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Tuesday on NewsMax TV, former U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North said U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was not a prisoner of war because he was actually being held "hostage" by the Haqqanis, a terrorist group separate from the Taliban and associated heavily with al Qaeda. North said he knew there was at least a $1 million dollar ransom being demanded for Bergdahl some time ago so he estimated the price paid to release the hostage must be close to $5-6 million now. ...more (w/audio)...

Except it didn’t work. 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.Pentagon officials have denied paying cash to secure the release of Sgt. Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2009. A senior defense official reiterated that denial when asked about Mr. Hunter’s letter.According to Mr. Hunter, the intermediary took the money...

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) transmitted a letter to President Barack Obama Thursday asking if the Obama administration authorized any payment to the Haqqani Network terrorist group in exchange for U.S. Army Spc. Bowe Bergdahl. The Haqqani Network, which held Bergdahl for five years, funds its terrorist activities in part by ransoming prisoners. The ransom for a uniformed American service member would greatly benefit the group’s terrorist activities. “The Haqqani Network generally does not release Westerners unless they receive a large payment. It would be hard to believe they would release Bergdahl in an exchange that does not...

The Obama administration largely bypassed the intelligence community to green-light the risky swap of five Taliban leaders for American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, officials tell Fox News, as new details emerge about concerns with the deal at the highest levels of President Obama's team.

NOTE:  This is part of a continuing series of exclusive, clandestine, interviews with my mole known only as “Deep Quote” or “Molsterman,”  (who may or may not also be known as “Little Mo” to the MOTUS community) Molsterman is currently serving under deep cover at NSA. (Presented, as always, with apologies to the Ulsterman Report) I recently sat down again with Molsterman to talk about the controversy surrounding Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s ransom and return .MOTUS: Thanks for stopping by. I understand you have been digging into NSA’s Bowe Bergdahl dossier.Molsterman: Yeah, I’m a mole, that’s what I do: dig.MOTUS:...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) It is well established now that Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant for whom Barack Obama traded five top Taliban jihad commanders to get him out of captivity in Afghanistan, is a deserter. But there are also numerous indications that Bergdahl is something even worse: a traitor to the United States of America. Although the White House continues to ignore the evidence that Bergdahl deserted, every day new revelations make the case increasingly compelling. According to Colonel David Hunt, Bergdahl “called his unit the day after he deserted to tell his unit he deserted.” Nathan Bradley Bethea, a former infantry...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid received a heads-up on the deal to transfer Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for the five Taliban officials detained in Guantanamo Bay — but it’s not clear who else did. In a brief interview, Reid said the White House contacted him ahead of the swap — but not by much. “It must have been either the day before or the day of. I don’t remember for sure,” Reid said. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment when asked about White House outreach with regards to Bergdahl. Reid’s remarks underscore a growing divide on...

The following is a listing of corporate sponsors supporting the homecoming of the self-professed America hating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was traded for five top Taliban terrorists by President Barack Hussein Obama ... From BringBoweBack2014.com website: Sponsors Thank you to all our sponsors. The City of Hailey The Hailey Police Department The Hailey Chamber of Commerce Luke’s pharmacy Wood River Motors Silver Creek Ford Sun Valley Aminal Center Wayne Willich and Friends Brennans Carpet Hailey Auto Exchange Candace Ireland Insurance The Snow Bunny Tim Jeneson Insurance Valley Paint & Floor Mountain Lifestyles Property Services, Inc. Wood River Insurance Copy And...

A celebration in Bowe Bergdahl's hometown of Hailey, Idaho, planned for later this month has been cancelled in the wake of a firestorm of controversy over how the Army sergeant wound up as a Taliban captive. **SNIP** Town officials on Tuesday told NBC News that they had been deluged with hateful calls from people who don't think Bergdahl should be celebrated as a hero. In the Wednesday statement, the town said they had received about "100 correspondences" per day on the issue, both positive and negative. Hailey officials say they aren't cancelling because of any threat, but because of the...

After the Obama administration bargained for Bowe Bergdahl’s life, the family of ISIS hostage James Foley begged the White House for the same treatment—only to be denied. The parents of James Foley, the journalist ISIS beheaded in August, learned about the U.S. government’s attempt to rescue him about an hour before the rest of us did. The grieving parents got word from President Obama himself. “I told Obama that Jim worked hard to get him elected,” John Foley, James’s father, told The Daily Beast. “He believed till the end his country would come and get them.” The president, according to...

