Idaho family 'greatly relieved' received letter from POW

[depotoo]

Idaho family 'greatly relieved' after receiving letter from POW
Published June 07, 2013
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho – The family of an American prisoner of war captured nearly four years ago in Afghanistan says it has received a letter it believes was written by him.

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, disappeared from his base in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.

His mother and father in Idaho issued a statement on Thursday saying they've received a letter they are confident was written by their son.

In the statement, Bob and Jani Bergdahl say the letter, delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross, gives them hope that their son is doing as well as can be expected, under the circumstances.

"Our family is greatly relieved and encouraged by this letter," they wrote.

They didn't release excerpts from the letter or detail its content.

Idaho family 'greatly relieved' after receiving letter from POW | Fox News

 

[depotoo]

I pray it is from him. Frankly, I am ashamed and stunned somehow I had missed that he was even missing or a POW. Were most of you aware of this?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I pray it is from him. Frankly, I am ashamed and stunned somehow I had missed that he was even missing or a POW. Were most of you aware of this?

Obama admit there was a POW, not likely.

 

[depotoo]

I am shocked I did not hear more about it, but was it me? Were you aware, RetiredGySgt?

 

[waltky]

Taliban Offer To Free Bowe Bergdahl...

Taliban offer to free US soldier
June 20, 2013 | The Taliban proposed a deal in which they would free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai eased his opposition Thursday to joining planned peace talks.

The idea of releasing these Taliban prisoners has been controversial. U.S. negotiators hope they would join the peace process but fear they might simply return to the battlefield, and Karzai once scuttled a similar deal partly because he felt the Americans were usurping his authority. 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."

Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, is the only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan. Suhail said Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition."

Donna Thibedeau-Eddy, who has spent the last few days at the Idaho home of the soldier's parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, said the family was hopeful. "I was with his Mom and Dad this morning when they got the news of the exchange offer. They were ecstatic," said Thibedeau-Eddy. "They actually saw the news before they got the call from the military. Bob saw it online and said 'Jani, Donna, look at this.'" While there have been talks before, Bob Bergdahl is putting more faith and hope into the latest developments because it appears the Taliban are taking the initiative, Thibedeau-Eddy said.

MORE

 

[depotoo]

Taliban Offer To Free Bowe Bergdahl...

Taliban offer to free US soldier
June 20, 2013 | The Taliban proposed a deal in which they would free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai eased his opposition Thursday to joining planned peace talks.

The idea of releasing these Taliban prisoners has been controversial. U.S. negotiators hope they would join the peace process but fear they might simply return to the battlefield, and Karzai once scuttled a similar deal partly because he felt the Americans were usurping his authority. 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."

Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, is the only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan. Suhail said Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition."

Donna Thibedeau-Eddy, who has spent the last few days at the Idaho home of the soldier's parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, said the family was hopeful. "I was with his Mom and Dad this morning when they got the news of the exchange offer. They were ecstatic," said Thibedeau-Eddy. "They actually saw the news before they got the call from the military. Bob saw it online and said 'Jani, Donna, look at this.'" While there have been talks before, Bob Bergdahl is putting more faith and hope into the latest developments because it appears the Taliban are taking the initiative, Thibedeau-Eddy said.

MORE

thanks for that update. I hate seeing him be used as a bargaining chip by the Taliban.

 

[waltky]

A trade in the offing?...

Sources: Work to free POW Bergdahl disorganized
April 24, 2014 WASHINGTON — Critics of the U.S. government's nearly five-year effort to seek the release of the only American soldier held captive in Afghanistan claim the work suffers from disorganization and poor communication among numerous federal agencies involved, leaving his captors unclear which U.S. officials have the authority to make a deal.

The shrinking U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan has refocused attention on efforts to bring home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, who has been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. About two dozen officials at the State and Defense departments, the military's U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Special Operations Command, the CIA and FBI are working the case - most of them doing it alongside their other duties, a defense official said.

