Elected Progressive Moonbats Defend The Taliban 5

'A top intelligence official told lawmakers in a classified Senate briefing last week that he expected four out of the five Taliban leaders released by the Obama administration to eventually return to the battlefield.'

- Eli Lake, The Daily Beast, 9 June 2014

Via Foreign Policy: 

Facing growing skepticism on Capitol Hill about its decision to swap five Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the White House told lawmakers at a classified briefing late Monday night that some of the freed militants were political figures, not hardened soldiers, according to lawmakers who attended the session. 

In the past several days, the administration has rolled out a number of reasons to justify swapping Bergdahl, a potential deserter, for the five Taliban officials. White House officials said they had concerns about Berdgahl’s health, felt an obligation to never leave a soldier on the battlefield, and feared the militants were preparing to kill the missing soldier. But House lawmakers exiting a late Monday briefing said the administration was now shifting to a new defense that emphasized the lack of threat posed by the individuals that were released as part of the deal. 

They discussed “the dangerousness of the individuals,” or lack thereof, said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) in an interview, referring to Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mullah Mohammad Fazi, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammad Nabi Omari, otherwise known as the “Taliban Five.” While Turner said he didn’t trust the way the administration characterized their rap sheets, other Democratic lawmakers were convinced that claims about the Taliban Five being “hardcore” terrorists were exaggerated. 

“They don’t seem to have been combatants at all,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who attended Monday’s briefing. “The guys we traded, you hear all kinds of things about ‘they killed Americans.’ Three of them were governors of provinces under the Taliban government…They were governors.” 

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who also attended the briefing, agreed. “Who are these people? As it turns out … they were government officials. They weren’t soldiers, and they aren’t soldiers now.” 

The takeaway from Democrats appeared to differ with the supposed characterization of the Taliban Five offered by intelligence officials last week in a briefing with Senate lawmakers, according to a report by the Daily Beast. In that story, a senior intelligence official allegedly told lawmakers that he expected four out of the five Taliban members to return to the battlefield. 

Men, who are wanted by The Hague for war crimes involving the murder of – literally – thousands of Shi’ites and ethnic cleansing, aren’t dangerous to kooks like Nadler, Zofgren, and Schakowsky.

They're heroes.  In fact, they are just like the soldiers who fought against the British in the American Revolution 'cuz, um, like, ya know, those guys engaged in ethnic cleansing, massacred of thousands, disfigured girls trying to get an education, and executed women in stadiums or something./

Via BuzzFeedBenny:

Dem Rep. Jackie Speier Defends The Taliban: “To Call Them Terrorists Is Not Accurate”

I’m stunned. A Democrat loving on some of the original warriors in the War on Women? /// 

Has Rep Jackie Speier, a woman, forgotten that the Taliban used to execute women in stadiums and pour acid on girls who tried to get an education? 

To paraphrase Kanye West, why do Speier, Nadler, Zofgren and Schakowsky hate brown-skinned, Muslim minorities, especially women and girls?

Because that’s what they are saying whether they realise it or not. By claiming that the Taliban 5 aren’t dangerous when they clearly are, they are saying, ‘Hey, they won’t be killing Americans! They’ll only be terrorising, oppressing, and slaughtering brown-skinned Muslim minorities. And, we must respect their right to do that under their own religion and culture.’

Obviously, they don’t believe that the lives of Muslim minorities in Afghanistan are on the same value level as Americans, which isn’t what they tell us all of the time.

UPDATE:  NBC News: Pentagon Officials Say Obama’s Claim Bergdahl’s Life In Danger “Absolutely Not True”…

Via Free Beacon:

Jim Miklaszewski, chief Pentagon correspondent for NBC News, revealed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s life was never in danger while he was held in captivity by the Taliban.

Refuting the Obama administrations claims that the Taliban had previously threatened to kill Bowe Bergdahl, Miklaszewski told the panel, “We are told categorically by senior defense officials that is absolutely not true. The Taliban did not threaten to kill Bowe Bergdahl. They did say, however, that there was concern, as the war dragged on and winded down, actually, and American troops started to withdraw, that they felt that Bowe Bergdahl just didn’t have the cache anymore and they 'might be' driven to kill him.”