The Washington Times reports that the Pentagon pretty much knew the whereabouts of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in recent years. So why didn't they rescue him? Quoting a former intelligence official, the Times said: "Military commanders were loath to risk their people to save this guy. They were loath to pick him up and, because of that hesitancy, we wind up trading five Taliban guys for him. The mentality was, 'We're not going to lose more of our own guys on this.'" The Times also quoted an anonymous "high-level congressional aide": "Joint Special Operations Command always had the rescue mission on...

The families of two journalists beheaded by Islamic State jihadists were both warned by US government officials they could face prosecution if they raised a ransom for their release. The recent executions of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic State (IS) extremists triggered worldwide revulsion and Washington has since declared it is at war with the radicals. The United States has a policy of never paying ransoms, contending that doing so would endanger Americans all over the world. Late Friday, a spokesman for Sotloff's family said the murdered journalist's parents were told by a White House counterterrorism official last...

Before bloodthirsty ISIS militants beheaded James Wright ­Foley in a gruesome video posted online, the terror thugs demanded a $100 million ransom for the journalist’s safe return, a report said. The United States refused to pay, according to The New York Times. It was not clear when the terrorist group made its ransom demand for Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, nor is it clear why the US refused, but government sources told the paper that paying such ransoms only helps terror groups. Several European countries, however, have handed large sums of money to terrorist groups to bring...

In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly last night on the Kelly File the brother of beheaded American journalist James "Jim" Foley, Michael Foley, expressed disappointment over how the Obama administration is handling the threat of terror army ISIS and in the administration's handling of his brother's capture leading up to his death. James Foley was beheaded three weeks ago by an ISIS terrorist and a YouTube video of the gruesome murder was posted online. President Obama was on vacation at the time and eight minutes after making a statement about the murder, returned to the golf course,...

Local military veterans – like veterans and other citizens across the country – have varying opinions about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but their views are generally negative. “I think a firing squad is too good for him,” said Tim Gresham of Newnan, who served three years in the Army. Gresham referred to Bergdahl as “that traitor.” Bergdahl returned to the United States early Friday after his release from five years in captivity in Afghanistan. There is controversy about the Obama administration swapping five senior Taliban officials – who had been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – for Bergdahl’s release, without...

....Many citizens are understandably uneasy when it comes to Bowe Bergdahl. Just when you think the situation can’t get any worse, another shoe seems to drop. Did the White House really do “the right thing” when it traded five Taliban leaders for a suspected deserter? Tweeter @CuffyMeh can’t help but be reminded of another big swap that didn’t end well:

According to Fox News National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin, Sgt. Bowe Berghal left behinid a note renouncing American citizenship. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl wrote a note expressing a desire to renounce his American citizenship, according to Fox News. Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reported Tuesday that members of Bergdahl’s unit said he left behind a note saying he felt disillusioned with the Army and wanted to renounce his citizenship before he was captured in 2009.

"We needed to get him out of there, essentially to save his life." So said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, an Army sergeant in Vietnam, of Barack Obama's trade of five hard-core Taliban leaders at Guantanamo for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a Taliban prisoner for five years. The trade speaks well of America's 's resolve to leave no soldier behind. And the country surely shared the joy of Bergdahl's family on learning their son was alive and coming home. But this secret swap, as well as the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture and captivity, are likely to further polarize our people and...

Islamic State militants are reportedly demanding $6.6 million and the release of a U.S. prisoner before they will free a third American hostage held by the group, an unidentified aid worker. A source confirmed to Fox News that the aid worker is a 26-year-old woman from the West Coast. They did not provide further details, but ABC News reported that the woman, whose relatives have requested she not be identified, is the third of at least four Americans known to be held by the extremist Muslim organization. American journalist James Foley was executed by the group in a video that...

Ever since 9/11, the United States has taken an expansive definition of "aiding and abetting" terrorism. To cite merely the latest example, this morning a chap called Khairullozhon Matanov appeared in US District Court in Boston. Who is Mr Matanov? He's a 23-year-old cab driver from Quincy, Mass, and a Kyrgyzstan national. He appears to share the same general view of "the horror that is America" as the acclaimed war hero Bowe Bergdahl, so there's no reason to hold that against him. But he was also a buddy of the Tsarnaev brothers. On the evening after the Boston Marathon bombing,...