Bergdahl's captors are anxious to release him, according to a defense official and a military officer, who both spoke to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. "Elements in all echelons - from the top of the Taliban down to the folks holding Bergdahl - are reaching out to make a deal," the defense official said. The military officer said the effort was marred by distrust on both sides. Those holding Bergdahl have indicated what they would be willing to do to prove to the U.S. government that they want to deal, but the U.S. has not formally responded to that outreach, the military officer said.

This undated image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The White House and U.S. military officials deny that the effort is disjointed, claim Bergdahl's release remains a top priority and that the government is using diplomatic, military, intelligence and all other means to free him. Bergdahl, 28, was last seen in a "proof of life" video released in December. He is thought to be held by members of the Haqqani network, which operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and has been one of the deadliest threats to U.S. troops in the war. The Haqqani network, which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, claims allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, yet operates with some degree of autonomy.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote earlier this year to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, saying it was critical that efforts to free Bergdahl are not overcome by bureaucracy. "Given the significance and necessity for centralized command and control, which I have been informed is little to nonexistent, I urge you to seriously consider the idea of directing an individual to organize, manage and coordinate activity that involves multiple elements of the federal government working toward Bergdahl's release," wrote Hunter, a Marine veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

MORE

See also:

Parole board clears another Yemeni 'forever prisoner' to leave Guantanamo
April 25, 2014 — An Obama administration parole board has approved for release another Guantánamo “forever prisoner” — a man once profiled by U.S. military intelligence as an Osama bin Laden bodyguard — and recommended he be reunited with family in Yemen rather than resettled elsewhere

Ali Ahmad al Razihi, 34, a bachelor, went before a parole board without an attorney on March 20. Razihi has modest plans for a food service business modeled after Guantánamo’s mess hall-to-cellblock catering system, according to a statement prepared by a U.S. military officer assigned to help Razihi in the parole board proceedings. He did not elaborate. Also, according to the officer, “luckily enough,” the captive’s father already has already lined up a bride for him on return to Yemen.

Razihi’s new designation as eligible for release means that of Guantánamo prison’s 154 captives, 44 are now considered indefinite detainees and 77 could leave once the State Department negotiates transfer deals. The rest include three convicted war criminals and other captives either awaiting trial or considered possible tribunal candidates. The brief order, removing the Yemeni’s designation as an indefinite detainee, credited Razihi’s “largely peaceful, nonviolent approach to detention,” and willingness to take part in a rehabilitation program once “the security situation improves” in Yemen, home to one of al-Qaida’s most virulent franchises.

The board also specifically urged return to Yemen, given Razihi’s desire to be reunited with the family he left more than a decade ago for Afghanistan. Razihi was at one point suspected of being a part of Osama bin Laden’s security detail, according to his leaked 2008 prisoner profile. He was brought to the crude prison camp of chain-link-fence cages called Camp X-Ray the day it opened, Jan. 11, 2002. A recent risk assessment never resolved the bodyguard issue. It said Razihi “possibly served as a bodyguard” but in U.S. custody had consistently “expressed nonextremist aspiration for his life after transfer. We lack sufficient information to assess whether his stated intentions are genuine.”

Delegates from six federal agencies weighed in on the decision, the board’s third so far after hearing five case. They represented the Director of National Intelligence, departments of Justice, Homeland Security and State as well as the Pentagon and, separately, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In earlier decisions, the board approved another suspected bodyguard, Mahmud Mujahid, for release and retained the forever prisoner designation of another, Abdel-Malek al Rahabi. The Pentagon gave Razihi a veto of public disclosure of what he told the board, according to a parole board website posting, and the Yemeni captive exercised it.

Parole board clears another Yemeni 'forever prisoner' to leave Guantanamo - U.S. - Stripes

 

[waltky]

5 for 1 swap doesn't show Taliban moderation to me...

Shift by hard-line Taliban factions may have sealed prisoner exchange
WASHINGTON Sat May 31, 2014 - The breakthrough leading to Saturday's surprise exchange of a U.S. prisoner of war for five Guantanamo detainees suddenly became possible after harder-line factions of the Afghan Taliban apparently shifted course and agreed to back it, according to U.S. officials.

