Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA-D) Disappointed Lawmakers Not Given 30-Day Notice by Law by Obama Administration on Sgt. Bergdahl – Taliban 5 Swap

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: OOPS, SORRY, WE FORGOT…

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (CA-D) said yesterday of the  Obama administration that she was “very disappointing that there was not a level of trust sufficient” in failing to notify lawmakers 30 days’ notice about a deal to release five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. She stated that National Deputy Security Adviser Tony Blinken called her Monday night “apologizing” for failing to notify lawmakers sooner. DIFI  referred to Blinken’s apology as an oversight. HAH! Oversight? How does the Obama administration go from Jay Carney stating explicitly in 2013 that Congress will be told in advance by law to no communication what-so-ever with the ranking Senate chair?

The Democrat Divide

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein took at shot at the Obama administration on Tuesday for failing to give lawmakers 30 days’ notice about a deal to release five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only POW from America’s war in Afghanistan.

“It’s very disappointing that there was not a level of trust sufficient to justify alerting us,” Feinstein told reporters in the Capitol.

A defense bill that President Obama signed into law in December 2013 requires that Congress be notified 30 days ahead of releasing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

Feinstein said that National Deputy Security Adviser Tony Blinken called her Monday night “apologizing” for failing to notify lawmakers sooner.

“He apologized for it and said it was an oversight,” Feinstein said. When asked whether he used the word “oversight,” Feinstein clarified: “In so many words, I can’t say. That was my impression.”

While the California Democrat says “the president certainly has an executive authority that he can use,” she also wants to know whether Bergdahl was a deserter, and she wants to know the terms of the deal with the Qatari government, which has pledged to keep the Taliban prisoners for a year. There will be a briefing Tuesday for Intel Committee members, and a closed Senate Armed Services Committee hearing next Tuesday about the swap.

Although, this is a Democrats reaction of moral and legal outrage toward the Obama administration and their actions … Are Democrats finally figuring out that Obama does not trust them either or care to include them in his imperial government?   Hot Air points out that despite the arguments offered by the White House that they needed Bergdahl back no matter how he’d been captured, Feinstein suggested that his status mattered in the equation. The American public reaction to this ill-advised prisoner swap will only serve to cause Democrats to further run away from Obama in the upcoming midterm elections.

Obama State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf Suggests Fellow Soldiers Aren’t Reliable Sources on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

AN INSULT TOO FAR FROM THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION … BENGHAZI 2.0

There comes a point and time when enough is enough.  That point was just reached with the Obama presidency.Yesterday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf indicated, while answering media questions in the wake of the ill-advised Taliban prison swap for Sgt. Bergdahl, that she did not think that fellow soldiers were not a reliable source on Bergdahl’s walking away from his military unit. WHAT!!! Did she just call those soldiers who have spoken out against Bergdahl and called him a deserter, liars? Has the Obama administration no shame?

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf engaged in a heated exchange Tuesday with a reporter over the circumstances surrounding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture five years ago, saying she does not think his squad mates have the best idea of what happened when he disappeared.

When Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson asked, “Does the State Department consider Sergeant Bergdahl to be a deserter?” Harf replied, “The State Department — no, Lucas. Look, what we’ve said is we are going to learn the facts about what happened here.”

As if the economy and Obama’s handling of domestic issues was not bad enough over the past six years that has seen little to no recovery from the recession. Escalating federal debt out of control and a government takeover of the healthcare system that was never intended to provide care, but rather control. A foreign policy that has alienated our allies and emboldened our enemies. Scandals that has seen entities like the IRS purposely and willfully target Conservative organizations. Cover-ups in Benghazi where no one came to the aid of Americans in distress that left four Americans dead, including a US Ambassador.  A VA scandal that this administration knew about and ran on in 2008, yet did nothing. Now the Obama administration swaps 5 Taliban GITMO detainees for some one who many believe was a deserter. Now they are calling fellow military soldiers liars. ENOUGH!

Watch the VIDEO below from The Kelly File, of the shameful actions of the State Department spokesperson and Lt. Col. Ralph Peters reaction just lambasting her and the administration.

Transcript from the Gateway Pundit:  

FOX News reporter: Does the State Department consider Sgt. Bergdahl to be a deserter?

State Department spokesperson Marie Harf: No, Lucas, what we said is we are going to learn the facts on what happened here.

FOX News: According to those around him, his platoon-mates his squadron-mates said he walked off…

Harf: Lucas, some of them, there are conflicting reports out there about this.

FOX News: The guys on national television last night, his squad-mates, platoon-mates were not correct?

Harf: I’m saying we do not know the fact pattern yet. We don’t. Nobody knows exactly what happened that night.

FOX News: Well, I think that his squad-mates would have the best indication…

Harf: I don’t think that that’s the case.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was heard to be whispering to herself, what difference does it make.

LIARS!!! Hmm, Remember When WH Mouthpiece Jay Carney Said in 2013 … No Bergdahl Decision Will Happen ‘Without Consulting Congress’

YET ANOTHER LIE FROM THE ADMINISTRATION THAT PROMISED, IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTHCARE PLAN, YOU CAN KEEP IT, PERIOD!

As reported at the Washington Free Beacon, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said nearly a year ago back on June 21, 2013 that no decisions about bringing about the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl through detainee transfer would be done “without consulting Congress.” My how times change. When the GITMO 5 were released from Guantanamo in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Congress was not notified 30 days in advance as per the law that Carney stated the president would follow.

Imagine that, the Obama White House said one thing in 2013 and then something different today. This administration thinks it can do anything it damn well pleases and no one stops it. They keep pushing the envelop and no one slaps their hand. What does it say about a presidency that cannot tell the truth and has no respect for the US Constitution or the laws that the president is supposed to “faithfully” uphold?

