Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Where Was Pete When Five Taliban Detainees Were Exchanged For Deserter Bowe Bergdahl?

From top left: Mohammad Nabi Omari, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa.
 

President Barack Obama's decision to exchange five Taliban prisoners detained for committing terrorist acts for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army infantryman who voluntarily deserted his fellow troops while serving in Afghanistan due to his supposed disillusionment with the U.S. government and its war in Afghanistan, has created one of the biggest firestorms of his presidency. When then-Private Bergdahl decided to desert the camp where he was based in 2009, he sent an e-mail to his parents describing how he was "ashamed to be an American" and how "disgusting" the "horror of America" was. A letter he left behind in his tent indicated that he was leaving to start a new life and wanted to renounce his citizenship.
Bowe Bergdahl
A Taliban-aligned terrorist group later took credit for capturing Bergdahl. The Taliban released their first video of the captured U.S. soldier in July, 2009 more than two weeks after he deserted. Soldiers who served alongside Bergdahl say that their platoon took heavy fire in the days and weeks following Bergdahl's desertion, while search teams spent months trying to locate him. Early reports indicated that as many as 6 soldiers lost their lives searching for Bergdahl, although Col. David Hunt told Fox News today that as many as 14 soldiers lost their lives searching for him. Inexplicably, the Army promoted Bergdahl to the rank of sergeant in abstentia despite a Pentagon investigation that concluded that he had deserted.

Emotions are running high on all sides concerning the wisdom of Obama's decision to release five Gitmo detainees described as hardened terrorists with some even suggesting that Obama's actions warrant impeachment because he failed to comply with a federal law enacted by Congress requiring 30-days' notice to Congress. Some congressional critics of President Ronald Reagan called for his impeachment after it became known that his administration had traded American hostages being held by Iran in exchange for illegal arms sales to the country. Some of the soldiers who served alongside Bergdahl are particularly angry with the decision and have gone so far as to suggest that Bergdahl should face a court martial based on their belief that he was actually collaborating with the enemy as opposed to being held captive against his will. That's to say nothing of the pain and anger expressed by a number of the parents of the soldiers killed searching for Bergdahl.

My attention at the moment is drawn to a well-known Hoosier politician who is currently serving as a naval intelligence officer in Afghanistan with the rank of lieutenant. I'm of course speaking of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Before anyone calls me out for putting his life at risk by discussing his work there, let the record show that he publicly disclosed the purpose of his deployment there when he announced that he would be taking a leave of absence this year from his service as mayor last September. Much to my surprise, Buttigieg even posted photos on his Facebook account announcing his departure for Afghanistan on March 27 with the message, "All right USA, I'm going to miss you but I'll be back soon!"

I was quite surprised at the time to learn that Buttigieg was a naval intelligence officer. After further researching his background, I learned that he had previously worked for former Defense Secretary William's Cohen's business consulting firm in Washington. Even more interesting was Buttigieg's prior work for McKinsey & Company, a global management company with close ties to the CIA, where he specialized in energy and economic development. Buttigieg has acknowledged that he spent part of his time while at McKinsey working in Afghanistan. President Obama's controversial national security advisor, Susan Rice, also worked for McKinsey during the early 1990s. Like the Harvard graduate Buttigieg, she is also a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford. I don't think it's preposterous at all to think Buttigieg may have played a part in the negotiations that led to the exchange of the Taliban prisoners for Bergdahl's release.

A few short days before announcing Bergdahl's release, President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan that was marred when the White House inadvertently identified by name the CIA chief of station in Kabul, Afghanistan in a release to the White House press corps about the briefing the President received from nearly a dozen officials during his surprise visit to Afghanistan. To my knowledge, all of the reporters who received the briefing paper with the CIA official's name listed on it declined to mention him by name. "An alleged affiliation with CIA would put anyone at the top of the Taliban and al-Qaeda's target list," an official told the Telegraph. Whoever he may be, there is good chance Buttigieg has been working directly with him since reporting for duty there.
Is that Pete greeting President Obama in Afghanistan or just someone who likes an awful lot like him? (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty images photo)
There is an odd theory touted by InfoWars explaining the Obama administration's seemingly rushed decision to accept the exchange of hardened terrorists for Bergdahl's release that's worthy of consideration. The theory is that Bergdahl was actually a CIA asset who put on the pretense of deserting in order to gather intelligence while embedded with the enemy. Bergdahl's cover, according to this theory, may have been blown when White House officials inadvertently identified their top CIA asset in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel claimed that U.S. officials had to move quickly with the exchange in order to save Bergdahl's life. Given the timing of the CIA chief's disclosure a mere week before the release of Bergdahl, it's one possible explanation for why Bergdahl's life was in danger.

Bergdahl's father, Robert, has only added to the intrigue by the fact that he grew a beard like his son, learned to speak Pashto and by the very public manner in which he has openly sided with the enemy, calling for the release of all Gitmo detainees while at the same time being embraced at the White House by President Obama. Bergdahl's father also claimed that his son now only speaks the Pashto language, suggesting that he can no longer speak in English after nearly five years of captivity. Any CIA asset serving in Afghanistan would likely have considerable training in at least one of the local languages spoken where they are assigned.

