Bergdahl Prisoner Swap

[guido911]

Everyone can get off Obama's back on the Bergdahl swap now. Chuck Hagel made the call.

https://twitter.com/OutFrontCNN/status/476145559129300992

[heironymouspasparagus]

Everyone can get off Obama's back on the Bergdahl swap now. Chuck Hagel made the call.

https://twitter.com/OutFrontCNN/status/476145559129300992

That's funny.   Do you suppose Hagel had any input from his generals?

[guido911]

That's funny.   Do you suppose Hagel had any input from his generals?

I'd be more focused on the tread marks all over Hagel's body from the bus which he just got thrown under. 

[guido911]

This swap is bringing out the worst in the republicans. Just listen to this winger going after Obama.

Yes I know. Obviously racism, and Bush's fault.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I'd be more focused on the tread marks all over Hagel's body from the bus which he just got thrown under. 

Will have to look for pictures of that....see if they match the bus tires I am trying to get....

[Hoss]

Once again, Jon Stewart does what he does best.  Puts things into perspective.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Muslim terrorist Kennedy assassin.   Yes.  That must be it!!  Rupert tells us so!!

[Conan71]

Something occurred to me yesterday.  Obama is a lame duck, but he would want to provide cover to as many Democrats as possible with looming elections.  I'm beginning to think the appropriate committee members knew of the swap in advance and are feigning indignity to CYA. 

And I also suspect the line on Bergdahl will become he had PTSD, he was bullied by others in his unit, we should all be ashamed of ourselves for calling him a deserter, and his comrades were a bunch of lying bullies who have close ties to the Tea Party.

[Gaspar]

Something occurred to me yesterday.  Obama is a lame duck, but he would want to provide cover to as many Democrats as possible with looming elections.  I'm beginning to think the appropriate committee members knew of the swap in advance and are feigning indignity to CYA. 

And I also suspect the line on Bergdahl will become he had PTSD, he was bullied by others in his unit, we should all be ashamed of ourselves for calling him a deserter, and his comrades were a bunch of lying bullies who have close ties to the Tea Party.

They are already working on that, but it's not building traction.

Leaders are defined by their ability to take charge of an issue, and manage all of the details through to a solution.  This means surrounding him/herself with the best assets, listening to the most experienced advisors, and learning from history.  A leader also must anticipate and plan for multiple possible outcomes (both positive and negative), everything is a proactive detail-oriented exercise.  Failures (and there are always failures) are handled with dignity and personal responsibility. Reaction is to admit the absence of planning. Blame is to admit the absence of leadership. 

Hagle is now responsible for this.  We will soon learn that the president only learned about the swap after it was too late. 
The wheels on the bus go round and round.

[Conan71]

They are already working on that, but it's not building traction.

Leaders are defined by their ability to take charge of an issue, and manage all of the details through to a solution.  This means surrounding him/herself with the best assets, listening to the most experienced advisors, and learning from history.  A leader also must anticipate and plan for multiple possible outcomes (both positive and negative), everything is a proactive detail-oriented exercise.  Failures (and there are always failures) are handled with dignity and personal responsibility. Reaction is to admit the absence of planning. Blame is to admit the absence of leadership.  

Hagle is now responsible for this.  We will soon learn that the president only learned about the swap after it was too late.  
The wheels on the bus go round and round.

Oh, you mean he learned of it the same way all sensitive news is disseminated to him?

[Conan71]

I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on my judgement of releasing the five Talibani since they are a largely impotent group of fun-loving, peaceful guys these days:

Pakistan militants launch new attack on Karachi airport; Taliban claims responsibility

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Armed militants launched another assault on Karachi's international airport Tuesday afternoon, shutting down airport operations for the second time in two days.

Around noon, "three to four terrorists" attacked a Karachi Airport Security Force base next to the airport, an army spokesman said.

All flights were immediately halted, and hundreds of Pakistani army commandos, rangers and police rushed to the scene. Pakistani news channels aired live footage of an ensuing gun battle, but security officials said the militants escaped on motorcycles.

There were no reported injuries, and airport operations resumed about two hours later.

The Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for Tuesday's attack. The radical Islamist group launched an assault late Sunday on Jinnah International Airport, resulting in a six-hour gun battle that left 36 people dead, including a dozen airport security personnel, four employees of Pakistani International Airlines and all 10 attackers. Seven of the dead were found Tuesday in a cold-storage facility. No passengers were harmed.

"Today's attack is a continuation of Monday's action," Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement. "We will continue our activities until we achieve our goals."

