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Reuters TV
A Taliban-affliated website recently posted video of this man who said he was Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. soldier held by the Taliban
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Qatar almost failed as the Taliban leadership reportedly refused to accept the U.S. demand of a ceasefire before swapping prisoners.
Sources in the Afghan Taliban said the Taliban had set up an office in Qatar hoping that it would help in a prisoners' swap, especially for their five top commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay base since 2002.
The Taliban sources said their talks with the U.S. had been going for the past few years in exchange for an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan.
Maulvi Sangeen, a senior commander of the powerful Haqqani terror network, had initially claimed responsibility for kidnapping the U.S. soldier.
The Taliban sources said U.S. officials had earlier promised them they would exchange prisoners and later start peace talks.
However, according to the sources, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down.
STORY: Family of captured US soldier hopeful
"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source said.
The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.
Some members of the 140-strong Taliban delegation that went to Qatar had started leaving after no breakthrough was seen in talks with the U.S.
Leave a Comment:
Why don't we do this...Implant microchips into the prisoners from gitmo (i've seen it done with animals). Swap prisoners and when these turds are release, track them down to the more important players and take them out with a well placed drone strike!
That very idea was suggested in a counter-terrorism law seminar during my final semester of law school.
The professor was a Harvard-trained attorney and former CIA field agent. Judging by his response to the suggestion, it wasn't the first time such a scenario had been proposed.
Blade runner??
Guess they wanted a trade like Israel and the Palestine's did.... one prisoner for 4000 prisoners.
That sounds too much like a well thought out plan.....We need something more complicated and costly ......
Who cares about negotiations with these whackjobs? They'll say whatever they think needs to be said, then do whatever they want. They already won the dammed war, why should they concede anything?
@ John Dalton:
LMAO! Let's see how many commentors don't pick up the sarcasm...
I can't believe that the administration is dumb enough to try and negotiate with these terrorists. Even if they did agree to a cease fire to get the prisoner swap done, they would break the agreement once they got their people back. The Taliban are just stalling until the US pulls out of Afghanistan. Once we are gone they will very quickly take over again. The Karzai government is a joke and has absolutely no control outside of the capitol of Kabul, and their control their is even tenuous a best. The other provinces and cities are controlled by local warlords and tribal leaders. Once the US is gone it will be a free for all until the Taliban can gain enough support from local warlords and tribal leaders either through bribery or intimidation to suppress any dissent.
As your "ORator in CHIEF", I will go negotiate myself and I promise to talk the Taliban to death. Thank you America for electing me
I’ll be very surprised if the Taliban agreed to anything we are asking for. They’ve got the upper hand and time and history are on their side. So if we want to negotiate something meaningful, negotiate the withdrawal of Coalition forces and offer a hand in rebuilding the country including health , education, natural resource development etc. Work together, to bring the country out of its present feudal state into the world community.
Took the words right out of my keyboard!!!!
"So if we want to negotiate something meaningful, negotiate the withdrawal of Coalition forces and offer a hand in rebuilding the country including health , education, natural resource development etc...."
One, we are already starting to phase out of Afghanistan. Two, this debt-ridden country care barely manage to assure it's own future, much less take care of other nations. It's time to just leave that hell-hole to rot.
Lets kidnap the 140 delegates and then lets talk
Big Mac: That's the best suggestion yet. Sadly, it won't happen, too intelligent. Nope, our brave and wise administration has decided that 'diplomacy' is the best way to deal with hostiles. So, as a previous poster noted, Obama will 'talk' the Taliban into agreeing with us. Yup. And...as another poster noted, why should the victors agree to anything with the losers?
The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.
I thought the 'exchange' part would be to NOT having your ass blown up. That certainly is something to 'show'.
Negotiating with the Taliban for a Prisoner Swap---who is that stupid? They are smart; it gives them time to carry on their Terrorism, and building up their Terrorist base. The Prisoner or Prisoners are probably dead. Do we swap for Body Parts, like heads in a bag?
The only thing the Taliban know is Violence---can one tell them to stop?---
They live by the Sword. Wild Animals in the mountainous terrain there--Animals eat each other---the Law of Nature..
Just how many times has he even been to Iraq or Afghanistan? I can only recall one visit to each. Guess its not on his list of "Places to See While in Office!"
Fedu
You will see him very soon, is election year, any vote counts.
