Holy SNAP – If these intelligence reports (James Rosen is working to verify) are accurate, Bergdahl will never be allowed by the administration to leave Germany.   It would be far too politically dangerous to allow sunlight upon such explosive allegations.

Forget Obama -he’s already toast- we’re talking about team Clinton who would NOT want to be associated with such optics….

Allegation:  PFC Bowe Bergdahl taught the Taliban U.S. military engagement strategy and tactics, ambush skills, along with bomb-making and effective placement for maximum infliction of damage ?

Can you imagine the damage not only to this administration, but to the larger Democrat party and to Hillary Clinton, as a result of President Obama standing in the Rose Garden, conspicuously joining in a proclamation of victory on behalf of Allah, against the backdrop of a son who taught the Taliban more effective ways to kill U.S. soldiers.

Good grief the opposition campaign commercials write themselves….  Listen to this:

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Clouding the “Domestic” aspect under the guise of “radicalism” allows Holder to conflate the intentions of his goal.

WASHINGTON DC – Attorney General Eric Holder, citing an “escalating danger from self-radicalized individuals within our own borders,” said Tuesday that the Justice Department will revive a domestic terrorism task force.

The task force was established after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to share information about domestic threats. It was set to meet the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, after which the country turned its focus to terror overseas.

“But now, as the nature of the threat we face evolves to including the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet, it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home,” Holder said in a weekly video. (more…)

Forward video to @2:00 point for announcement and audience response.

(Via CBS) Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters “will be dealt with later,” Hagel said.

Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar:

“This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.”

It was unclear whether the absence of cheers and applause came from a reluctance to display emotion in front of the Pentagon chief or from any doubts among the troops about Bergdahl.  (link)

*Update Below Fold* – Many are noting the inherent issues of the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap, and there are indeed many issues:  The non-consultation with congress; The ideology behind Robert Bergdahl;  The desertion from duty of then PFC Bowe Bergdahl;  The probability of the terrorists returning to attack Americans;   The various contradictions stemming from the White House, State Dept and Military; and perhaps more concerning the precedent now established for the U.S. actually negotiating with terrorists etc.

However, not withstanding -nor diminishing- all of those issues, another hits a deeper resonance.   If you give the benefit of all considerations and doubt to the administration, there’s one question they are neither being asked, nor have they reasonably stated.

Why make everything about the release, swap, exchange, so public ?

What was gained by such publicity in a weekend Rose Garden speech?  What policy was improved?  What military or foreign policy benefitted from telling the entire world what was happening, when it was happening, and how we did it?

It is entirely possible for the release to have assured and delivered without all of the publicity surrounding it.   Bowe Bergdahl’s release could have been done quietly, with press release and WH communication after the event.   Why was it considered a better course to put on such a public display?   What exactly was the benefit?

Some brave journalist should put those simple questions to the administration, and keep asking why ?   Then find out who made the decision. (more…)

This is what happens when you have multiple agencies within the administration all working from politically flawed McDonough/Jarrett/Rhodes and communication room “talking points”.

The White House constructs a specific and complex narrative.   The message is then transmitted to State Dept.   The State Dept is then selling that narrative “detained while in combat“, even when the White House (Carney) backs away from it.

WATCH:

We saw the exact same thing happen with the Benghazi story.  As mentioned yesterday this is the exact consequence from using the political outlook of any event to shape your outward messaging.

When you are using politics, or more specifically political risk, as the common consideration to create your message – when the politics of the message turn against you it becomes necessary to shift positions.

The trouble stems with the communication lag between the political shifts toward each accompanying agency. When you shift position the others don’t yet know, that separation creates the double-speak and contradiction.

It only happens when you politicize your position. The more you use politics as the filter to determine your message, the worse, and more frequent, the visible contradiction(s) become.

Perhaps, just perhaps, through the Bergdahl release, people will begin to see the intentional deception the Obama Administration brought not only to the body politic, but also to the military.

•  2012 Benghazi survivors forced to sign confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements to protect the administration from sunlight – while President Obama and Hillary Clinton lie to the families of rescue victims about what took place…..

•  2009 Berghdahl’s unit forced to sign confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements to protect the administration from sunlight – while President Obama Inc. lie to families of rescue victims about what took place….

Noticing a pattern ?

•  2011 President Obama going to War in Libya, then staying there beyond the legally authorized (War Powers Act 30 days), defying his own office of legal counsel by not notifying congress or requesting authorization.

•  2014 President Obama entering a prisoner exchange agreement, without notifying congress, the intelligence committee, or House/Senate Leadership, within the legally mandated 30 days, or requesting authorization.

Noticing a pattern ?

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The process for the deception was actually outlined on the bottom of page #4 of the interim OIG report. The VA facilities, and in many cases the VA regional offices, were keeping two sets of treatment records. One set was what they were using – the second set was what they were reporting to VA in Washington.

To pull off the deception the “audit trail” function on the computer software was disabled. Meaning, there was no way to identify who was manipulating the records and when.

The only way to fix this is to fire all the administrators, fire the top and mid-level managers, fire the auditors and compliance officers, and then deconstruct the SEIU and AFSCME union stranglehold within the VA.

Yeah, good luck with that…

WASHINGTON DC – Appointments’ wait times were manipulated at more than 60 percent of the Department of Veterans Affairs health facilities investigated as part of a new internal audit.

The White House-ordered audit found that schedulers faced pressure to manipulate the system and concluded there was a “systemic lack of integrity within some Veterans Health Administration facilities.”

The audit, issued as VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday, found that 64 percent of the 216 VA facilities reviewed had at least one instance where a veterans’ desired appointment date had been changed.

The review found 13 percent of schedulers had received specific instructions to misrepresent wait times.

“Information indicates that in some cases, pressures were placed on schedulers to utilize inappropriate practices in order to make waiting times appear more favorable,” the audit said. (more…)

AFP: Taliban leader Mullah Omar says prisoner swap which freed U.S. soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was a "big victory"

— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) June 1, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican lawmakers on Saturday accused President Barack Obama of breaking the law by approving the release of five Afghan detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for a U.S. soldier believed held by Islamist insurgents for five years.

The White House agreed that actions were taken in spite of legal requirements and cited “unique and exigent circumstances” as justification.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, of Hailey, Idaho, was handed over to U.S. special operations forces by the Taliban. In return, five Afghans who were held at a U.S. detention facility in Cuba were released to the custody of the government of Qatar, which served as a go-between in negotiations for the trade. (more…)

It should be noted that since abdicating the position of Secretary of State, and the introduction of Clinton’s ‘fixer’, John “Skippy” Podesta, the White House -and more specifically the activity that flows from within it- is now a synergy of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s goals.

Yesterday some pundits and media looked strangely at the non-scheduled meeting between Obama and Clinton as if fodder for grand conspiratorial questioning.

As with most issues the answers are not as complex as they seem.

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