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The Haqqani network and the 'real cost' of the Burgdahl release.
by Michael Ledeen[PJ Media] One good place to start is where Brad Thor does: forget about the Taliban, they weren't holding Bowe. He was a captive of the Haqqanis, which Thor nicely describes as a mixture of terrorism and mafia, "80% Sopranos and 20% Al Qaeda." He then asks an important question: what did the Haqqanis get for Bergdahl? That's exactly right, because four of the Guantanamo terrorists were indeed Taliban, and hence low priority for the Haqqanis. So? So we need to ask how much money the Haqqanis got, or how many weapons, or maybe diamonds, I don't know. We probably arranged for the payment--it's illegal to do it directly, I believe (although CIA has done it, as has the military, usually under the guise of "providing information")--and the Qataris may have thought it was a good investment. But something of value had to be given to the Haqqanis. I don't believe they turned over Bowe as a favor to the Taliban. It is also possible that the Iranians were involved. A closely related and quite interesting follow-on. Posted by: Besoeker 2014-06-02 |
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