Obama should send the Navy Seal to kick the butt of this butchers , they are capable to rescue this soldier , what is he waiting.
The seed of immagrants, who commited genocide against the Native Americans, and slavery, against the African negro, takes his big gun, and decides he will invade Afghanistan, the Talibans homeland of a thousand years, destroy his culture, and undress his wemon, in the name of freedom, and democracy.
The U.S. would be better off mutilating millions of its childrens genitals in the name of another race, the Jew. God promised the holy land, let him protect it!
PISS ON THE TALIBAN...KUDOS to my MARINE BUDDIES who did this GREAT THING...they are SCUM..this MUST be a QUIET SECRET amoung ALL MILITARY..when you catch one...PISS on them FIRST..then KILL them..if they are dead...get a PIC of MARINES pissing on them BUT..with NO FACES showing...GOOD JOB GUYS...and USA..What happened to.."WE DONT NEGOCIATE WITH TERROISTS"....
Another "FAILED" administration experiment.
What HAPPENED to correct SPELLING and grammar?
hmmm..... another idiot post by an Obama hater. I don't like Obama's domestic policies but this guy has kicked some tail on al qaeda and the taliban through the years. The Afghanistan "experiment" will have to end some day pinhead.
some times i wonder what better places in the world is there from the US
somtimes i think differently...
its just people like u >.>
patriotism ruined this world
"patriotism ruined this world" ........... ummm, no. greed does. go to school and learn.
I don't know "What you are talking Willis", I meant tom slick777. That baloney about not negotiating with terrorists went out of business long time ago. How about the Iran-Contra affair, and the 300.00 usd that general betray us paid to the insurgents not to attack your war criminals, the marines. And just in case you don't know, our "powerful" nation is trying, as the article reports, talking to the Taliban for months now, but not openly. In other words, not talking to terrorists has become our new M.O., you just didn't get the memo.
Also be very careful how you criticize the Obama administration, look what happened to Pvt Manning and that CIA agent that had the audacity to put country first. The embbeded media reported the agent might be jail for life and to make it more "democratic and Christian", he will be in solitary confinement until he dies or goes grazy, whichever comes first. Psst, you sound too lunatic, too racist, too intolerant to be taken seriously. Take your comments to the fixnews network. They adore racist to the nth degree and by your comment you are more than qualified. Tell them the KKK "brotherhood" sent you. Don't forget your hood and please bring some matches and gasoline.
the marines kicked butt redman, not obama , pinhead.
I say kill them an then cut then\m open and stuff them with pig GUTS.
lets be nice to the taliban until we get out.
....and then kill them with drones....endlessly, for the rest of time, kill them from the air.
one day they will give up....or they will all be dead.
I assume that BECAUSE YOUR PRESIDENT said TALIBAN SMELL like FISH we sent in the SEALS to SNIFF out the Bad guys...DONT TRADE..GO THERE....KICK ASS and TAKE what we want..for SAFETY REASONS concerning the Seals...better send 2 Marines along..just in case they run into trouble..ya know...ol Bin is STILL over there...ALIVE!!!
Time for someone's medications.
Chill....give him somthing stronger
dont repeat the same mistake
he needs to sleep zzz
Switch to decaf, take your meds , and go back to the padded room. Playtime on the computer is over and adults are talking now!
There sure are a lot of different views....trade or not trade...negotiate with the Taliban or never negotiate. I'm Bowe's grand uncle, and , though we've never met, I think we ought to break tradition and negotiate. How many young men and women have volunteered to serve in our military, much like Bowe, to support the ideals and goals of our government? Is it so unreasonable to expect that, along with that commitment, the military will do everything in it's power to rescue anyone taken captive? It's been two and a half years!!!! We got Bin Laden...we rescued captives in Somalia this past week. Do we not know enough about where Bowe is to try to get him back? If not, and these talks offer hope, why not aggressively pursue the opportunity? What happened to no one left behind? I"ve not served in the military, so it would be unfair to be overly critical, but I have to wonder why it's been so long. The POW bracelet I wear, bought when I first learned of his capture, is difficult to read. The scratches and wear have smoothed it to unreadability. It's time!!! Get Bowe home!
