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Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the captured suspect considered to be a “key figure” in the Benghazi, Libya, attack, will not be sent to Guantanamo, White House officials insisted today. “Abu Khatallah is currently in U.S. custody in a secure location outside the United States, and en route to the United States to face the charges against him,” National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said in a statement today. “Some have suggested that he should go to [Guantanamo Bay]. Let me rule that out from the start. The Administration’s policy is clear on this issue: we have not added a single person...

Remember last week when Hillary Clinton said about the Taliban 5: “These five guys are not a threat to the United States. They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them. So I think we may be kind of missing the bigger picture here.” No ma’am, you are missing the bigger picture here and are therefore not qualified to be president of the United States. We’ve already had a failed “first of” Democrat presidential experiment. These...

As the political firestorm concerning Sergeant Bowe Berghdahl continues, I am hearing people state as fact that enlistment standards dropped far too low after 9/11, allowing either hardened criminals or, as they claim in Bergdahl's case, men with serious mental issues into the Army. It is a recurring notion that I've read often, and it is an idea that, I believe, is a red herring hiding a profounder and harder reality. After commanding an intelligence company in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, I volunteered for recruiting duty to, hopefully, spend more time with my family. I had no idea what...

The Army has initiated its investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the disappearance and capture of Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl from Combat Outpost Mest-Lalak in Paktika Province, Afghanistan on or about June 30, 2009. The Army has appointed as the investigating officer Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, an Army officer with Afghanistan combat experience. The primary function of this investigation, as in any other investigation, is to ascertain facts and report them to the appointing authority. These types of investigations are not uncommon and serve to establish the facts on the ground following an incident. The investigating officer will...

A two-star U.S. Army general will begin investigating this week how and why Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl left his base in Afghanistan, resulting in his capture, a senior defense official said. Bergdahl spent five years in captivity until his release May 31, in exchange for five Taliban figures being held at a U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bergdahl, 28, returned to the United States -- specifically to an Army medical facility in San Antonio, Texas -- early Friday. Though the investigation begins this week, it's not known when the sergeant will undergo formal questioning. The senior defense...

Deadline reports there are a pair of films in development centering on recently released Taliban POW Bowe Bergdahl, one with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty duo Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal and another from Todd Field (Little Children) directing based on the "Rolling Stone" article "America's Last Prisoner of War" written by the late Michael Hastings. The film with Field attached is set up at Fox Searchlight while the other is being set up at Boal's Megan Ellison-supported production house Page One, giving Ellison's Annapurna a first look at Boal's screenplay once completed. That said, it sounds to...

USA Today articles are headline and link only.

Editor: As our dear voluntary soldier Bowe Bergdahl returns to us, let's rejoice with his family. If he chose to walk away in Afghanistan instead of committing suicide, we rejoice. His message reaches us here at home: American soldiers are objecting to multiple deployments and multiple injuries. Those who commit suicide are sending an unheeded message. America's problem at this moment is not judgment of a soldier who has served 5 years imprisonment by terrorists. Let us instead discern what must be done about detainees at Gitmo. Instead of trading them to terrorists, NATO must step up. The 27 other...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/06/13/rick-nolan-minnesota-bergdahl-veterans-hospitals/10447371/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has quietly repatriated a dozen detainees from a small U.S. military prison in Afghanistan, moving a modest step closer toward winding down the United States' controversial post-9/11 detainee system. President Barack Obama, in a letter to Congress released on Thursday, informed U.S. lawmakers that about 38 non-Afghan prisoners remained at the Parwan detention center outside of Kabul, down from around 50 a few months ago.

‘Was He Worth It?” blared the cover of Time magazine, as if that should be the question Americans ask in light of the release of Bowe Bergdahl after five years of brutal captivity by the Taliban. No, the question we should be asking is a version of the one Pope Francis made famous in a different context: “Who Are We To Judge?” Who are we, in the safety of our civilian homes, to judge whether an American soldier captured overseas is worthy of rescue? Who are we to decide whether, somehow, the fact that he was imprisoned for so many...