The Pakistani Taliban has built an increasing presence in Karachi, the country's largest city, and appears poised to inflict further damage despite a split in its ranks, government leaders and analysts said.

Pakistani officials said the 10 heavily armed militants who assaulted the airport on Sunday night had hoped to destroy some planes, hijack others and take hostages.

"The terrorists had a plan to bring down our aviation industry," said Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. "The valiant effort of [security forces] defeated the terrorists, and the national assets were saved."

Early Tuesday, the bodies of seven airport employees were found in a locked cold-storage facility at the airport. Frantic relatives said the workers had sought refuge there during the attack and contacted them by phone, Pakistani newspapers reported. It was not immediately clear why authorities were not able to free them.

The attack Tuesday appear to originate from a large slum that surrounds the airport, the same area that the militants used to gain entry to airport grounds on Sunday night.

The back-to-back attacks will likely to raise serious concerns about the safety of commercial flights at the airport, which serves Pakistan's largest city.

Armed militants launched an attack near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the second such attack that has closed down the airport in recent days. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for both attacks.

But Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, the head of Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations agency, noted that the assailants on Tuesday were repelled by security forces.

"No breach of [airport] fence, no entry," Bajwa said in a statement. The "chase is on and situation under control."

The attack occurred a few hours after the Pakistani military announced it had resumed airstrikes in Pakistani tribal areas. An army spokesman said 25 militants were killed in the airstrikes in the remote Tirah Valley, which is home to numerous Pakistani Taliban fighters.

"If a bullet is fired from this side, then a bullet would come the other side, too, and vice-versa," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a speech to the National Assembly on Tuesday, just moments before the latest Karachi airport attack began. "We shall be ready to face such unfortunate incidents and to foil them."

He added, "We need to face and acknowledge the facts: The country is in a war-like situation, and we are in a conflict zone."

In response, authorities tightened security at airports across Pakistan.

Pakistan's Express Tribune News reported that security officials at Islamabad airport in the capital have been given a "shoot-on-sight order . . . against suspicious individuals."

Sohail Raheem, an airport security official in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, said three concrete walls are being built around the runway.

"The Karachi airport [on Sunday night] was an eye-opener," Raheem said.

The Pakistani Taliban has carried out a bloody fight since 2007 to impose a harsh version of Islamic law. Two weeks ago, a major faction announced that it was breaking away from the group because its leader, Maulana Fazlullah, had become too violent and undisciplined. Some analysts saw the split as a hopeful sign that the insurgency was weakening.

Now, the raids on the airport demonstrate that the Pakistani Taliban remains a formidable threat to the nuclear-armed country, analysts say.

In a statement Monday, Shahid, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman, said the attack was in response to recent Pakistani military air operations targeting the group and to a U.S. drone strike in November that killed its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Shahid added that the assault should be viewed as a sign that Sharif's efforts to engage the group in peace talks had failed.

"The main goal of this attack was to damage the government, including by hijacking planes and destroying state installations," Shahid said, according to Reuters news agency. The attackers had intended to seize aircraft at the airport's old terminal, which is used for VIP flights and cargo, he said.

Most analysts believe Pakistan's military is eager to begin a sustained military operation against the Taliban. Over the past two weeks, about two dozen Pakistani military commanders and soldiers have been killed in attacks attributed to the group.

Aamir Iqbal in Peshawar, Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad and Nisar Mehdi in Karachi contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-militants-launch-new-attack-on-karachi-airport-taliban-claims-responsibility/2014/06/10/c84d8fda-f08b-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217_story.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on my judgement of releasing the five Talibani since they are a largely impotent group of fun-loving, peaceful guys these days:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-militants-launch-new-attack-on-karachi-airport-taliban-claims-responsibility/2014/06/10/c84d8fda-f08b-11e3-9ebc-2ee6f81ed217_story.html

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.... literally!!

[Conan71]

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.... literally!!

What's the over/under on how long it takes for the U.S. to get sucked into a conflict in Pakistan to help protect their nuclear assets from falling into the wrong hands?

[heironymouspasparagus]

What's the over/under on how long it takes for the U.S. to get sucked into a conflict in Pakistan to help protect their nuclear assets from falling into the wrong hands?

What...you don't thing we already been doing that to the tune of $25 billion a year for how many years??

[dbacksfan 2.0]

So are the ISIS fighters, other than being former al Qaeda, in anyway connected to the Taliban?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/insurgents-seize-iraqi-city-of-mosul-as-troops-flee/2014/06/10/21061e87-8fcd-4ed3-bc94-0e309af0a674_story.html

http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/23/brutal-terrorist-group-showcases-their-violence-in-glossy-new-video/