This week we’ve learned a lot about Bowe Bergdahl. There’s strong evidence that he hated America, renounced his citizenship, and deserted his post. He may have even converted to Islam and declared himself a mujahid. But what about the five Taliban guys we traded for him in the Worst Deal Ever?
Don’t worry. They’ll be fine. Eli Lake, Daily Beast:
President Obama and his national security Cabinet expressed confidence this week in a still-secret agreement with the kingdom of Qatar to keep watch over the five senior Taliban figures released from Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
But privately, many U.S. military and intelligence officials say it’s unwise to rely on Qatar to monitor the Gitmo 5. U.S. officials have had long-standing concerns that Qatar has often turned a blind eye to terrorist financing inside its borders and failed to keep track of a former Guantanamo inmate who was transferred to the emirate at the end of the Bush administration…
In 2008, when the Bush administration transferred Jaralla al-Marri, a Qatari citizen who spent six years in U.S. captivity, from Guantanamo to Qatar, Doha provided similar assurances to the ones it has provided about the Gitmo 5.
But less than six months after the July 2008 transfer, al-Marri traveled to the United Kingdom ostensibly to go on a speaking tour with other former Guantanamo detainees.
And he was only considered medium-risk. These guys are high-risk, there are five of them and they’re already running around free in Qatar.
Even rhetorical genius Barack Obama says: “Is there a possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely.” Yes, getting killed by terrorists certainly is detrimental. But you can’t say he didn’t warn you.
Obama has emboldened terrorists, endangered Americans abroad, and given us the most irrefutable evidence yet that he’s both a bumbling incompetent and a shameless liar. All to bring home a deserter, if not a defector.
Not bad for a weeks’ work.
Update: If you just got back from vacation on Mars, here’s a good recap of this whole fiasco. And in case you didn’t know…
All five GTMO detainees transferred this week were assessed by Obama’s own GTMO task force as high-risk, to be held indefinitely.
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) June 6, 2014