It has been a virtual mantra of U.S. policy for decades that we do not negotiate with terrorists and never never pay ransoms. That is why a new report is so startling even though it has received relatively little attention. The Pentagon reportedly gave an unspecified but large amount of money to an Afghan for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and then found out the money and the Afghan disappeared without a trace. The Pentagon is denying that it tried to pay a ransom for Bergdahl.
Bergdahl was released in May through a prisoner swap by President Obama that violated U.S. law. The Administration did not reveal that it also paid this money to the fake negotiator. Worse yet, congressional sources say that the Administration denied that a payment was ever made for Bergdahl.
We have previously discussed the fact that our allies have given millions to Islamic State for hostages — a bizarre trade where the West is directly funding the terrorist group and reinforcing the market for taking more Western captives.
The money was reportedly handed over by the Army’s elite Delta Force anti-terrorism squad with the cooperation of the FBI. The Pentagon is now claiming that the money was not technically a ransom but money going to an intelligence source.
The story undermines our public claims on not paying ransoms and shows how fluid this line has become. There is also no indication of any repercussions for officials in giving such money to an Afghan who then just walked away with a fortune and a chuckle.
Ring….. Ring….
Who is it?
It is the ghost of Reagan Administrations past calling, three words for thee:
Iran Contra Affair
The scandal began as an operation to free the seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the U.S. hostages. The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.[4][5] Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair
Disclosure: I don’t agree with either cash nor weapons for hostages. I do agree that American citizens wouldn’t be likely targets of kidnapping via various non-state entities if their government simply practiced a sane non-militaristic/non-interventionist foreign-policy in attempting to exploit access to various resources in certain geographic locales for national/corporate interests.
A nation is doomed when there is a duopoly of authoritarian political cults that seek to control every facet of life and all the cult members can argue about is which cult leader is the most evil, stupid and/or crooked.
“Your evil cult leader is twice as stupid as mine”
“Oh yeah? Well, your evil cult leader lies more than mine”
It would be a lot funnier if so much death, destruction and poverty weren’t involved. The world needs to be rid of Republicrats! No government is better than the government most Americans embrace.
After reading the posts by Issac, Daniel Frankovich & spending time among those wonderful American Indians in Southwest Oklahoma I think Issac & Daniel should read or perhaps reread Edward Everett Hale book regarding one Philip Noland.
Maybe it was counterfeit or blew up later? Being a country is complicated. The bigger, the more complicated. I liked reminding us about “a more perfect union.” I never understand the hatred of Bush. It’s been proven he didn’t lie. Britain and Israel stood by their intel and were right. How did everyone sleep on 9/11? Bush stepped up to the plate. He told us it would be long, and very hard. As we learn more about the history of the war in Iraq, I would hope people would quiet the vitriol. We should have stayed. How many lives lost, human history destroyed? I couldn’t behead anybody. This evil is so outrageous. When I see a military uniform I say thank you. Now I’ll pick up the check if there is one. They truly keep us safe.
Professor Turley included a link in his article about the Pentagon denying their involvement.
No matter what, we need to find out the truth.
Do you know how many times I’ve heard military relatives tell me, “I can neither confirm nor deny . . .”
My own father has told me to provide documentation of a subject being declassified before he’ll ever tell me anything that was ever classified. On a couple of subjects, I think I’ll actually have to try that!
Squeeky:
Is that what she told her husband? “Honey, it wasn’t my fault! He hypnotized me!”
Karen – it has gotten to the point where the classify tissue paper. Everything is classified at one level or another.
For me, the biggest point of this story is the bombshell that the government openly lied to us AGAIN. We were repeatedly told that we did not ransom Bergdhal.
And we look foolish and incompetent with a lopsided deal like this.
Looking weak to a region of extremist madmen that want to kill us encourages them to attack us, and endangers our civilians and military.
