Did Obama wind up with that money?


6 posted on 11/20/2014 5:19:09 AM PST by dalebert
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To: Tenacious 1

Right on both of your points. Obama is giving away the store and the media won’t write the story.


7 posted on 11/20/2014 5:21:04 AM PST by Starboard
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To: jsanders2001

My guess is this was a friend of Valery Jarrett, Eric Holder or Ban Ki-Moon, the ‘faceless’ head of the UN.


8 posted on 11/20/2014 5:24:18 AM PST by lee martell
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To: jsanders2001

This is quite an article.

Lies about NOT PAYING RANSOMS continued being told by Josh Earnest and John Kerry about this on Tues.

All the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party does is LIE.


9 posted on 11/20/2014 5:25:31 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Having been around the military for three decades and associated a good bit with budget/finance folks...I can say with some authority that none of them would have agreed to this scheme or signed any paperwork. It would have required a minimum of a three-star general to make this happen, and he had to sign some documentation for the cash to be withdrawn from a bank and given to someone to deliver.

If this is all true....this guy needs to be brought in and discharged. It violates every single rule in the book.


10 posted on 11/20/2014 5:29:22 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
There was an earlier story this week about a missing 6.6B in cash in Iraq. Seems the government has a problem tracking its cash there is so much of it floating around these days. Gee, when you rob a bank, at least they put a dye pack in the bundle. Given the amounts “lost” over the past ten or so years, the mid east would look like a leopard now.
11 posted on 11/20/2014 5:30:17 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: pepsionice

“.........November 6, 2014 12:12 pm

The Department of Defense attempted to pay a ransom for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl but the transaction’s Afghan intermediary ran off with the cash, according to a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The claims directly contradict statements from the Pentagon, which has vehemently denied that it paid cash to a Taliban splinter group that captured Bergdahl in 2009. The administration in May released five-value Guantanamo Bay detainees in exchange for Bergdahl’s release.

However, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) claims that cash did in fact change hands, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In a letter to the Pentagon released Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) said a payment was made to an Afghan intermediary early this year to help secure the May 31 release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for nearly five years by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan, which is classified as a terrorist organization. […]

In his letter, Mr. Hunter asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to make new inquires with the Joint Special Operations Command about the allegations that the U.S. made the payment.

According to Mr. Hunter, the intermediary took the money but disappeared and failed to secure Sgt. Bergdahl’s release. Mr. Hunter didn’t specify how much money was paid to the Afghan intermediary, and didn’t identify the sources of his information.

Hunter’s allegations are partially consistent with the assessment of a veteran intelligence officer involved in the five-year hunt for Bergdahl who told the Washington Free Beacon in June that a ransom was almost surely paid.

He described the Haqqani network as more of an organized crime outfit than an ideological group of “Mujahids.” They are motivated by money and power, he said, not the perceived religious conflict that animates most Afghan militants...........

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congressman-pentagon-pursued-cash-ransom-for-bergdahl/

And in June 2014

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/experts-say-cash-ransom-may-have-been-paid-for-bergdahl/

June 6, 2014 4:35 pm

Reported details of the high-profile prisoner swap that freed Bowe Bergdahl over the weekend are not telling the full story, according to a high-level intelligence official involved in efforts to find and rescue the Army sergeant.

The Haqqani Network, a terrorist group operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, freed Bergdahl on Saturday after holding him captive for five years in exchange for the release of five Guantanamo Bay prison inmates.

A senior intelligence official with intimate knowledge of the years-long effort to locate and rescue Bergdahl told the Washington Free Beacon that the details of that exchange do not add up.

The official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, speculated that a cash ransom was paid to the Haqqani Network to get the group to free the prisoner.

The Obama administration reportedly considered offering cash for his release as late as December 2013. The State Department has repeatedly refused to say whether the deal that released Bergdahl involved any cash payment.

The ransom plan was reportedly abandoned, but the intelligence official insisted that there is reason to believe that cash changed hands as part of the deal.....”


12 posted on 11/20/2014 5:34:41 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Mouton

Those blue fingers after voting are expensive.


13 posted on 11/20/2014 5:35:23 AM PST by Truth29
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Payoff to murder the Seal Team?

or also downpayment for the next murders?

Only Jarrett and Obola know.


14 posted on 11/20/2014 5:37:30 AM PST by Diogenesis
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
All the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party does is LIE.

And they aren't even good at it.

15 posted on 11/20/2014 5:39:52 AM PST by McGruff (I Just Heard About This - President Obola)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Was the con man’s name Obama or Clinton?


16 posted on 11/20/2014 5:44:15 AM PST by BuffaloJack (Muslim Creeping Conquest of America and Canada)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Well, Obama and Hillary paid the ransom in BENGHAZI.


17 posted on 11/20/2014 5:46:18 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: McGruff
They don't really care about being good at it. The epitome of arrogance, which is the salient quality of this administration, is not just lying, but feeling so arrogantly unassailable in your position that you rub it in that you're lying. What repercussions have anyone in this administration suffered for blatantly lying?

Also see-

Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.

Theodore Dalrymple
18 posted on 11/20/2014 5:49:23 AM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Tenacious 1

I wonder how many DECADES it will take for the US to be respected again or even to regain its credibility.


19 posted on 11/20/2014 5:49:57 AM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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20 posted on 11/20/2014 6:02:48 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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