The White House's Latest Lame Excuse

The White House's latest lame excuse for not informing Congress of the Bergdahl4Tali5:

BREAKING: Officials: Congress not told of swap because Taliban threatened to kill Bergdahl if it leaked .

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 5, 2014

The Taliban wasn't holding Bergdahl.  The Haqqani Network was and the Obama administration designated it a terrorist organisation in 2012.

Sorry, but Bergdahl was not worth 5 of the Taliban's 4-star generals.

Obama would have traded Goring, Goebbels, and Himmler to Hitler for Pvt Eddie Slovik, if the latter had captured him after he deserted.

 

Pvt Eddie Slovik after his execution.

As Ed Morrissey of Hot Air tweeted:

'BHO will lie to voters about ACA, violate law to notify Congress, but keep word to the Taliban?'

Boom!

From Ed Morrissey...

Update: Yeah, it was the Taliban who wanted this deal kept secret – riiiiiiiiiiight: 

Those press shy Taliban suggested this prisoner swap on a call with AP last year: http://t.co/Hg8ZTznPRM 

— John Sexton (@verumserum) June 5, 2014 

The proposal to trade U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for the Taliban detainees was made by senior Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail in response to a question during a phone interview with The Associated Press from the militants’ newly opened political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf nation of Qatar.

The prisoner exchange is the first item on the Taliban’s agenda before even starting peace talks with the U.S., said Suhail, a top Taliban figure who served as first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad before the Taliban government’s ouster in 2001.

“First has to be the release of detainees,” Suhail said Thursday when asked about Bergdahl. “Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward.”

The Obama administration was noncommittal about the proposal, which it said it had expected the Taliban to make.

“We’ve been very clear on our feelings about Sgt. Bergdahl and the need for him to be released,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We have not made a decision to … transfer any Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, but we anticipate, as I’ve said, that the Taliban will all raise this issue.”

That was almost exactly a year ago, by the way.

UPDATE 2: The Taliban Offered To Trade Bergdahl Within 48 Hours Of His ‘Disappearance’