Yes, I would rather do just about anything than trade homicidal maniacs who posed with severed human heads for a deserter. Here is what I said above, in case it wasn’t clear:
“The unique situation with Bergdhal was that Special Forces had several opportunities to rescue him, but (rightly, in my opinion), was unwilling to do so because it would risk brave soldiers’ lives for a deserter. However, if we were going to ransom him, I wanted that money to be counterfeit, printed on paper that would rapidly degrade, have a dye bomb, or come with a tracking device used by the targeting system of the next drone strike.”
And I said the same thing, repeatedly, on the Bergdhal thread.
Because trading high level terrorists for a low level deserter also subsidizes terrorism.
Usually, I would want SF to go in and try to yank him out. But none of them were willing to risk their lives for someone who had betrayed them, and put their own in danger through willful misconduct and fraternizing with the enemy.
So, as I’ve said before, multiple times, I would have wanted the money to be rigged, or have a tracking system with a big old Drone bullseye.
When will the Pentagon or the WH just call me to be an advisor. Think of all the political quagmire I could prevent! LOL.
“Accused” is the word in the headline but the article written as though it was a proven fact.
The pentagon says it is not true: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/21/pentagon-denies-ransom-paid-for-bergdahl-release-amid-review-hostage-policy/
And if anyone would want it to be true it would be Fox.
leejcaroll – and if anyone would not want to admit they got conned it would be the Pentagon.
Please don’t give credence to anything written in the Washington Times. It is little more than moonie propaganda.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Washington_Times
@jettexas Lol!
Glenn – and MSNBC and HuffPo are arms of the Democratic Party. Not sure what your point is. Everybody is owned by somebody. We regularly have ‘wars’ over who to cite here. Nobody is clean. For all I know, you are a paid shill for the Democrats.
@Darren Smith
Here is a tip on a “bad lawyer” story for you!
NOVEMBER 19–An Ohio lawyer is under criminal investigation for hypnotizing a female client during meetings and directing her to engage in a series of sexual activities while in a trance and under his control, police report.
The probe of Michael Fine, 57, was detailed yesterday in an emergency court motion filed by the Lorain County Bar association, which is seeking an immediate suspension of the lawyer, who has been practicing for more than 30 years.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/Ohio-lawyer-hypnotizes-female-clients-687543
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
This makes me wonder what other forms of ransom were paid under the guise of “going to an intelligence source” as this article mentions.
Well said Karen…
It seems every day we are bombarded with information related to “non-disclosures”, deceptions, or outright fabrications from our government. Everything now, on both sides of the aisle, is “spin”.
Our country as we have known it for over 200 years is in trouble. Our education system is in shambles, our debt levels are already past levels that are supportable, the unfunded liabilities are mind boggling. Although most of the people on this blog are informed citizens, watching any “man in the street” interview will show you just how uninformed, disengaged, and apathetic many of our fellow citizens are.
The politicians from both parties feed on these people; earning votes with 10-second sound bites and deceptive talking points.
As time goes on, the uneducated and uninformed number of our citizenry will continue to grow and become an ever larger percentage of the populace… All the while demanding more and more from patronizing politicians instead of embracing self-reliance and government limits espoused in the US Constitution.
Very disturbing , if it’s true . We didn’t do anything for our people in Benghazi , and didn’t nehotisye for the release of our reporters kidnapped by IS , but seems like we did everything for the person who had voluntarily went to talibans .
“The line was crossed the very same day our founders signed the Constitution then went home to their plantations to reap the benefits of their slaves’ labor.”
Daniel,
This one statement demonstrates you have no idea how cultures change. The Declaration of Independence was a vision statement for the principles of what we would strive to be. The Constitution’s preamble states that we would be working to become “a more perfect Union”. We will never be perfect; especially if the grubered electorate remains ignorant of the vision, apathetic to the constitutional process and fully dependent on the will of the government.
Olly – one would have to presuppose that slaves came free, that you plucked them off trees somehow. Slaves cost money. A prime field hand would be worth about $100k today. Not a cheap investment.
In point of fact, one of the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence had a clause condemning King George III for supporting the slave trade. However, that section was taken out of the final version.
Karen, wasn’t it you who was in favor of paying a ransom for Bergdahl, back when we had that really long first thread about him?