The reason we've been there so long is we've been forced to fight with BOTH hands tied behind our back to appease the never-served media and and our never-served politicians,who have no stomach for what WE see very day..........war is not a PG rated video game with a 'reset' if you get killed.....my thoughts go out to the soldier and his family............U.S.Army Disabled Veteran
By the way,....140 tallywackers in one place qualifies as a target-rich environment................pigs blood for all.............U.S.Army Disabled Veteran
Sounds like this is taking a positive direction.... provided these cowards don't end up shooting us in the back, or ambushing our boys. I wouldn't put it past them - these guys send children on suicide bombing missions for Christ sake. (Or was that Al-Qaeda?)
Bowe's grand uncle... I'm very sorry that your family is having to go through this. I'm thinking that the negotiations are to prevent the deaths of more personnel or civilians in the US. The Taliban are ruthless killers and I don't see this ending peacefully. I do understand trying to get him back with limited casualties, but I do believe if he's to be returned it will have to be by force. I wish you, your family, and Bowe the best.
Seal's dont need help... They do just fine on their own. Not to mention they keep proving it...
The US supplied weapons to the Taliban to fight the Russians for 10 years and now these same weapons are being used against our solders....what kind of logic is this? If you can't win a war in 10 years, get the hell out!!!!
Actually thats why they don't show the last Rambo movie on TV. He was a traitor training the freedom fighters AKA the Taliban
The United States is a gun runner. Lots of money to be made. If the market back in the day of the Soviet invasion of Afganistan increased demand for our goods, there it went. We the US government are nothing but gun runners. Remember, Irangate with Reagan. Guns and money baby. Let her roll!!!
hey "governmentlied"...... America always needs a war to keep the defense industry busy and the coffers stuffed. I assumed this simple logic was understood by every living being on this small planet we inhabit.
lol redman
thats the reason why the country is in this mess...
money flowing into defence and our so called "allies"
what we get is the same guns we gave killing us, and no money to use at home
Dennis everyone is a gun runner! the French sell the Brits sell the Russians sell the Chinese have sold enough to arm every man woman and child in the world, hell even the Swiss are in the game, and just where did you think all those weapons came from they weren't American made, that's the problem we need to sell American made guns not Chinese, and we don't sell them we buy them and then give them away. in Afghanistan we bought from the Jews who took from the Arabs who bought from the Russians and we gave them to Afghanistan, even the Catholic church was involved in gun running, not to mention a large number of independants so if you are going to bitch get it right its bigger then just the US.
My point was, I would like to see the blame shared with some of the other countries that are supplying the worlds lust for killing. gun runners are like lawyers if the first party didn't have one the second party would not need one.
Hey governmentlied, read your history. The Taliban wasn't fighting the Soviets. The Taliban didn't come till after the Soviets left.
What a bunch of windbags most of you are. If you haven't done anything to try to fix the problems then you have nothing to complain about. In other words, if you haven't been to Afghanistan then keep your traps closed.
Hey governmentlied "The US supplied weapons to the Taliban to fight the Russians for 10 years"
Do some research before you open your mouth. The Taliban didn't exist till 1994, so please explain to me how they fought the Russians who withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, five years before the Taliban existed. I'm sure you won't answer this though, or if you do you will just spout some more uneducated drivel.
Comment # 6 deleted, derail.
ONE MORE THING...NEWT...THE WARRIOR...SENT BY GOD..to DELIVER the PEOPLE from EVIL..The Obama Admin! NEWT has a HS and Collage Degree...a REAL S S Number and is aN AMERICAN...B O ..has NONE of THAT....VOTE NEWT..The MAN...The WARRIOR...The GODSEND.....and ALL you IMMIGRANTS..wanna be treated fair...VOTE ELNEWTO...SEE..!
Judging my your grammar, you don't have a "Collage Degree"
Immigrants cannot vote(except cubans) unless they are Naturalized USC. Once that happens they are former immigrants or LPR also known as Legal Permanant Esidents but USC the same as natural born.
You do that tom slick.........me? I was going Republican this election cycle but thanks to you, I'll stick with Obama.
Tom Slick isn't sounding too slick better get a new screen name.
777 is a plant from the democratic party to make republicans look stupid, just ignore him. Obama is well educated just in the wrong job. I thought he was going to keep America out of world conflict but that is not the case, it wont matter what puppet we elect the puppet master still pulls the strings. find that SOB and cut his ^&$&ing^&*$ off so his offspring wont inherit the empire, and we will still have to deal with the rest of the world no happy ending here.
