How nice to have him in custody.
Marine who disappeared in Iraq in U.S. custody
A Lebanese-born U.S. Marine who allegedly deserted his post in Iraq and then faked a video showing his capture by militants is in U.S. custody after being on the lam for about 10 years, the Marine Corps said Sunday.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service worked with Cpl. Wassef Hassoun “to turn himself in and return to the United States to face charges under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice,” the Marine Corps said in a statement.
A Defense official said he was flown to the United States from a Middle East country, where he negotiated his return. The official asked not to be named since he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Hassoun has family in Lebanon.
I don’t want to hear anything about “he’s suffered enough”, either.
WHO you gonna believe? Weeelllll, it’s about time I brushed off this oldie but TOTALLY APPROPRIATE goodie!
What a dumbass, time and again, huh?
The very few times I’m unlucky enough to be behind a faded Obama ’12 sticker on the way to work ~ once the blinding fog of rage and disgust passes ~ all I want to do is ask that individual…gently, of course…WHAT was IN IT FOR THEM?
Because they sure didn’t cast that vote FOR THIS COUNTRY.
Yep, they’re running all over Iraq
ISIS butchers leave ‘roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers’: Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government’s call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital
U.S. today changed tone on intervention; President Obama said: ‘I don’t rule out anything… Iraq will need more help’
Crucial vote to grant emergency powers was delayed because MPs did not turn up, leaving Iraqi government paralysed
Disruption in Iraq could add 2p to the price of a litre of petrol within a fortnight as ISIS insurgents take key oil fields
Kurdish forces are in full control of Iraq’s oil city of Kirkuk after the federal army abandoned their posts
Iran has sent special forces and a unit of elite troops to Iraq to assist the Iraqi government halt the advance
Iraqi air force is bombing insurgent positions in and around Mosul – 1.3million citizens still remain in the city
Middle East experts raised the prospect of Iraq being carved into three – Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite – by the conflict
Smartest Bestest Prez EVUH
…when you can just use the ones you’ve looted from the people you’re in the process of murdering?
ESPECIALLY when you’re PRET-TEE sure, even if you’re overheard, ain’t NOBODY coming to help these poor souls…
US spy agencies heard Benghazi attackers using State Dept. cell phones to call terrorist leaders
The terrorists who attacked the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 used cell phones, seized from State Department personnel during the attacks, and U.S. spy agencies overheard them contacting more senior terrorist leaders to report on the success of the operation, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News.
The disclosure is important because it adds to the body of evidence establishing that senior U.S. officials in the Obama administration knew early on that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video that had gone awry, as the administration claimed for several weeks after the attacks.
And, as always, Vote Hillary! SHE’S (got the knife in) YOUR BACK!
He continues to inspire
On Tuesday, Obama took another shot at liberal arts students, suggesting that he only majored in humanities because he “misspent” his high school years.
During a Q&A hosted by Tumblr, one user asked Obama how America could “promote growth in STEM fields without putting humanities on the back burner.”
“First of all,” Obama began, “I want to say, I was a humanities major. So I majored in political science and minored in English.”
But according to Obama, those majors blossomed from a desire to slack off during high school. “I actually loved math and science until I got into high school,” he reminisced, “and then I misspent those years.
And the thing about the humanities was, you could kind of talk your way through classes, which you couldn’t do in math and science, right?”
That sort of sums up his Presidency, doesn’t it?
We got the chance last week to spend a few days in Norfolk. What a pleasant city (at least the extremely small portion of it that we saw). The weather was just wonderful, and we got to see the parade of ships coming in on Friday for the past weekend’s HarborFest, including most movingly the USS Cole.
Later on Friday we spent a good deal of time walking onboard the USS Wisconsin, which is permanently anchored there.
She’s a big damn hunk of metal
And the 16″ guns reminded my Bride of my biceps, naturally
well, maybe not so much.
A retired sailor who was serving as a resource for folks told us that the teak decking served to keep the ship about 10 degrees cooler below decks than they would have been had they been metal, and with no ac they needed all the help.
One neat thing they had scattered about were a variety of posters from her last cruise in the very eary 90s
Now that is some funny stuff right there.
Well worth your time if you’re in the area.
…scene by scene, 70 years later.
It proves how blessed we all are that there were such men.
It’s ALL ABOUT HIM.
White House braced for Bowe Bergdahl backlash
…White House aides were aware Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been tagged a deserter, and that they would be grilled over not keeping Congress in the loop. But they figured people would be most outraged over the national security implications.
The White House has been surprised by how much attention has remained on the questions about Bergdahl, from the circumstances of his disappearance to the wild beard his father grew while he was being held that’s even led to Bergdahl’s hometown canceling a celebration.
All this, Obama aides say, is in their minds a proxy for the hatred toward the president.
Nothing to do with the fact that Bergdahl is an INVESTIGATED and DOCUMENTED deserter (only question is “why?”) or that YOUR administration has muzzled his unit mates for FIVE YEARS.
It’s that we hate YOU.
It’s ALWAYS YOU.
The Washington Times has an exclusive up that there WERE guys who knew Bergdahl wasn’t worth risking any more lives: SpecOps wouldn’t go after him.
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon knew Bergdahl’s whereabouts but didn’t risk rescue for ‘deserter’
Special operations troops deemed too valuable to lose
The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where ArmySgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times — down to how many gunmen were guarding him — but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn’t want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a “deserter,” sources familiar with the mission plans said.
