The graduates at West Point should be congratulated.  

After the publically luke-warm reception garnered from a recent visit to West Point; and following a resoundingly – bi-partisan panned – failed foreign policy speech filled with empty prose and rhetoric….. Obama tries desperately to shore up his “I Believe In American Exceptionalism” military cred….

Obama/Bergdahl photo-ops in 3,…2,… 1…

https://twitter.com/PzFeed/statuses/472777675267141632

(via AP Reporting) […] The handover followed secret and indirect negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban, with the government of Qatar serving as the go-between. Qatar is taking custody of the five Afghan detainees that had been held at Guantanamo Bay.

Gitmo detainees released 2

According to a senior defense official traveling with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Singapore, once Bergdahl climbed onto the noisy helicopter he took a pen and wrote on a paper plate, the “SF?” – asking the troops if they were special operations forces.

They shouted back at him over the roar of the rotors: “Yes, we’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

Then, according to the official, Bergdahl broke down.

Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, is believed to have been held by the Haqqani network since June 30, 2009. Haqqani operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and has been one of the deadliest threats to U.S. troops in the war. The network, which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, claims allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, yet operates with some degree of autonomy.

Officials said Bergdahl was expected to be transferred to Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, for medical evaluations, then on to the United States.

Several dozen U.S. special operations forces flew into Afghanistan by helicopter and made the transfer with the approximately 18 Taliban members. The official said the commandos were on the ground for a short time before lifting off with Bergdahl.

The official added that the U.S. still believes that Bergdahl was being held for the bulk of the time in Pakistan, but it was not clear when he was transported to eastern Afghanistan. (read more)

———————– Backstory Reminder From TREEHOUSE in 2011 ——————-

FREE BOWE BERGDAHL ! PFC Bowe Bergdahl is a prisoner of war held by the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan. He was last seen June 30th 2009 in Paktika Province Afghanistan. Bowe Bergdahl has been deprived of liberty and yet his prisoner status seems to have been completely overlooked by the media. His family needs our help. Please call or write to your Congressman and Senators and request their intervention and action. He is rumored to have been taken by the Taliban into Pakistan. IF THEY CAN FIND BIN LADEN, WHY NOT BOWE?

(Via ABC News) The father of Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. soldier to be held in captivity by the Taliban, released a statement on YouTube Friday pleading for the safe release of his son in the wake of the U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden. “Our son is being exploited. It is past time for Bowe and the others to come home,” said Robert Bergdahl in a video statement posted on-line. In the three-minute message, he addresses the Pakistani military and thanked the Taliban commanders holding his son.

“Strangely, to some, we must also thank those who have cared for our son for almost 2 years,” said Bergdahl. “We understand the rationale the Islamic Emirate has made through videos … our son’s safe return will only heighten public awareness of this.” He asked the Pakistani Army, which has been fighting the Taliban in the border region, to help secure his son’s release. “Our family knows the high price that has been paid by your men in the Army and Frontier Corps. We give our condolences and thanks to the families of those who have fallen for Pakistan.”

The video is the first public statement by Bowe Bergdahl’s father since the Army private first class was captured. In the video, shot against a mountain backdrop, Robert Bergdahl wears a black shirt and a full beard.

The statement follows a video released by the Taliban earlier in the week featuring a 10 second clip of Bowe Bergdahl being blindfolded and led away by his captors. The appearance is the fifth time the Idaho-born U.S. soldier, now 25, has been seen since he was captured in June of 2009 along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Army spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said that officials were studying the video and could not confirm if the shots were new or different than what had been released in previous videos.

An earlier Taliban video released in December, nearly 18 months into his captivity, showed a gaunt Bergdahl with a cut on his face standing with a senior Taliban commander responsible for his capture.

At the time of his capture, Bergdahl was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska before deploying to Afghanistan. He was promoted to Specialist while in captivity.

Bergdahl was lured from his post in eastern Afghanistan by several Afghan National Army soldiers on June 30th, 2009, and then taken by Taliban fighters in a nearby village, according to a senior Pentagon official. Bergdahl was quickly moved to Pakistan, where he has been shuttled around several locations, primarily in North Waziristan, the Pentagon official said.

In the immediate days after Bergdahl’s capture, U.S. forces began distributing a leaflet in eastern Afghanistan that warned, “If you do not release the U.S. soldier, then you will be hunted.” A picture of an American soldier kicking in the door of an Afghan home covers the leaflet. The U.S. military also had a succession of efforts to locate the missing soldier and free him. Initially, a reward of $25,000 for location tips was offered to Afghans in the eastern portions of the region from which he disappeared. According to a source involved in the effort, a large number of calls flooded, and overwhelmed U.S. military efforts.

Shortly after Bergdahl was taken prisoner, his captors filmed him making a brief statement and drinking tea and released the tape on the internet. They released a second video on Christmas 2009.

In a video released in April, Bergdahl was bearded and dressed in military issue clothing. He held up a newspaper, but the date of the paper’s publication was not visible. Bergdahl also performed push-ups to demonstrate his physical condition and said he was being treated well, despite being a prisoner. But Bergdahl began to lose his composure as he talked to the camera. “Release me please, I’m begging you,” he said.

“I love my family. I haven’t shown it very well because I’ve been pretty lost in my life and I don’t think I’ve given my family the love that they’ve given me.”

“Let me go,” pleaded Bergdahl.

(story and videos in the link)

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