On the same weekend that the secretary of veterans affairs resigned amid the scandal of veterans dying before the government’s doctors could treat them in government hospitals; on the heels of another revelation of the National Security Agency’s unconstitutional spying, in which federal agents have been seizing the digital images of our loved ones and friends that have accompanied our emails; and a week after the White House intentionally or negligently revealed the true identity of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan, President Obama announced a new foreign-policy initiative called “No One Left Behind.” The reference was to the sole service member then held in captivity in the venue of America’s longest war, the one most Americans have forgotten: Afghanistan.
Late last week, Mr. Obama announced the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban for more than five years. Sgt. Bergdahl apparently shed his weapons and equipment, sent his personal belongings home, and walked into the hands of his captors one day, unwilling to remain a part of his military unit and largely ignorant of the fate that faced him. The president must have been determined to bring Sgt. Bergdahl home at all costs, because the manner of his doing so makes it likely that he violated federal criminal law in the deal he cut with Sgt. Bergdahl’s captors.
The government apparently negotiated with the Taliban, a group characterized by federal law as a non-state terrorist organization. The deal required the United States to release five former senior Taliban intelligence and military officials from the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Therein lies the legal and constitutional conundrum generated by the post-September 11 contempt for the Constitution that has been a hallmark of Congress, and the Bush and Obama administrations.
Late last week, Mr. Obama announced the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban for more than five years. Sgt. Bergdahl apparently shed his weapons and equipment, sent his personal belongings home, and walked into the hands of his captors one day, unwilling to remain a part of his military unit and largely ignorant of the fate that faced him. The president must have been determined to bring Sgt. Bergdahl home at all costs, because the manner of his doing so makes it likely that he violated federal criminal law in the deal he cut with Sgt. Bergdahl’s captors.
The government apparently negotiated with the Taliban, a group characterized by federal law as a non-state terrorist organization. The deal required the United States to release five former senior Taliban intelligence and military officials from the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Therein lies the legal and constitutional conundrum generated by the post-September 11 contempt for the Constitution that has been a hallmark of Congress, and the Bush and Obama administrations.
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