Taiban offer to release Bergdahl
The Associated Press reports that the first thing on the agenda for “peace talks” between the US and the Taliban in Qatar is an exchange of prisoners, including the release of the only known prisoner of the Taliban, Bowe Bergdahl;
In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl “is, as far as I know, in good condition.”
Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl’s current whereabouts. Among the five prisoners the Taliban have consistently requested are Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a former top Taliban military commander, both of whom have been held for more than a decade.
Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors about how Bergdahl came to be the Taliban’s prisoner in the first place, but there’s plenty of time to sort through that after we get him home. Whatever the circumstances were that led to his capture, he doesn’t deserve to be beheaded for it. So, yeah, let’s do what needs to be done to get him home and we’ll deal with other stuff later.
Category: Terror War
I could live with a one-for-one exchange. Sadly, I’m betting the Taliban won’t go for that.
I believe they want five terrorists released from Gitmo. I don’t support freeing five of their war fighters who will likely be involved directly or indirectly with future attacks on US troops or civilians. Tough decision.
@1: Agreed, Hondo. One for one should be the only option on the table if they want a prisoner exchange.
We have announced our intention to leave next year. We need to tie up any loose ends. Despite my distaste for dealing with the Taliban on anything other than helping them find a dry cleaner to get the urine smell out of their dead guys attire, we should work to get Bergdahl back. He does not deserve to die over there.
I don’t know who keeps bringing up the circumstances of his capture. HEre are the relevant facts now as I see them
A) He’s an American Soldier
B) He’s an American Soldier.
C) He’s an American Soldier.
I’m with you John. Sort the details out later. Right now there’s one goal. Getting him home, alive.
Yeah,
Give them one person, or 5 or 20.
We can wack them all later.
We need to get Sgt Berghdal back safely and in one piece.
THEN we “mop up”. 😉
Give them their little Freedom Fighters. It won’t be the first, or the last time one their “cured” fighters has shown up on the field of battle after release.
Better yet, fit them all with a GPS suppository, once we have Bergdahl back, release the drones.
He is an US Soldier.
The US will always work towards his rescue and or release.
In the event of a death … we will continue and recover the remains.
Now … what do we do.
During the negociations, we should employ simple trade craft and determine his whereabouts (general or specific). He should be located and tracked. Once he is in the most advantageous tactical position for rescue, SOCOM should launch a mission to safely rescue and secure Bowe Bergdahl while killing any and all enemy who might be holding him.
Any questions?
The Israelis released so many in exchange for Gilad Shalit. I would never balk, not for an instant, at the cost of redeeming an American paratrooper from captivity.
We are so lucky he didn’t go the way of Nick Berg or Daniel Pearl, because that’s usually how those camel-lovemakers roll.
Bring him home, then WE WILL discuss the circumstances under which he was captured.
Do what it takes to get Sgt. Bergdahl home. That is all. Nothing else matters at this point.
Actually, a 5-1 exchange sounds like a pretty good opening offer. Pick any 5 of the Gitmo detainees who are being force fed and ask them if they would consider feeding themselves for a ticket “home.”
Then get Bowie home!
What Chip said in #6.
Keep in mind that what we know about his capture is from the Tailban. Till we can get him free (by trade or by force) it does not matter.
I would happily give them their five big name guys to get our man back. But I question what the current CiC will support. I keep getting the impression he does not care.
So what happened to “we don’t negotiate with terrorists?”
Call me hard-hearted if you want to but swapping a prisoner doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. Giving the bad guys the message that all they have to do to get their leaders back is to snatch an American GI can only lead to more of this happening.
@8: Nice thought, but the bad guys aren’t that dumb. They’re not going to give away his location. For that matter, he may well be dead and they may just be jerking our chain to see what kind of response they get.
I agree. Get him home first and foremost. Then as soon as we know where the trade-offs went…drone time. He needs to come home and if we say no, they will kill him, and film it. I understand it sets an ugly precedence to trade because it opens the door to more of the same. Bu this soldier has endured enough. Maybe we can have the balls in negotiations to dictate who we are willing to release, not them.
@ #15: Prisoner exchanges have gone on in most wars. Negotiating the terms of same is not quite the same as negotiating generally with terrorists. Still, it doesn’t sound quite right, does it?
The man has been a POW for what 5 years? Time to bring him home. If it means that we have to realese some assholes from GITMO then do it. Can kill them all later or immediately following the exchange. Bring home Bowe
I don’t know anything about how he was captured nor do i give a damn. I did read he attempted to escape at least once.
I would hate to see a repeat of Capt Spicer from the gulf war.
Sam,
Huffing paint fumes is very dangerous.
His proper name is: CAPT Michael “Scott” Speicher, USN
That is all.
How many men died capturing those Gitmo detainees in the first place? I’d like to think that if I were him, I’d hope we wouldn’t make that deal. That said, it’s not even about SGT Bergdahl himself – he represents all of us…
I guess I’m glad I don’t have to make this call, and I’ll just hope for his safe return.
#21 LOL you disagree with Sam big time. No doubt I agree with you, releasing GITMO guys? Are you out of your fucking mind?
I disagree with trading lives for this soldier. That means that there is a price on a soldier’s life – in this case it is the release of hostages. What should be expressed is that there is NO price that can or will be paid for the release of our soldiers. And until they release him, unharmed… we start unloading troops in the Taliban’s backyard. And continue unloading troops until either he is returned or that country is literally a wasteland.
The Russians know how to handle this(from wikipedia):
…in October 1985, Alpha Group was dispatched to the war-torn Beirut, Lebanon. The Kremlin was informed of the kidnapping of four Russian diplomats by the militant group Islamic Liberation Organization (a radical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood). It was believed that this was retaliation to the Russian support of the Syrian involvement in the Lebanese Civil War.[16] However, by the time Alpha arrived, word spread that one of the hostages had already been killed. Through a network of supporting KGB operatives, members of the task-force identified each of the perpetrators involved in the crisis, and once identified, began to take the relatives of these militants as hostages. Following the standard Soviet policy of no negotiations with terrorists, some of the hostages belonging to Alpha Group had been dismembered and their body parts where sent to the militants. The warning was clear: more would follow unless the remaining hostages are released immediately. The show of force worked, and for a period of 20 years[17] no Soviet or Russian officials were taken captive until the 2006 abduction and murder of four Russian embassy staff members in Iraq. However, the veracity of this story is open to debate. Another version says that the release of the Soviet hostages was the result of extensive diplomatic negotiations with spiritual leader of Hezbollah, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who appealed to King Hussein of Jordan and the leaderships of Libya and Iran to use their influence on the kidnappers.[18]
James: the Soviets had, shall we say, certain freedoms of action the US doesn’t. In particular, they didn’t have to deal with the ACLU – or with a media that generally thinks everything done by US military or intelligence organizations is evil.
How many Soldiers died while running DUSTWUN ops for a soldier who willingly deserted in a foreign country?
In memory of Vince Flynn, I say send in Mitch Rapp.