*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…)

(Via Right Scoop) The first and most obvious comment from Bowe Bergdahl’s father, Bob Bergdahl, was at the White House presser on Saturday. Walid Shoebat and company put this video together that shows us a couple of things.

First, what’s been said to be an Islamic greeting is in fact the most famous war cry of Islam called the “Bismillah” or the “Basmallah”. It sounds like this: “bismillah al-rahman al-rahim” which means in Arabic “in the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.”

Walid Shoebat says this about it:

The “Basmallah” is the Islamic expression for victory and only indicates that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s father is a Muslim. …When one gives the basmallah, trims his mustache and elongates his beard, its the first sign of a convert to Islam.

Now watch the video they put together and notice Obama grins ear to ear when he hears the “Basmallah”:

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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.

Ahh, the familiar footprint of “The Fixer”…  You can hear them now:  …‘the first time we found out he was a deserter was when, like you, we read about it in the media’… and the lapdog media will just be OK with that.

We notice many pundits are beginning to wonder if the White House was “caught off guard” about the details surrounding Bowie Bergdahl’s desertion from his post.   Obviously, one would think, the White House would have a full understanding of the back-story surrounding PFC Bergdahl before letting Susan Rice say:

“He served his country with honor and distinction”…

The White House had to know Bergdahl deserted his post, did they not anticipate this would come up? Because the way they are handling it suggests they are being caught off-guard.  (link)

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James Rosen – A senior official confirms to Fox News that the conduct of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban — has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of “a major classified file.”

In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy.

The Pentagon official added pointedly that no relevant congressional committee has sought access to the classified file, but that if such a request were made, key committee chairs would, under previous precedent, likely be granted access to it. Separately, the Pentagon confirmed Monday that it is looking into claims Americans died during the search for Bergdahl.  (more…)

A pro-Taliban website has published a video that claims to show Taliban detainees arriving in Qatar after being released from Guantanamo Bay as part of a prisoner exchange.

In the footage, released by nunn.asia, a group of men wearing traditional Muslim dress gather on a roadside in what is said to be Qatar. The five men, who were switched for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, were to be sent to Qatar where they will remain for at least a year.

When the former prisoners – it’s not clear if all of them are present or just a few – pull up in a convoy of black SUVs, they receive a warm reception, with lots of hugs from the awaiting, clearly jubilant, supporters.

There is no American presence in sight. (read more)

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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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(Via The Hill) White House press secretary Jay Carney is resigning as the White House’s principal spokesman.

President Obama announced the move in a surprise appearance during Carney’s briefing, and the same day he accepted Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation.

Carney will leave his job next month, and he’ll be replaced by his deputy, longtime Obama aide Josh Earnest. Obama hailed Carney as “one of my closest friends” and a “great press secretary”. (more…)