Much has been said about how horrible the Bergdahl deal is.
Many have pointed out what a dangerous precedent the release of terrorists in exchange for an American is.
Others have pointed out that the obavez administration violated the law by not even notify congress.
Still others say that Bergdahl was a deserter and a traitor sympathizing and even collaborating with the Taliban.
Now, these are all important points which deserve to be exposed but there is one fact that very few talk about and even those who talk about miss its importance.
This fact is that Bergdahl was held by the Haqqani network and NOT by the Taliban.
While the Haqqani network and the Taliban share the same world view it is wrong to conflate the two.
As far as I know the only ones who noticed the significance of this fact are Brad Thor who wrote an article on The Blaze and Lachlan Markay whose article “Official: Bergdahl Details Don’t Add Up” was published in the Washington Free Beacon.
Of the five terrorists only one was a Haqqani and he was not even the highest ranking Haqqani.
It is inconceivable that Haqqanis would not demand the release of Haji Mali Kahn who is the highest ranking Haqqani held by the Americans.
Brad Thor:
“It is almost incomprehensible that the Haqqanis would not demand the release of Haji Mali Kahn, a major Haqqani commander. Kahn was captured in 2011 and is known not only as the “brain” of the Haqqani network, but also as a “revered elder of the clan,” and “the uncle of the network’s leader, Siraj Haqqani,” who was “in charge of suicide attacks, other attacks, money, finance and operations” and “served as an emissary between the Haqqanis and Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistani Taliban.”
If the Haqqanis are going to do a prisoner swap, Haji Mali Kahn is unquestionably the person they’d ask for. They have been working day and night to get him returned. Yet his name wasn’t mentioned in regard to releasing Sgt. Bergdahl?”
Lachlan Markay quotes an anonymous highranking intelligence official:
“The Haqqanis could give a rat’s ass about prisoners,” the official said, referring to the Haqqani Network, a designated terrorist group in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners who were freed in exchange for Bergdahl’s release.
“The people that are holding Bergdahl want[ed] cash and someone paid it to them,” he said.
The theory relies in large measure on a distinction that has been lost in much of the press coverage of the Bergdahl deal. A number of news reports on the circumstances surrounding the prisoner exchange have used “Haqqani” and “Taliban” interchangeably.
Experts say that obscures very real differences between the two groups that are key to understanding the deal that freed Bergdahl.
The Taliban is an ideologically committed group, they say, while the Haqqani Network is better understood as a tribal crime syndicate using unrest in the region not to advance an Islamist agenda but to further own financial and political interests.”
Both Brath Thor and Lachlan Markay suspect that a ransom was payed to the Haqqanis.
Whether one thinks that Bergdahl deserved to be released or not, the real scandal then is this:
It was NOT NECESSARY TO FREE the five terrorists in order to free Bergdahl.
Most likely the release of Bergdahl was primarily a cover to justify the release of the five most dangerous terrorists held in Guantanomo.
The added bonus was to be a distraction from the VA scandal and positive PR for Obavez showing that he cares for the men in the military.
Artaxes' brainbench 