Commanders on the ground debated whether to pull the trigger on a rescue several times in recent years, according to one of the sources, a former high-level intelligence official in Afghanistan, who said the conclusion each time was that the prospect of losing highly trained troops was too high a price to pay for rescuing a soldier who walked away from his unit before being captured by the enemy.
Seems they had the measure of the situation even then. President Pivot and his gang of liars failed to realize despite all the sugar-coating rah-rah, troops have the measure of it NOW:
Anger explodes over treatment of Bergdahl’s release as veterans, troops call him a deserter
…Angry commentators took special aim at National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s televised remarks Sunday that Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction.” They also bristled at Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s surprise visit Sunday to Afghanistan, where he praised the operation that freed Bergdahl but never mentioned the desertion issue before an audience of U.S. service members who undoubtedly have seen the debate swirling around the case.
Even military voices warning against trying Bergdahl in the court of public opinion say the Obama administration owes its enlisted men and women more transparency.
“Hagel hopped up on stage saying, ‘Oh, it’s a great day. We got him back.’ Crickets. Crickets,” said Fred Wellman, a retired lieutenant colonel who as spokesman for Army Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq handled the communications on many crises that reflected poorly on the U.S. military.
…has reposted the late Michael Hastings’ Bowe Bergdahl story.
Holy crap, there’s some weird prescient things in it.
Damn. The craven weaselness never ceases to just blow my mind.
PROMOTED?!?!? For DESERTING?!?!?!?
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!
Brave souls DIED searching for this piece of shit. We owe them ~ HE OWES THEM ~ and their families an accounting and IMPOSED penalty to serve, vice one he chose himself.
Or, say, bank robbery, I think that I will follow the new Obama Doctrine and declare that such laws really don’t apply to moi
Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to accuse President Obama of having broken the law, which requires the administration to notify Congress before any transfers from Guantanamo are carried out.
…Lawmakers were not notified of the Guantanamo detainees’ transfer until after it occurred.
The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests.
Before the current law was enacted at the end of last year, the conditions were even more stringent. However, the administration and some Democrats had pressed for them to be loosened, in part to give them more flexibility to negotiate for Bergdahl’s release.
A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.
“Due to a near-term opportunity to save Sergeant Bergdahl’s life, we moved as quickly as possible,” the official said. “The administration determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances, such a transfer should go forward notwithstanding the notice requirement.”
Really, officer, due to a near-term opportunity to get home in a timely fashion as was my desire I moved as quickly as possible. I determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances I should make my car go forward as fast as possible notwithstanding the posted speed limits.
Five senior Taliban leaders in exchange for President Pivot’s feel-good moment when he desperately needs one and one soldier who walked away from base.
People have already LOST THEIR LIVES trying to save this little turd.
Now more may get to, thanks to the “No Man Left Behind Unless They’re Ambassadors and/or Navy Seals” Man of Action.
ths update: More from More from CBS News just this March:
Is Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a hero or a deserter?
…A transcript of radio intercepts, publicly released through Wikileaks, indicates that Bergdahl, then 23, was captured while sitting in a makeshift latrine.
“We were attacking the post he was sitting,” according to a radio intercept of a conversation among insurgents. “He had no gun with him. … They have all (the) Americans, ANA (Afghan National Army), helicopters, the planes are looking for him. Can you guys make a video of him and announce it all over Afghanistan that we have one of the Americans?”
Rolling Stone magazine quoted emails Bergdahl is said to have sent to his parents that suggest he was disillusioned with America’s mission in Afghanistan, had lost faith in the U.S. Army’s mission there and was considering desertion.
Bergdahl told his parents he was “ashamed to even be American.”
Bergdahl, who mailed home boxes containing his uniform and books, also wrote: “The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong.“
MAILED HOME HIS UNIFORMS?
Remember that?
Ah.
Good times, good times.
US soldier held captive by Taliban in Afghanistan for nearly five years freed
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held captive in Afghanistan, has been released by the Taliban in exchange for five Afghan detainees, U.S. officials said Saturday.
From GUANTANAMO, no less.
…A Defense Department official gave Fox News the names of the detainees: Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Abdul Haq Wasiq. They are believed to be the top five Taliban leaders at the prison and were selected in 2012 by Taliban leaders as part of initial negotiations.
I am thankful Bergdahl is safe. I KNOW we ALL are.
But, OH DEAR GOD.
This is a horrible precedent, especially with how he’s hamstringing the kids we have left in that hell-hole as he runs away.
Or ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD the US military serves, for that matter.
Open season, baby.
…from the WaPo.
Wait. What?
Edit pages pan Obama speech
The New York Times editorial board, often supportive of the White House, wrote that his “address did not match the hype, was largely uninspiring, lacked strategic sweep and is unlikely to quiet his detractors, on the right or the left.”
…The Wall Street Journal, far more accustomed to criticizing the president on foreign policy, said Obama’s speech was marked less by what he said and more by what he left out —…
…The Washington Post editorial said the president’s “binding of U.S. power places Mr. Obama at odds with every U.S. president since World War II.”
“President Obama has retrenched U.S. global engagement in a way that has shaken the confidence of many U.S. allies and encouraged some adversaries,” the board said, attacking the president for resorting to rhetoric instead of adjusting policy.
HMH-462 out of MCAS Miramar helps fight the Cocos Fire in San Diego County.
Military Thingies, Morality, Nanny State | tree hugging sister | 
June 30, 2014 12:16 pm | 
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