Youblinked19, you are giving Tom too much credit. Sounds like he has not made it out of grammar school let alone college!
Tommy you are sure having fun today.
His mom doesn't let him on the computer very often.
those marines were performing a muslim custom,wash the bodies before burial.trying to negotiate with the tally is like netenyahoo talking to hamas,or obama trying to talk to boner.
Another accomplishment by the obama administration. We are now negotiating with terrorist. You obama supporters need to take those odumbo googles off. Although it seems to be too late.
Worry about your own googles
I find it ironic that all of these people who never served one minute in the armed forces are experts on war.This is a good reason why we need to reintroduce the draft.Super Hawks like Romney and Gingrich dodged the draft. They never served one second in service of this country. Romney and his robotic family avoids the military avoids paying taxes,avoids being truthful. He is still palling around with his polygamous relatives in Mexico.
Douglas Leopold are you sugesting that W Clinton and Obama served, are you saying Obama paid for his own trip to Indonesia, where are you coming from, you only see what you want to see and make up the rest? Please tell me what branches did your heroes serve in. Clinton was a draft dodger who hid out in Russia of all places and Benny grew up in Indonesia.
Another accomplishment by the obama administration. We are now negotiating with terrorist. You obama supporters need to take those odumbo googles off. Although it seems to be too late.
Reagan negotiated with Iran to get the hostages back when he was sworn in.
You do realize, they were released not because he negotiated, but because he was sworn it right? They didn't like the previous president, and so when he left, they let them go.
They let them go because they figured that if they didn't, sometime between his getting sworn in and starting down Pennsylvania Ave. for the parade, the guy they only knew from cowboy movies was going to start bombing!
Allegations surfaced that William Casey,
director of the Reagan campaign, and some CIA operatives, secretly met with
Iranian officials in Europe to arrange for the hostages' release, but not until
after the election. If true, some observers aver, dealing with a hostile foreign
government to achieve a domestic administration's defeat would have been grounds
for charges of treason.
Reagan won the election, partly because of the failure of the Carter
administration to bring the hostages home. Within minutes of Reagan's
inauguration, the hostages were released. Under Reagan, the Iran-Contra Affair completes this story.
Well, whoopie! I can alledge that you are an electric eel, for G-d's sake. "Some observers aver", and all of them may be members of the Democratic National Committee. This looks like a cut-and-paste job, so knowing where it was cut-and-pasted from might help us determine if it deserves any credibility or is just something that you put into Wikipedia and then cited here.
No, Reagan ordered all the tanks and jeeps painted desert sand and they got the hint. There were no negotiations.
Remember the good ol' days when we didn't negotiate with terrorists?
Yeah, we do, does the Iran/Contra deal ring a bell?
Well, I DO remember the good old days when we didn't LET ON that we negotiated with terrorists!
Taliban = Extremists
By definition, you cannot bargan with the extremist viewpoint, (they are absolutists) all or nothing.
The only way to bargain with an extremist is to eliminate them.
so by that definition we should eliminate the Tea Party?
No just the Liberals.
How are liberals extremists? By your definition D Buck I want to destroy the world.
I'm a liberal. I just want to have the country run for the people, not for the 1%.
You mean the one per cent trash and scum who just trashed the Oakland City Hall, burned the flag and generally behaved like the vandals and anarchists that they are? Those "people" that screwed the real working taxpayers who will foot the bill to clean it up? That one percent? Yeah, I don't want those fools running anything, either.
Hey Slick, I wasn't aware that our mental institutions allowed it's patients to have access to computers. It's time for you to come out of the broom closet you are hiding in and let the nurses find you and put you back in your padded cell. Time for your "happy pills".
How are we suppose to kill the tally bon bons if we have a cease fire,swap the prisoners and get back to fighting!
And speaking of that has any of the asshats in Gitmo been sent to met the Prophet they all so love and want to die for, nows a good time and the money we save from not housing and feeding the wackos could then go into the budget for more bullets and stuff, just sayin, lets win this thing and stop trying to lose!!
You cant win if you are always trying to be politicaly correct about everything.
Are five Taliban prisoners more valuable to us,then one GI ?
I don't think so.
The US should have taken out all those sand monkeys when they were at that meeting.
Upon the exchange, make sure the prisoners do not go back and do the things again. Or they will not be on the exchange list anymore.