Blackfive has obtained the actual intel reports on Bowe Bergdahl’s captivity with the Haqqani network. As Jim notes in the post, the reports are compiled in order to help develop a picture of his captivity; they’re not the full picture. You can read what Blackfive has posted at the link above. Here’s a troubling sample. Conditions for Bergdahl have greatly relaxed since the time of the escape. Bergdahl has converted to Islam and now describes himself as a mujahid. Bergdahl enjoys a modicum of freedom, and engages in target practice with the local mujahedeen, firing AK47s. Bergdahl is even allowed...

(10) He bowed to the demands of the Castro brothers (9) To show Putin that he was not exclusively flexible (8) To make room for those teabaggers, er, Tea Partiers (7) The five said they had converted and are now unofficial members of the Duck Dynasty (6) Their lives had become too easy; a permanent vacation (5) Living under Sharia law would be more difficult for them (wink, wink, nod, nod...) (4) To dispel the notion that "His" government was providing too much "aid" and "comfort" to terrorists (3) In reference to GITMO, the Taliban told him to "tear down...

The recent victories in Iraq and Syria by the terrorists of ISIS -- said to be an offshoot of al-Qaeda -- have emboldened the group and its followers throughout the Middle East. Now the terrorists are planning to move their jihad not only to Jordan, but also to the Gaza Strip, Sinai and Lebanon. Failure to act will result in the establishment in the Middle East of a dangerous extremist Islamic empire that will pose a threat to American and Western interests. "The danger is getting closer to our bedrooms." — Oraib al-Rantawi, Jordanian political analyst

Five Taliban leaders released by the United States have told visitors that they are likely to seek to remain in Qatar beyond an agreed one-year travel ban, sources who have spoken to the visitors told Reuters. Diplomats and Qatari sources say the men are in a "safe location" within a guarded compound in Doha. They have been allowed to receive guests from the Afghan community in Qatar, including Taliban members who were previously living in Doha, the sources said. "So far they haven't asked for political asylum, but it's just too early to tell and, besides, not many countries would...

In a week of news coverage dominated by the Bergdahl affair, President Obama submitted, “I’m never surprised by controversies that are whipped up in Washington,” before forwarding his administration’s latest rationale as to why he agreed to swap an American serviceman for five Taliban terrorists: “I write too many letters to folks who, unfortunately, don’t see their children again after fighting a war.” obama alone Earlier in the same press conference, he posited that it is a “basic principle” that the United States does not leave any soldier behind on the battlefield. A day prior, the Obama Administration defended the...

<p>Soon we shall get to the bottom of the swap of five Taliban kingpins from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for one Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.</p>

Bowe Bergdahl: a Prisoner of WAR, a deserter taken hostage by the Taliban or an enemy combatant? If it isn't the first of the three rather the second, why then are all cable news outlets describing this as a prisoner swap? Why aren't they calling this an enemy combatant ( Taliban 5)/deserter or a EC/deserter swap? If Bowe Bergdahl deserted, then would he have then as well forsake the military, and thus his uniform? Would Bowe Bergdahl then be an enemy combatant?

The White House is making plans to transfer more detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay despite the mounting political furor over the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, officials said Tuesday. Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the White House was "making progress on a number of additional promising opportunities" to transfer more prisoners and that officials were reviewing Yemeni detainees "on a case-by-case basis." "While we do not generally discuss transfers before they take place, we are fully committed to implementing the president's direction that we transfer detainees to...

Coming Soon? A More Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and Less Christian America By Julio Severo There’s no doubt that the United States had a Christian beginning, first with the Pilgrim Fathers. Later, from the independence and on, America was a Protestant nation with Catholic and Jewish minorities. She was able consistently to keep this religious profile until the mid-20 century. America was seen as the most Protestant nation in the world, and U.S. missionaries often taught about the divine blessings on a predominantly Protestant nation. America was cherished by us, by the example and sermons of missionaries, as a nation...