Taliban says it's suspending talks on captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl

[IDemo]

Source: CNN

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Taliban says it is suspending talks with the United States to exchange Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- the only American soldier held as a captive -- for five Taliban prisoners.

U.S. diplomats had been carrying out "extremely sensitive discussions" with Taliban intermediaries, a U.S. official told CNN on Tuesday.

The Taliban said the discussions were taking place in Qatar, where the group opened an office last year.

However, on Sunday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid sent a statement saying the group has called for the talks to be suspended.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/23/world/asia/taliban-talk-suspension/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[another_liberal]

1. That poor guy . . .

Last edited Sun Feb 23, 2014, 05:09 PM - Edit history (1)

How his family must feel! For years our military tried to gloss over his loss by suggesting he might have been a secret Taliban sympathizer who got himself captured intentionally, then they launched at least one bungled rescue attempt, which only succeeded in, possibly, getting some special operations people killed, and now that they've been forced by public opinion to get serious and actually talk to someone about his release, the negotiations break down.

[TwilightGardener]

3. I don't recall any failed rescue attempts that resulted in us losing special ops guys for

Bergdahl. When did that happen?

[msanthrope]

5. From that Navy Seal book.....please forgive the Faux News source....

But it was a 9-page section in chapter seven that caught our eye. It details several failed rescue attempts for Prisoner Of War Bowe Bergdahl.

Bissonnette, who uses the pen name Mark Owen, calls the rescue efforts a "race to get (Bergdahl) back before they smuggled him into Pakistan."

"One evening just after the first video appeared, we got word they might have possible location for him,” the book reads. “'Intelligence says he was likely in this area south of Kabul today,' our troop commander said, pointing at a map of central Afghanistan. 'We don't have much intel to go off of, but this is a priority"

The books goes on to say:

"We never found Bergdahl on that deployment... but in my gut, I think he was there at some point. We probably missed him by a few hours, or maybe in the fight they were able to escape."

http://www.localnews8.com/news/Navy-Seal-book-reveals-failed-Bergdahl-rescue-attempts/-/308662/16500992/-/b9ytwo/-/index.html

[TwilightGardener]

6. I know they were looking for him, but I hadn't heard that anyone died in the attempt

to get him.

[another_liberal]

7. Thank you.

I remembered hearing a news report on at least one rescue attempt, but I didn't have a ready source to respond with.

[TwilightGardener]

9. The point is, did we lose any special forces, and how many? Because that would be

a fairly big deal.

[another_liberal]

10. That is your point, you chose to stress it.

I am not actually certain if we did or not, my recollection is that we did, but since you persist in hammering away on that quite peripheral subject, I'll alter my first post here to make you happy.

The subject I was discussing is our military's obfuscation and apparent lack of interest concerning the release of an American POW. Have anything to say on that point?

[TwilightGardener]

11. There hasn't been a lack of interest at all. Just that the attempts to

find him and get him back have been done quietly, for obvious reasons. The SEAL book excerpt proves we've been trying to get him for a while. This isn't a new story--just that we're mostly packing up in Afghanistan and may not have a better chance of winning his release in the future, so there's more urgency. But, yeah, I would think it would have been a news story of some importance if the rescue attempts resulted in deaths, and I hadn't heard that previously.

[7962]

8. I dont know if any of this was ever denied by the family

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bowe-bergdahl-us-soldier-held-by-taliban-was-ashamed-to-be-american-emails-show/

But he still needs to be home regardless

[cosmicone]

2. Give them an ultimatum

and if they don't comply, carpet bomb their strongholds.

[tabasco]

4. Yeah, that would work so well.

You sound like a refugee from the Rumsfeld regime.

[Ash_F]

12. I am sure they are bombing their strongholds as often as they can find them

Even nicking a few farms and weddings/funerals on the side.

[former9thward]

13. Their strongholds?

That is most of the country if you hadn't noticed.

[warrant46]

14. They would have to Bomb the "Ally" Pakistan

The one with a few Nukes in their hip pocket

[sjdnb]

15. I am sure we all saw this coming

Afghanistan is not an easy country to deal with. Russia found that out the hard way and now we are, too.

We need to close Guantanamo and give them all their miscreants back, get Sgt Bergdahl back, and get the heck out of this hell hole.

My SIL was in both Iraq and Afghanistan and I truly don't believe either of these countries are worth another American son or daughter's life.

I believe we would be more effective dealing with any threats from Iraq, Afghanistan and/or Pakistan by letting them rebuild and protect themselves and redirecting our resources.