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He was picked up in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, by a Navy SEAL team, composed of a few dozen men and supported by multiple helicopters and overhead drones, another Defense official said.

Lake, Josh RoginMay 31, 2014 3:12 pm EDT In exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl, the U.S. has released five senior Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison. They are considered some of the worst of the worst. The five Guantanamo detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for America’s last prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, are bad guys. They are top Taliban commanders the group has tried to free for more than a decade. U.S. Army/AP According to a 2008 Pentagon dossier on Guantanamo Bay inmates, all five men released were considered to be a...

The policy of the United States government has always been we do not negotiate with terrorists. So why did the Obama administration release five of the worst GITMO jihadists – Taliban leasership – in exchange for an AWOL soldier – a traitor – who willingly walked away from his unit, raising the question of whether he could be charged with being absent without leave or desertion.

(AP) WASHINGTON - Emails an American soldier reportedly sent to his parents before he was captured by the Taliban three years ago suggest he was disillusioned and considering deserting. Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was "ashamed to even be American" and was disgusted with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and with the Army, according to emails quoted in Rolling Stone magazine. Bergdahl, a 26-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan. The military has never detailed circumstances of his disappearance or capture, and he is not classified as a deserter. He was...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two Republican lawmakers say President Barack Obama violated U.S. laws when he approved the exchange of an American soldier believed held by Islamist insurgents for five years for five Afghan detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.</p> <p>Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon of California and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said Saturday in a statement that Obama is required by law to notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of terrorists from the U.S. detention facility.</p>

Excerpt: The Obama administration announced today that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held by the Taliban for several years, has been freed from his captors. Reading the stories of his newfound freedom it is impossible not to feel joy for Bergdahl and his family. NBC News reports that Bergdahl held up a sign once he was on board an American helicopter that read, “SF?” The operators quickly confirmed that they were in fact U.S. Special Forces: “Yes, we’ve been looking for you for a long time.” “On behalf of the American people, I was honored to call his parents...

Rolling Stone recently published a riveting feature article, The last American Prisoner of War. It has reignited a heated debate over the price of patriotism. The writer chronicles the controversial story of American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his post three years ago in Afghanistan, now a POW held captive by the Taliban. This is a must read, not unbiased and littered with unnecessary expletives in traditional Rolling Stone fashion, but encompasses the full sense of who this man is and the circumstances surrounding the polarizing situation. If you’re like me, you’ll be left holding a mixed bag of...

President Obama’s record of lawlessness is prodigious. There is the assumption of a power to rule by presidential decree — unilaterally amending ObamaCare provisions, immigration statutes, and other enactments in flagrant disregard of Congress’s constitutional power to write the laws. There is rampant fraud on the American people — think: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan, period,” just for a start. In the Benghazi massacre, we see the arc of administration malfeasance: In the absence of congressional authorization, the president instigated an unprovoked and ultimately disastrous war in Libya, empowering virulently anti-American...

A captured American soldier is training Taliban fighters bomb-making and ambush skills, according to one of his captors and Afghan intelligence officials. Private Bowe Bergdahl disappeared in June 2009 while based in eastern Afghanistan and is thought to be the only U.S. serviceman in captivity. The 24-year-old has converted to Islam and now has the Muslim name Abdullah, one of his captors told The Sunday Times A Taliban deputy district commander in Paktika, who called himself Haji Nadeem, told the newspaper that Bergdahl taught him how to dismantle a mobile phone and turn it into a remote control for a...

Three years ago, a 23-year-old soldier walked off his base in Afghanistan and into the hands of the Taliban. Now he’s a crucial pawn in negotiations to end the war. Will the Pentagon leave a man behind? Bowe's own tour of duty in Afghanistan mirrored the larger American experience in the war – marked by tragedy, confusion, misplaced idealism, deluded thinking and, perhaps, a moment of insanity. And it is with Bowe that the war will likely come to an end. On May 1st, in a surprise visit to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, President Obama announced that...

At the end of brief event, the soldier’s father, Bob Bergdahl, recited the most frequent phrase in the Koran — “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” —which means “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate.” After Bergdahl finished his statement and his praise for Allah, Obama hugged him. The Taliban echoed Bergdahl, saying the trade happened “due to the benevolence of Allah Almighty and the sacrifices of the heroic and courageous Mujahidin of the Islamic Emirate.”

On Sunday’s “State of the Union” on CNN, House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) explained to moderator Candy Crowley why the Obama administration’s deal to secure American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl’s release for five Guantanamo detainees was a bad deal and broke law. According to Rogers, this sends the wrong message to terrorists around the world. “[W]e have other means to use, and remember, they came to Congress about a year ago and we're thinking about doing these negotiations. And by the way, they didn't get a very warm reception from either party in the national security...

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:

1.) If they believe that the Taliban aren't terrorists, then is this behind their reasoning that no negotiations took place with terrorists in the release of Bowe Bergdahl for 5 GITMO detainees? 2.) If they state that there was a third party involved (Qatar) and thus neither side (the WH or the Taliban) spoke directly with each other, then does that constitute their position that no negotiations took place with terrorists? The problem with #1 is that when the WH slammed Karzai over some of his statements concerning joining the Taliban, what could/can the WH say to Karzai now? Breitbart.com...

The Taliban claimed in 2010 that [Sgt. Bowe] Bergdahl had converted to Islam and was teaching bomb-making to its jihadists. His father is a convert to Islam who has called for the release of the jihadists in Guantanamo and has implied that American troops are killing Afghan children. There is evidence that he was not captured, but walked away from his unit: “On July 2, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans after his shift.” So we may have traded five jihadists for one jihadist.

As Twitchy has reported, President Obama ordered the release of five Gitmo detainees to secure the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from his Taliban captors in Afghanistan. Recently, a tweet was published from the account of Bowe Bergdahl’s father, Robert, which stated a desire to see all Gitmo detainees released. Here’s the tweet from Bob Bergdahl’s account, which was published May 28 and deleted Saturday night (at the time of publication the deletion of the tweet has not been acknowledged on the account): @ABalkhi I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of...

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Considering Obama's bizarre release of terrorists, I remember some early scandals. Are they somehow related? Obama Signs Executive Order To Close Guantanamo Bay First Posted: 02/22/09 05:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 02:00 PM ET http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/22/obama-and-guantanamo-unde_n_159849.html I remember early scandals with Obama and Guantanamo. What ever happened with this Guantanamo closing - moving ? Moving Guantanamo activities to Bagram

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a rare public statement hailing the exchange of five Guantanamo Bay detainees for a Taliban-held US soldier as a "big victory". Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, 28, was handed to US forces in Afghanistan on Saturday. US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has defended the exchange amid criticism Congress was not given 30 days' notice before the detainees were released. He said the US had to act quickly to save the soldier's life. Sgt Bergdahl, who is said to be in good condition and has been flown to Germany for more treatment, was the only...

Emails an American soldier reportedly sent to his parents before he was captured by the Taliban three years ago suggest he was disillusioned and considering deserting. Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was "ashamed to even be American" and was disgusted with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and with the Army, according to emails quoted in Rolling Stone magazine.