Free Republic

Kabul (Reuters) - The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday. The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day. :snip: "The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid...

A former U.S. officer who served in Afghanistan with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl claims that soldiers were threatened by U.S. authorities if they questioned his story. After he was captured, Bergdahl said on a video from his captors that he lagged behind on patrol, although other sources in the military suggested anonymously that he walked away from his post. “Not only has this nebulous non-story been put out for years but you know these soldiers of 4th Brigade 25th Infantry Division were threatened with legal repercussions if they spoke about Bergdahl. Everybody officially mandated silencing of what we saw has been...

E-mails reported by the late Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone in 2012 reveal what Bergdahl's fellow infantrymen learned within days of his disappearance: He told people that he no longer supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. "The future is too good to waste on lies," he wrote to his parents. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in....

Bowe Bergdahl’s ballet teacher said today said she believes the US Army sergeant used the discipline he learned as a ballet dancer to help him survive the ordeal. Sherry Horton, who was also Bowe’s roommate and best friend before he left to join the army, said the soldier was her ‘star’ student at Sun Valley Ballet School in his hometown of Hailey, Idaho. In an exclusive interview with MailOnline she said Bowe, now 28, was a graceful, natural performer who was ‘super strong’ and ‘flexible’ and loved to dance. And in our exclusive photos Bowe’s dancing can be seen in...

Will a court martial determine whether he deserted, committed treason or another other serious offense? What difference does it make now?An article at Blackfive titled Big Problems With Bergdahl Deal is the best I have read thus far about the ransoming of Sgt. Bergdahl from the Taliban. Lacking sufficient verifiable information, the author refrains from challenging his conduct based solely on allegations about how and why he wound up with the Taliban. When George Zimmerman was tried in the media for murdering Trayvon Martin -- a sweet little boy who looked a lot like the son President Obama might have had -- he was found guilty almost by acclamation. Later,...

Leading lawmakers on Monday called for an immediate investigation into the Obama administration’s controversial decision to release from prison five top Taliban leaders in exchange for an American prisoner that some troops have dubbed a “traitor.” Sen. Lindsay Graham (R., S.C.), in a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, requested that an immediate hearing be organized to examine if the Obama administration broke any laws by unilaterally releasing five top Taliban leaders in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years in captivity. Graham and other key lawmakers charge that the White House has jeopardized U.S. national...

Bad Bergdahl Bargain6/2/2014US Military to Promote Deserter Bowe Bergdahl to Staff SergeantSusan Rice: Bergdahl Served With 'Honor and Distinction'Bob Bergdahl Now Tweeting for the Release of More Gitmo TerroristsCalculating Obama plays politics with American soldier’s trade for terroristsRep. Rogers: Obama Ended Policy of ‘We Don’t Negotiate with Terrorists’Carney Insists U.S. Did Not Negotiate with Terrorists: Bergdahl ‘Was Not a Hostage’Flashback: Fox News Military Pundit Calls Bowe Bergdahl "A Liar" (2009)6/1/2014Fellow Soldiers Call Bowe Bergdahl a Deserter, Not a HeroBergdahl Snuck Off Post to Join Taliban – At Least Six Americans Were Killed Trying to Find HimAmerican Soldier Who Served With...

The furious parents of an officer who they claim was killed while searching for freed Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl today said that they have been lied to as part of a ‘cover up just like Benghazi’. The mother and father of Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews are angry that they have been told different stories about how their son died. First his commanders said that their son was blown up while hunting a Taliban commander - but only now that Bergdahl has been freed after five years in captivity are they learning the truth. Lt Andrews’ parents told MailOnline that their...

The furious parents of an officer who they claim was killed while searching for freed Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl today said that they have been lied to as part of a ‘cover up just like Benghazi’. The mother and father of Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews are angry that they have been told different stories about how their son died. First his commanders said that their son was blown up while hunting a Taliban commander - but only now that Bergdahl has been freed after five years in captivity are they learning the truth. Lt Andrews’ parents told MailOnline that their...

"The horror that is America is disgusting." - Bowe BergdahlThere was Obama, proud as a peacock: Good afternoon, everybody. This morning, I called Bob and Jani Bergdahl and told them that after nearly five years in captivity, their son, Bowe, is coming home. Sergeant Bergdahl has missed birthdays and holidays and the simple moments with family and friends, which all of us take for granted. But while Bowe was gone he was never forgotten. His parents thought about him and prayed for him every single day, as did his sister, Sky, who prayed for his safe return. He wasn’t forgotten...

Freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl developed a love for Afghan green tea, taught his captors badminton, and even celebrated Christmas and Easter with the hardline Islamists, according to a Pakistani militant commander. Bergdahl, the only US prisoner of war in Afghanistan, was released Saturday in exchange for the freeing of five senior Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay, in a dramatic deal brokered by Qatar. [....] A commander of the Haqqani network, a militant outfit allied with the Taliban with ties to al-Qaeda, on Sunday painted a picture of a man who adjusted to his new life by engaging with...

<p>Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban yesterday in a prisoner swap.</p> <p>Bergdahl was the only living POW held by the Taliban. He was captured by the Taliban in 2009 in Afghanistan.</p> <p>“I am sorry for everything here,” he wrote. “These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid.”</p>

All five terror suspects the Obama administration exchanged for the release of Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl on Saturday were deemed in a 2008 Pentagon dossier to be ‘high risk’ for launching attacks on American interests if released.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last known American POW, was freed after five years in captivity — an ordeal that began and ended in Afghanistan under a shroud of mystery. (snip) The search for Bergdahl began soon after he went missing on June 30, 2009, in the same rugged wilds of southeastern Afghanistan where NFL player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed. Bergdahl’s mysterious disappearance from the small military outpost there and the subsequent revelation that he was in enemy hands prompted questions that still linger.(snip) One night, after finishing a guard-duty shift, Bowe Bergdahl asked his team leader whether there would...

Although he was a private when he was first captured by the Taliban, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was promoted twice in captivity and is scheduled for another promotion to staff sergeant. CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that a defense official confirmed that Bergdahl is scheduled for a promotion to the rank of staff sergeant later in June of this year. Bergdahl was a private when he went missing and was promoted to the rank of specialist in June 2010. He was promoted in June 2011 to the rank of sergeant.

This weekend, Obama swapped five dangerous Taliban commanders for one questionable American soldier. The five Taliban commanders are: Mullah Mohammad Fazl (Taliban army chief of staff), Mullah Norullah Noori (senior Taliban military commander), Abdul Haq Wasiq (Taliban deputy minister of intelligence), Khairullah Khairkhwa (Taliban governor of the Herat province and former interior minister), and Mohammed Nabi (senior Taliban figure and security official). In return, we got one America soldier who, his peers write, abandoned his post to join the Taliban, and who's Islamic-beard-adorned father has worked tirelessly to release more terrorists. Immediately after this, we have Hagel and Rice 'gaslighting'...

Cloudy Day Jihadists - #0 & 0 They release you when your father grows a beard They release you when your country’s not so feared They release you for jihadists numbered five They release you when O’s poll numbers dive But I would not feel so all amused Everybody must be used --------------------------------------- They release you when the VA’s all exposed They release you when the scandal burdens grows They release you without Congress in the know They release you, and the Kenyan just says, “So? Ah but I would not feel so all amused Everybody must be used ------------------------------------------...

President Barack Obama “blew it again” on foreign policy, Sarah Palin said Monday, slamming the president for the deal that released Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. She cited National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s comments one day earlier that Bergdahl served “with honor and distinction.” “No, Mr. President, a soldier expressing horrid anti-American beliefs – even boldly putting them in writing and unabashedly firing off his messages while in uniform, just three days before he left his unit on foot – is not ‘honorable service,’” the former Alaska governor wrote in a Facebook post. The New York Post has reported that Bergdahl...

Put me down as not welcoming Sgt Bowe Bergdahl home. Before his traitorous walk this fake hero wrote his parents saying, “I AM ASHAMED TO EVEN BE AN AMERICAN.” His whole story stinks to high heaven. The trade of five top level enemy commanders for a real life Nicholas Brody just doesn’t pass the smell test. This “hero” Bowe Bergdahl walked over to the enemy’s side five years ago. They didn’t capture him. The Taliban welcomed him with open arms and good true American troops died searching for this fake. Barack Obama who in 2008, (when he needed to say...

[snip]The five Taliban prisoners at Gitmo released by Barack Obama were identified today.** Mohammed Fazl – commanded the main force fighting the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in 2001, and served as chief of army staff under the Taliban regime. Fazl slaughtered thousands of Shiites. ** Mullah Norullah Noori - served as governor of Balkh province in the Taliban regime and played some role in coordinating the fight against the Northern Alliance. - ** Mohammed Nabi Omari – the Taliban’s chief of communications and helped al Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan.** Khairullah Khairkhwa – most prominent position was as governor...