The United States had tried diplomacy since late 2010 to free Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held captive in Afghanistan for nearly five years. But the efforts came to little until now. Mistrust between Washington and the insurgents had blocked progress, U.S. officials said. So did the deep-seated fears of Afghan President Hamid Karzai that a deal between the Americans and the Taliban would undercut him and his fragile government.

Complicating the talks, U.S. officials said, was an internal split between Taliban factions willing to talk to Americans and those staunchly opposed. After the details of earlier diplomatic efforts became public in late 2011, the Taliban's leadership struggled to contain internal splits over a potential peace deal, U.S. officials said.

U.S. President Barack Obama watches as Jami Bergdahl (L) and Bob Bergdahl (C) talk about the release of their son, prisoner of war U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, during a statement in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington

All of that changed in recent weeks - the exact time-frame is unclear - when Taliban hard-liners reversed position, officials said. The shift cleared the way for the dramatic pick-up of Bergdahl on Saturday by U.S. Special Operations forces in remote eastern Afghanistan and the freeing of five Taliban detainees, who flew aboard a U.S. military aircraft from Guantanamo to the Gulf emirate of Qatar.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have long acknowledged a fragmented understanding of the Taliban's internal politics. But the Taliban's reclusive leadership may have realized that this was their last and best chance to retrieve its prisoners. Another contributing factor was presidential politics. Both contenders in the second round of Afghanistan's presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, have pledged to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement allowing a small U.S. force to stay after NATO combat operations end in December.

RENEWED HOPE FOR PEACE TALKS

See also:

HAGEL: CAPTIVE'S LIFE WAS IN DANGER
Jun 1,`14 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday the military operation to free Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban in exchange for the release of five Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees was not relayed to Congress because officials believed the soldier's life was in danger.

In his first extensive public comments about Saturday's operation, Hagel said intelligence the U.S. had gathered suggested that Bergdahl's "safety and health were both in jeopardy, and in particular his health was deteriorating." Taliban members handed Bergdahl over to special operations forces in eastern Afghanistan, and later in the day the detainees were flown from the Guantanamo detention center to Qatar. The Pentagon did not give Congress the required 30-day notice for the release of detainees. Hagel said it was the administration's judgment the military had to move quickly to get Bergdahl out, "essentially to save his life." He said it was the unanimous consensus of the National Security Council, and the president has the authority to order such a release under Article 2 of the Constitution. Only a handful of people knew about the operation and Hagel said "we couldn't afford any leaks anywhere, for obvious reasons."

Speaking to reporters traveling with him just hours after Bergdahl was flown from Afghanistan to a military medical center in Germany, Hagel said the special operations forces conducting the operation took every precaution, using intelligence gathering, surveillance, well-positioned security assets and a lot of helicopters to ensure that things did not go wrong. "No shots were fired. There was no violence," said Hagel. "It went as well as we not only expected and planned, but I think as well as it could have ...The timing was right. The pieces came together." Hagel said he was hopeful the prisoner exchange could lead to a breakthrough with the Taliban.

He said the focus of the operation was on the successful return of Bergdahl, but "maybe this could provide some possible new bridge for new negotiations." The U.S. has long argued that the best way to a successful outcome in Afghanistan included reconciliation with the Taliban insurgents. Asked if this type of swap might embolden other militants to take hostages, Hagel said that this operation was a prisoner exchange. And he said terrorist groups are already kidnapping young school girls, business people and other innocent people.

Hagel declined to say whether he believes Bergdahl was attempting to desert the Army or go absent without leave when he walked away from his unit and disappeared nearly five years ago. "Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family," Hagel said. "Other circumstances that may develop and questions - those will be dealt with later." He added that his own time in Vietnam and the fact that he knew people like Sen. John McCain of Arizona who was a prisoner of war, gives him a personal connection to such an exchange. "This is a very happy day for the Bergdahl family," Hagel said. "It's a very important day for our troops and our country." Hagel said he planned to talk to the Bergdahls soon, and will speak with the soldier at the appropriate time, so as not to interfere with his health care needs. "I am particularly happy for the family. What they have had to endure, how they've endured it - it's been remarkable. They have not been bitter. They have adjusted, they never lost hope and faith," Hagel said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-01-05-26-01