The Bergdahl Trade: A Case of Treachery And Betrayal

Many of us who have been proud to serve are still bewildered by the 5-for-1 deal which saw the return of Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for a group of key Taliban commanders.

As deals go this one stank, especially since details are now emerging Bergdahl could’ve been swapped for a Pakistani mother-of-three.

The revelation is a slap in the face to every serving soldier and now this traitor has the nerve to rub salt into the wounds by appealing the dishonorable discharge portion of his sentence.

Some of us hold the opinion that when Bergdahl was sentenced to a reduction in rank, fined $10,000 and given a dishonorable discharge he got off lightly.

The dodgy 5-for-1 deal, brokered by the US State Department under Obama, was unprecedented and one, I’ve just learned, that was totally unnecessary.

Before the Taliban Five were released from Guantanamo Bay, Bergdahl was to be traded for a Pakistani neuroscientist serving time in prison for the attempted murder of US soldiers.

This deal was being brokered by the US military after British journalist Yvonne Ridley acted as a go between in negotiations. If her name sounds familiar, Ridley was captured by the Taliban in September 2001 and held for 11 days before being released.

Bergdahl was to be exchanged with Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who was given 86 years after being convicted of the attempted murder of military personnel.

The mainstream media likes to portray Siddiqui as an al Qaeda Mata Hari, but a close examination of the facts around her case raises more questions than answers.

Ridley told me she was days away from getting the deal done when talks broke down with the Taliban. Instead, the US State Department jumped in with the 5-for-1 deal which now sees the Taliban Five living the high life in Qatar.

According to Ridley, Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, shut down the talks. Whatever your views, trading Siddiqui for Bergdahl was a no brainer; however the elephant in the room is why this had anything to do with the ISI?

Pakistan has enjoyed billions of US military aid dollars over the past several decades, and they’ve played us for fools. While taking US tax dollars they’ve been bankrolling and supporting the Taliban ... our enemy! This is the same ISI which shielded Osama bin Laden, remember him?

This takes us back to the Siddiqui story which is an enigma surrounded by the smoky mirrors of US and Pakistan intelligence agencies. Ridley insists Siddiqui's case is a gross miscarriage of justice, but if you listen to the intel community the good doctor is the most dangerous woman in the world. I've looked into the evidence from Siddiqui's trial and in my opinion it has more holes than a pop-up target on a qualification range.

One powerful example is that the prosecution wants us to believe that Dr. Sddiqui picked up an M-4 carbine in the police station where she was being interrogated and then tried to shoot a room full of US soldiers. Does anyone know of a single case where a soldier carelessly laid down their M-4 on the floor during an interrogation?

A US soldier would NEVER, and I mean NEVER lay his or her weapon down unless it was unloaded and taken apart for cleaning. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it takes an overactive imagination to believe that a slight, untrained female overpowered a male US soldier, took his weapon; locked, loaded, took aim, fired and missed.

Kangaroo trial aside, my focus is the Bergdahl trade and why we are still subsidizing Pakistan, when it is clearly aiding and abetting the Taliban?

If this whole sorry tale has left you angry - and you damn well should be - we should demand an investigation by President Donald Trump's administration into the 5-for-1 deal.

While we are honor bound to defend freedom, it should not come at this price.