Obama takes a friendly stroll with Bergdahl's parents at the White House (J.H. Owen/Getty Images)
 
UPDATE (6-5-14): I noticed that Buttigieg updated his Facebook site within the last 24 hours to delete several entries he had made within the past month and several photos taken at the base where he is located in Afghanistan after I published this blog post earlier this week. Here's one of the only images remaining from Afghanistan. Other photos taken at his base were deleted from his account.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our new Vince Flynn uncovered by the Party of whom...Where's Judge David...Supreme Court Justice's comments on this matter...

Anonymous said...

Spins for us all to watch....What about the whistle blowers about 9/11 with evidence and more...Time to re-write the 9/11 Commission Report...Spain and Greece and more with war crimes on Cheney and Bush...Dollars and bank issues when they did..(Greece and Spain) World Bank involvement...7 buildings fell on 9/11..or blew up with evidence...Ponder that Gary and do more research...

Anonymous said...

Judge David of Boone County whom became a Supreme Court Judge under Mitch D..Spins

Anonymous said...

There are many absurdities in this entire situation. Given Obama's history, it would be well to believe the worst.

See “Obama Swaps Jihadist Dream Team for Deserter” at http://t.co/k1S4fz2Txz.

Downtown Indy said...

'If you or any of your IMF team are caught or captured, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions' apparently is a myth.

And it is absurd to claim anyone would forget how to speak their native language, short of suffering a traumatic brain injury.

Gary R. Welsh said...

His fellow soldiers describe Bowe as being distant towards them and going off alone and spending a lot of time talking to the Afghani police. That would suggest to me that he must have been able to speak their language before he arrived in Afghanistan for duty. It doesn't appear that his health suffered at all during his supposed captivity. I think it's very likely that he was working as a covered CIA asset embedded within an infantry unit with a specific mission.

A Visitor said...

And it is absurd to claim anyone would forget how to speak their native language, short of suffering a traumatic brain injury.

I spent six months in Spain in undergrad and can assure you I started forgetting how to speak English (this was during month 5), specifically a word. If you spend enough time in a foreign country, you will forget how to speak your native language. Trust me. Ask anyone who is from a foreign country and has been in Indy for some years.

"His fellow soldiers describe Bowe as being distant towards them and going off alone and spending a lot of time talking to the Afghani police." He also could've had some serious psych issues. My best friend who did a tour in Afghanistan said he saw that first hand (the guys that spend time with terps are the ones who have severe mental issues beforehand or are disillusioned with the U.S.) to the extent that they would convert to Islam and take Muslim names to grab attention.

While I could see the idea (in and of itself) of him being a deep cover NOC for CIA (assets are the foreign entities turned to give intel to CIA; I was taught, by among others, a professor who did three decades in CIA as an official cover operative, he did some stints as a NOC too) as plausible, someone from CIA would've spoken up by now too. 16 dead servicemen is too much; hell, one is too much.

He's a traitor and, after his current debriefing by intelligence, deserves a court martial after arriving back stateside.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Visitor said, "someone from CIA would've spoken up by now too. 16 dead servicemen is too much; hell, one is too much."

Ask the parents of Navy Seal Team 6 what they think as they've watched their sons deliberately killed off one by one by our own government so they can't speak the truth about what really happened during the supposed capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. They knew it never happened, and they knew bin Laden, or Tim Osman as he was named when he was working for the CIA right up to the time of 9/11, had died a few months after the 9/11 attacks. Dead men can't talk. Why were the soldiers in Bergdahl's unit required to sign nondisclosure agreements and threatened if they spoke anything about the circumstances of his departure and the search efforts for him?

Anonymous said...

Spins....he was found by Obama team and released the traitor on a trade...He was a plant from Busch years...He will be tried as a traitor...
Bin laden was caught and killed by same operatives from Obama...Why didn't Bush pursue him when found...
That's what many say on other blogs too.Time for presidential elections coo's folks...Get over it and dig deeper on local matters as well.

Flogger said...

The Republicans are performing their part of the stage acting opposing President "Folks" Obama trying to convince the Americans we have a viable Republic. Our Mega-McMedia CNN, Fox, and MSNBC slops every morsel and dutifully reassures us the "System" is working.

“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,” said Obama. = What Obama is really saying is Americans are the "Herrenvolk" of the 21st Century.

Here is another Lie Obama has just told: "The days of empire and spheres of influence are over," he said at the royal palace in Warsaw.

"Bigger nations must not be allowed to bully the small, or impose their will at the barrel of a gun or with masked men taking over buildings."

So do not look for truth from Obama the Mega-McMedia or Congress.

Anonymous said...

Bergdahl should be Court Martialed as a deserter and if convicted, have a special circumstance added for the deaths of those ordered to find/return him.

Impeachment proceedings for Obama should begin immediately.

Anonymous said...

Anon 309 pm - agreed. Can you impeach for disregard of the Constitution? And he only told Reid?? WTH? This is a REPUBLIC!