Who doesn’t recall that “touching” scene in the White House Rose Garden last year, when President Barack Obama stood side-by-side with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s parents speaking about his release from “harm’s way.”
Obama announced to the American public that Bergdahl, after having “missed birthdays and the simple moments with family and friends, which all of us take for granted,” was coming home after being freed from “nearly five years in captivity.”
For many Americans who watched this “made for TV” gathering, this was anything but a happy reunion. Many in the military, including a former roommate of Bergdahl’s, believed that he was a traitor and that the White House knew this even before the swap. Speculation surrounding Bergdahl’s real intent for leaving his military post ultimately put a damper on Obama’s attempt at a happy family reunion.
Jani Bergdahl, the mother of freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, speaks to the press while her husband Bob Bergdahl and US President Barack Obama look on in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 31, 2014 in Washington, DC. Obama and the Bergdahls spoke after the release of Bowe Bergdahl by the Taliban in Afghanistan. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Today, despite the recent charges of desertion being filed against Bergdahl, many Americans are more interested in knowing what happened to the five Taliban leaders that were released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration in exchange for the release of the wayward soldier.
Do they pose a real and imminent threat to the United States or are they just harmless ne’er-do-wells?
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, (R-Calif.), said after Bergdahl was charged with desertion that “Today’s announcement is the exclamation point on the bad deal the Obama administration cut to free five terrorist killers in its rush to empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay.”
And he just may be right.
It was reported as recently as six months ago, that Mullah Mohammed Fazi, the Taliban’s former Defense Minister and one of the five Taliban terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay during the Bergdahl exchange, is now in Iraq serving in a leadership role for the Islamic State terrorists.
Reports contend that Fazi is heavily engaged in the murder of non-Sunni people in Iraq. Fazi was classified in 2008 by the Pentagon as a high risk to the United States and is currently involved in the Islamic State caliphate.
A nonpartisan Government Accountability Office recently found that President Obama broke the law when he exchanged the five Taliban leaders but as you might expect, the White House “strongly disagreed” with the GAO’s conclusion.
In this image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, stands with a Taliban fighter in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban on Wednesday, June 4, 2014, released a video showing the handover of Bergdahl to U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, touting the swap of the American soldier for five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo as a significant achievement for the insurgents. (AP Photo/Voice Of Jihad Website via AP video)
Unofficial word from the White House is that Fazi has now been placed on a top-priority drone strike list of terrorist targets. This was done, no doubt, to rid the White House of any more embarrassing moments, due to the fallout surrounding Fazi’s release and the important position he now holds within the Islamic State.
Khairullah Khairkhwa, a Taliban intelligence official, prior to his being detained at Guantanamo Bay, met at the request of Iranian officials, to discuss the brokering of a coalition between Iran’s Northern Alliance and the Taliban against U.S. intervention, according to a Department of Defense Memorandum, classified as a “Secret//NOFORN//02330306.” In essence, the Iranian officials were offering to open the borders so that the Taliban could get into Afghanistan and fight against U.S. and coalition forces.
It leads to speculation that he may now possibly be working with many of the same Iranian officials that the U.S. is currently in negotiations with regarding a nuclear weapons deal.
All that is currently known about this “honored” Muslim cleric, who was directly associated with Osama bin Laden and Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Muhammed Omar, is that following his release he was required to stay in Qatar for a year following the Bergdahl swap. This was also a condition of release for the other four Taliban leaders freed from Guantanamo Bay.
While it is unclear where several released Taliban leaders have gone and what they may be doing presently, sources indicate that along with Fazi, Abdul Haq Wasiq, former deputy chief of the Taliban’s regime’s intelligence service and Norullah Noori, Taliban’s Governor of Balkh Province have “joined the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq as commanders and are using their rank to usher in an ‘Islamic Caliphate.'"
Only time will tell if White House communications director Jen Psaki’s statement that freeing Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban terrorists was “absolutely” worth it will return to haunt this administration. As the death toll rises under the possible leadership of those that were released in exchange for a man who has now been charged with desertion, the American public should continue to question the Obama administration’s judgment in releasing prisoners without the knowledge of Congress.
What is clear for the American public is that Islamic State acts of terrorism have occurred in the U.S. since the release of these men. The beheading of a grandmother in Oklahoma is just one example of an act of terrorism, although deemed “workplace violence” by the Obama administration that may have been carried out under the direction of or at least influenced by, any one of the five Taliban leaders who were freed by the Obama administration.
More attacks by the Islamic State terrorists are predicted to occur on American soil in the future. These attacks, if they transpire, will come at the direction of Islamic State leadership and those giving the orders may be any of the five terrorist Taliban leaders released from Guantanamo Bay by this administration.
Feature Image: AP Photo/Voice Of Jihad Website via AP video
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