Top intelligence official claims: Obama admin. funded terror network âfor the next ten yearsâ
By Lachlan Markay
Reported details of the high-profile prisoner swap that freed Bowe Bergdahl over the weekend are not telling the full story, according to a high-level intelligence official involved in efforts to find and rescue the Army sergeant.
The Haqqani Network, a terrorist group operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, freed Bergdahl on Saturday after holding him captive for five years in exchange for the release of five Guantanamo Bay prison inmates.
A senior intelligence official with intimate knowledge of the years-long effort to locate and rescue Bergdahl told the Washington Free Beacon that the details of that exchange do not add up.
The official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, speculated that a cash ransom was paid to the Haqqani Network to get the group to free the prisoner.
The Obama administration reportedly considered offering cash for his release as late as December 2013. The State Department has repeatedly refused to say whether the deal that released Bergdahl involved any cash payment.
The ransom plan was reportedly abandoned, but the intelligence official insisted that there is reason to believe that cash changed hands as part of the deal.
âThe Haqqanis could give a ratâs ass about prisoners,â 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 Bergdahlâs release.
âThe people that are holding Bergdahl want[ed] cash and someone paid it to them,â he said.
The theory relies in large measure on a distinction that has been lost in much of the press coverage of the Berdahl deal. A number of news reports on the circumstances surrounding the prisoner exchange have used âHaqqaniâ and âTalibanâ 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.
âWhen Westerners talk [about the] Taliban, we tend to use it as a generic term,â said American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin, a former Middle East advisor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. âAfghans are more likely to talk about the Haqqani Network versus the Quetta Shura [also known as the Afghan Taliban] versus the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.â
Four of the five prisoners released from Guantanamo were top Taliban commanders. One western diplomat said their release was âlike moving the whole Quetta Shura to Qatar.â
Only one of the freed terrorists, Nabi Omari, was part of the Haqqani Network. But the presence of other more senior Haqqani prisoners at Guantanamo has observers wondering whether the networkâs goal in the exchange was actually the release of Gitmo prisoners.
âOne of these things doesnât belong,â the intelligence official said. âIf you were to put one of these [freed Taliban prisoners] with Haqqani in a room together, theyâd beat the shit out of each other.â
Continued at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...icial-claims-obama-admin-just-/#ixzz347EnxkS0
By Lachlan Markay
Reported details of the high-profile prisoner swap that freed Bowe Bergdahl over the weekend are not telling the full story, according to a high-level intelligence official involved in efforts to find and rescue the Army sergeant.
The Haqqani Network, a terrorist group operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, freed Bergdahl on Saturday after holding him captive for five years in exchange for the release of five Guantanamo Bay prison inmates.
A senior intelligence official with intimate knowledge of the years-long effort to locate and rescue Bergdahl told the Washington Free Beacon that the details of that exchange do not add up.
The official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, speculated that a cash ransom was paid to the Haqqani Network to get the group to free the prisoner.
The Obama administration reportedly considered offering cash for his release as late as December 2013. The State Department has repeatedly refused to say whether the deal that released Bergdahl involved any cash payment.
The ransom plan was reportedly abandoned, but the intelligence official insisted that there is reason to believe that cash changed hands as part of the deal.
âThe Haqqanis could give a ratâs ass about prisoners,â 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 Bergdahlâs release.
âThe people that are holding Bergdahl want[ed] cash and someone paid it to them,â he said.
The theory relies in large measure on a distinction that has been lost in much of the press coverage of the Berdahl deal. A number of news reports on the circumstances surrounding the prisoner exchange have used âHaqqaniâ and âTalibanâ 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.
âWhen Westerners talk [about the] Taliban, we tend to use it as a generic term,â said American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin, a former Middle East advisor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. âAfghans are more likely to talk about the Haqqani Network versus the Quetta Shura [also known as the Afghan Taliban] versus the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.â
Four of the five prisoners released from Guantanamo were top Taliban commanders. One western diplomat said their release was âlike moving the whole Quetta Shura to Qatar.â
Only one of the freed terrorists, Nabi Omari, was part of the Haqqani Network. But the presence of other more senior Haqqani prisoners at Guantanamo has observers wondering whether the networkâs goal in the exchange was actually the release of Gitmo prisoners.
âOne of these things doesnât belong,â the intelligence official said. âIf you were to put one of these [freed Taliban prisoners] with Haqqani in a room together, theyâd beat the shit out of each other.â
Continued at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...icial-claims-obama-admin-just-/#ixzz347EnxkS0
