Free Republic

A U.S. soldier held by Afghan militants will not be harmed despite the Obama administration's decision to declare his alleged captors a terrorist group, a senior member of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network told The Associated Press on Saturday. However, the United States and NATO can expect stepped up attacks, he said. The commander, who spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location, denied that the Haqqanis held the only American prisoner of war of the Afghan conflict, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, as the U.S. believes. He did however say that Bergdahl was a captive of another branch of the Taliban, and...

The spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban says they have suspended "mediation" with the United States to exchange captive U.S. soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban prisoners held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay. In a terse emailed statement Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahed blamed the "current complex political situation in the country" for the suspension of what was considered the best chance of securing Bergdahl's freedom since his capture in 2009. It is the first official acknowledgement of indirect talks with the U.S. to free Bergdahl. Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage...

As the United States plans for what could be a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan this year, efforts to bring home its sole prisoner of war after nearly five years of captivity are growing increasingly urgent. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009, while deployed to the Paktika province of southeastern Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan and its federally administered tribal areas. He is believed to be held by the Haqqani insurgent group allied with the Taliban, likely in Pakistan. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has appointed a senior deputy from Vista as Pentagon point man to secure Bergdahl’s...

June 1, 2014 PRISONER EXCHANGE U.S. soldier Bergdahl freed from captivity in Afghanistan Forwarded from the secret Special Forces unauthorized back channel frequency: "We were at OP Mest, Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It was a small outpost where B Co 1-501st INF (Airbone) ran operations out of, just an Infantry platoon and ANA counterparts there. The place was an Afghan graveyard. Bergdahl had been acting a little strange, telling people he wanted to "walk the earth" and kept a little journal talking about how he was meant for better things. No one thought anything about it. He was a little “out...

After five years as a POW, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is headed home. But the circumstances of his capture by the Taliban in Afghanistan remain unclear, indicating he may have walked away from his base. For now, the story for US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is one of physical and mental recovery and reunion with his family. But very soon it will involve debriefings about the nearly five years of his captivity by Taliban fighters, who apparently held him in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, where his infantry unit had been engaged in combat. Military and intelligence experts will want to...

The Taliban’s release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl dominated the Sunday talk shows, pushing Friday’s resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki from the headlines. The Sunday shows were packed with Republicans launching into political attacks against President Obama and the administration for transferring five Taliban members from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the release of Bergdahl, the 28-year-old whom the Taliban released on Saturday, and administration officials defending the decision. "Disturbing," was how Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) put it on ABC's "This Week." "Dangerous," echoed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on CNN's "State of The Union."...

Followup by David Sherfinski, The Washington Times of story on Hagel not negotiating.As a prisoner of war in Afghanistan was transferred back to U.S. custody, Republicans challenged the Obama administration’s insistence it did not negotiate with terrorists in securing the soldier’s release and say the move was illegal and could embolden terrorists around the globe. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of the only American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That’s a normal process in getting your prisoners back.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday, with the government of Qatar serving as a go-between. Qatar is taking custody of five...

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice avoided questions on Sunday about whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released by the Taliban in exchange for five detainees on Saturday, deserted the Army. ABC News "This Week" host George Stephanopolous asked Rice whether such allegations would be "investigated." "If it is found that he did, will he be disciplined or has he already paid the price?" he asked. "Certainly, anybody who has been held in those conditions in captivity for five years has paid an extraordinary price, but that is really not the point," Rice said. "The point is he's back. He's...

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.”