Released Taliban Detainees: Not So “Innocent” After All?

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The backgrounds of these Taliban leaders does underscore, however, that the detainees in Guantanamo were not all “innocent” people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, a narrative that has been urged by many critics of Guantanamo, especially in Europe.

Moreover, the Taliban leaders’ backgrounds demonstrate that it would have been legally difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute them in federal courts — as many human rights groups have urged — because U.S. criminal statutes did not apply to their activities in Afghanistan and because the U.S. military had not collected evidence about them that would have been admissible in federal court. And, if the Taliban had actually been treated as POWs under the Geneva Conventions (for which there has always been a good argument), they would have had to be prosecuted in a military court, not a civilian court, pursuant to Article 102 of the Third Geneva Convention.

In short, all of this demonstrates that — while Guantanamo has indisputably caused great harm to the reputation of the United States (and should in my view be closed) — the practical issue of what to do with al Qaida and Taliban leaders captured in Afghanistan (both in 2001 and today) has been a much more difficult problem than critics of Guantanamo, including President Obama, members of the Obama Administration, and human rights groups, have been willing to acknowledge.

Read from the beginning at Lawfare Blog

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Taliban leaders’ backgrounds demonstrate that it would have been legally difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute them in federal courts — as many human rights groups have urged — because U.S. criminal statutes did not apply to their activities in Afghanistan and because the U.S. military had not collected evidence about them that would have been admissible in federal court.

Well…..DUH!!!
It was WAR!

But Obama was in such a hurry to let these guys go to Qutar that he refused to respect Federal law and inform Congress.
When will and who will our next kidnapped American be?

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a rare public statement hailing the exchange of five Guantanamo Bay detainees for a Taliban-held US soldier as a “big victory”.

Now, who heard about the shooter who killed 3 people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels?
The killer has been caught.
He admitted to the shooting.
Our media said he was French.
Yeah, he is French….sort of.
Mehdi Nemmouche had spent over a year in Syria and had links with radical Islamists.
In his possession were guns and a white sheet emblazoned with the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, possibly to be used as a backdrop for his video.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27654505

@Nanny G:

When will and who will our next kidnapped American be?

By making this deal trading high level Taliban leaders for a single military member of little military importance, Obama has just made it open season on all Americans overseas.

When you sign up for the military, you will go to war. Death is the final line on the contract.
The idiot has made an illegal transfer of five, notorious militants for one useless GI. All fine will be back in the field of terrorism in less than sixty days.
Death before dishonor, maybe Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl failed to under stande the consequences of what it means to be an American soldier. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl never under stood the nature of his assignment. Five years in captivity, never lost a pound, played volleyball, grew a beard and celebrated x-mas.
He was kept alive at his request as a pawn for the future.
Garbage, he  has no class and should not be vindigated as a hero. Want to be the ass++++ awards him a CMH.

I could solve the problem with a .22 pistol and lots of ammo. They would not create any more problems for any one.

@Randy:

There are just too many people who think this guy is John Walker Lindh in a uniform.

And his father is praising Allah after his son is released? What’s up with that?

@retire05: His father had wanted ALL Gitmo detainees released!

Afghan Taliban Leader Boasts Prisoner Swap Is a Victory for Taliban

On May 31 Breitbart News reported Obama’s announcement that five Gitmo detainees were being exchanged for Bergdahl following U.S. negotiations with the Taliban.

According to BBC News, Omar says the exchange is a “great victory” for the Taliban, and on June 1 he said, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire Afghan Muslim nation.”

The Afghan government responded with outrage over the swap, of which they were not informed until after it was done.


Did the Obama White House Trade Five Terrorists for a Taliban Sympathizer?

The circumstances behind the sergeant’s disappearance and kidnapping remains suspect. Why he seemingly walked off of his forward operating base in 2009, an infringement upon basic standard operating procedures, has not been explained.

Lt. Col Allen West noted that there is no precedent for the Taliban detaining American soldiers: “Our troops are brutally, ritually, and savagely murdered — to include American security contractors (remember the Fallujah bridge) — not held for five years”, he said.

The reports that Bowe has had “trouble speaking English” may seem confusing at the surface, especially since English is his native language and he has been seen on video over the past few years speaking the language without issue.

In his Saturday press conference with President Obama, Sgt. Bergdahl’s father, Robert Bergdahl, initially spoke in Arabic, the language of the Koran, in a message to his son: “In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.”…(snip)

…On May 24th, Bergdahl linked to a movie produced by the Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan, a site that uses the Al Qaeda flag as its banner, saying, “I am still working to free all captives on all sides of this conflict.” Additionally, the website is recognized as the Taliban’s English-language media outlet. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan existed in the country under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.

So we must question whether the Muslim conversion of Bergdahl and the islamic radicalism of his father might have anything to do with Obama, again bending over backwards to aid our enemies?