Why wouldn't the talks fall apart obama told them the day and hour we are leaving, why should they deal witthus when they know when we are leaving!
Maybe we could trade obama for one of our Men. Might have to throw in pelosi and bidden, but would still be a good trade. We would get one of ours back and they could get 3 of theirs back. Actually just two, bidden doesn't know whose side to be on.
Biden
Biden has a piece of paper that says he is a smart man.
?
He needs it, otherwise how would anyone ever know?
If our administration was serious about protecting our borders and in defending our people, they would detain all those Taliban thugs. If we want to leave Afghanistan in peace and security, the Taliban and the other radical Islamic terrorists must defeated. Sitting down and making deals with those mass murderers grants them legitimacy and strengthens them.
Do you watch the news? This administration seems pretty serious to me...
Which mass murderers you talkin' 'bout? Chimpie's mindless, indiscriminate "shock and awe" campaign that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, the country that had NOTHING to do with 911, the country that Chimpy and Darth Cheney knew didn't have any WMD, but invaded anyway? But then again, nothin' wrong with a few hundred thousand less towel heads, right fellow racist ignoramuses?
Negotiations with the Taliban are a total waste of time. Does anyone remember the victims they beheaded on the internet with a halfass dull kitchen knife. The Marines urinating on the dead scum is no big deal to the average American, watching our troops face danger everyday. Next war let the military commanders do the job and the polititians live their cushy lifestyles. There should be a rule in this country. No person is eligible for the presidency unless they have served in the active duty military. The problem is most of the politicians are lawyers.
I am a veteran of military service, and I think it is ridiculous to add qualifications for the office of President other than those already spelled out in our Constitution. In fact, Willard was on a mission for the Mormon church while I was serving my country in uniform. N. Leroy never served, either. Both of these gentlemen were of age to serve in the military while we still had a draft.
I further disagree with dbeckerny's assertion that negotiating with the Taliban is a waste of time. No war ever ended without some sort of negotiated agreement. Even the cease-fire with North Korea, with which we still are technically in a state of war, was arrived at as the result of intensive negotiations.
The Taliban are a radical muslim terror group. Go ahead and negotiate with them. It works pretty well from what I have seen between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
I would rather have a person who has gone through some discomfort knowing what it is like to be in the military. Than a wealthy elitist who think they have a god given right to lead.
We don't negotiate with terrorists .............. in public. Iran-contra anyone?
US willing to trade 100 mexican prisoners for each american.
Why the @!$%# are we even talking to these BASTERDS???? Just another one of OBAMA's ploys to APPEASE HIS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD!!!!
I must be getting old. I can still recall when we didn't negotiate with terrorists. Guess that was before the BO effect kicked in.
Right! Obama should be spending more money on education...then maybe folks would learn how to spell
Ask Bin Laden or Qhadaffy about appeasement.
[snicker]
We never saw Bin Ladens body, Qdaffy was killed by his people. Now whats next?
Jack educating more people wont work then nobody will get a job and we will be neck deep in OWS, every one wants a job fitting their education and their are not enough jobs in those fields people should look harder at the trades, there are thousands of jobs there that cant be filled. our system is off balance.
They should have shot everyone of the Taliban delegation leaving the meeting.
This just shows you how low this president will go. He has sold out the dead from 9/11, just to appease his never ending ego. He has made the Taliban a legitiment organization by negotiating with them. I guess his next step will be apologizing to them and paying them resitution. This inept president needs to be impeached for being a traitor to his own country. Where is the gutless government owned newspapers printing this, they have sold there souls for a lot less the Judas did.
obama's ows is burning the flag for him while he (obama) kissing the taliban's azz!!!!
Really, I wonder if you would be happily typing that if that was you in their arms instead of sitting in America.
I hope this young man makes it home safely. My prayers are with him and his family.
Do you even know why we are there? It appears you do not.
The Taliban doesn't put much value on life so just how many Taliban to one American soldier?
If I remember right the policy of America is not to negotiate with terrorist. it is bad policy to give them recognition. why don't we just tell them to disarm or we will cover their hideouts in pig $hit. and when we catch them we will piss on them. that is something that really bothers them. they are not normal.
@ lecourouge,
Your history is as faulty as your grammar and spelling. If that is all you have, stay on the porch, monkey.
And you stay UNDER the porch
Judging from some of the comments, I can't tell which is the more evil.