There needs to be a complete investigation into whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl actually was captured, or walked away from his unit to join the Taliban, as some of his fellow soldiers have asserted. But in today’s political climate, these is exceedingly unlikely — it might be “Islamophobic.”
“Obama Submits To Taliban Demands, Allows Praise For Allah,” by Neil Munro, Daily Caller, June 1, 2014 (thanks to Darcy):
President Barack Obama apparently traded five jailed jihadis held in Guantanamo for one American soldier, despite federal law, which requires Congress to be notified before prisoners are transferred.
Obama used a Rose Garden press event to tout the surprise trade — which he won by making critical, last-minute concessions — while the parents of the freed soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, stood alongside.
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.”…
The five jihadis released by Obama are senior leaders of the Taliban. One is the former head of the Taliban’s army.
They were released by Obama from the secure Guantanamo prison to the custody of the United Arab Emirates.
White House officials acknowledged that the sudden trade violated a federal law requiring a 30-day notice to Congress before prisoners are transferred.
“The administration determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances, such a transfer should go forward notwithstanding the notice requirement,” officials told media outlets.
GOP leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees criticized the trade.
“In executing this transfer, the President also clearly violated laws which require him to notify Congress thirty days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay and to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated,” said the statement from California Rep. Buck McKeon, and Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe.
“America has maintained a prohibition on negotiating with terrorists for good reason,” they said.
“Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Berghdal’s release may have consequences… Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans [which] will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk,” said the statement.
During recent negotiations, Obama agreed to exclude the Afghan government from the negotiations, and to drop a U.S. condition that the prisoners be released over a period of time, officials told reporters.
Since his son was captured in 2009, Bergdahl has conducted his own outreach to the captors, who are an ally of the Taliban, the Haqqani tribal group. He has also included Islamic phrases in his videos, such as “As-salamu alaykum” which is a religious greeting exchanged between observant Muslims.
Although Bergdahl quoted the Quran verse, the White House transcript did not translate it or even include the Islamic prayer.
Instead, the transcript simply said Bergdahl spoke in the Pasho language, which is the language of the Pushtun tribe, which forms the vast majority of the Taliban force. In fact, “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” is Arabic…..
Read the rest here.