Jay Carney remarks at the press briefing on June 21, 2013. Full transcript can be read HERE:

Q: Jay, going to back to Afghanistan, the Taliban has offered to release Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five members of the Taliban who are currently being held at Guantanamo Bay. Is this something that the administration is considering? Is this something that the President would agree to?

JAY CARNEY:  What I can tell you is that the main dialogue that we support is the dialogue between Afghans — between the Taliban and the Afghan government.  However, there are some issues that we would like to discuss with the Taliban directly, and this includes the safe return of Sergeant Bergdahl, who has been gone for far too long. We continue to call for and work toward his safe and immediate release.  We cannot discuss all the details of our efforts, but there should be no doubt that on a daily basis we are continuing to pursue — using our military, intelligence and diplomatic tools — the effort to return him home safely.  And our hearts are with the Bergdahl family. With regard to the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, we have made — the United States has not made the decision to do that, though we do expect the Taliban to raise this issue in our discussion, if and when those discussions happen. As we have long said, however, we would not make any decisions about transfer of any detainees without consulting with Congress and without doing so in accordance with U.S. law.

Q: So you haven’t ruled it out?

CARNEY:  I’m simply saying that — first of all, you have to separate the two issues.  We are focused on the return  — the safe and immediate return of Sergeant Bergdahl, and we continue to use the tools at our disposal to help bring that about. We also expect the Taliban to raise the issue of their detainees in discussions that we have with them if those discussions take place.  And at this time we’ve made no decisions about the transfer of detainees.  And in accordance with law, we would be consulting with Congress should we make any decisions about that.

Protein Wisdom opines, It’s okay to ask: Whose side is Obama on?

But back on topic:  we know Obama is no fan of the Constitution.  We know he doesn’t believe in or abide separation of powers.   We know he doesn’t respect border security or national sovereignty, having refused to enforce federal immigration law and having noted — at a West Point commencement address — that he won’t stop rogue states from acting because the US has refused, in the past, to cede its sovereign powers to the UN, a bureaucratic body made up mostly of representatives of socialist or totalitarian states and a long-time heartthrob of the trasnational progressive movement.  We know that he doesn’t value individual privacy, as the NSA scandal shows and as ObamaCare’s data collection requirements reinforce.  We know he doesn’t much care for the military, having gutted it as best he could, having shut down its memorials during the partial government shut down, and having slept through an attack that left Americans to perish in some African hellhole.  We know that he despises his political “enemies” more so than he does any foreign actor — showing far more contempt for the “teabaggers” than for the Muslim Brotherhood, whose members are more welcome in the White House than is Israel’s head of state.

CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin States President Barack Obama “Clearly Broke the Law” in Releasing Taliban Detainees from GITMO without giving Congress 30 Days Notice … Jonathan Turley Too

Two Liberal Lawyers say Barack Obama clearly broke the law …

CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin stated yesterday on ‘The Situation Room’ with Wolf Blitzer that President Barack Obama “clearly broke the law” by failing to provide notice to Congress at least 30 days before trading five Taliban members from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley also said on CNN that the White House broke the law by releasing five high-ranking Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay without congressional notification.

“They did,” the professor replied matter-of-factly. “I don’t think that the White House is seriously arguing that they’re not violating federal law. And to make matters worse, this is a long series of violations of federal law that the president’s been accused of. … This is going to add to that pile. I don’t think there’s much debate that they’re in violation of the law.”

But as those Hillary Clinton likes to say, “what difference does it make?”

Mediaite:

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin declared on Monday that President Barack Obama “broke the law” when his administration failed to give Congress notice of at least 30 days before releasing five ranking Taliban members from Guantanamo Bay. Toobin said that a presidential signing statement did not absolve Obama from culpability for failing to abide by the law mandating congressional notification.

“I think he clearly broke the law,” Toobin said. “The law says 30-days’ notice. He didn’t give 30-days’ notice.” Toobin added that Obama’s opinion expressed in a signing statement “is not law.”

“The law is on the books, and he didn’t follow it,” Toobin added.

Why should this come as a surprise to anyone that Barack Obama is willfully and purposely breaking the law? He defends the laws he likes and ignores the ones he doesn’t. This is what an Imperialist president looks like.

Sen. John McCain Questions Swap “Highest High-Risk” Terrorists as White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice Defends United States Negotiating with Terrorists over Exchange of GITMO 5 for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT THAT THE US WILL RUE THE DAY …

White House national security adviser Susan Rice went on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ with Candy Crowley to defend the Obama administration’s decision to exchange five GITMO “high risk” Taliban detainees for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Rice also spun the fact that the Obama administration broke the law in not notifying Congress 30 days prior that there was a negotiation in process. But of course, what difference does it make with this administration, all they do is break the law, thumb their nose at separations of power and The US Constitution. Let alone negotiating with terrorists. How and why would something like this be deemed so sensitive that Congress was not notified? ” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ “What does this tell the terrorists? That if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists Cruz called the prisoner swap “very disturbing.” 

White House national security adviser Susan Rice defended the Obama administration’s decision to exchange Guantanamo detainees for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, amid criticism that the United States negotiated with terrorists in the process.

She also said the “acute urgency” of Bergdahl’s health condition justified President Obama’s not notifying Congress beforehand that Bergdahl was being swapped for five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

“What we did was ensure that, as always, the United States doesn’t leave a man or a woman on the battlefield,” Rice said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Susan Rice went on to parrot President Obama in saying, “What we did was ensure that, as always, the United States doesn’t leave a man or a woman on the battlefield.” However, there appears to be just one little problem with that statement … Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was not left on the battlefield, by all accounts he left his

From The Daily Caller: CNN’s Candy Crowley Grills Susan Rice: ‘Point Blank, Did The US Negotiate With Terrorists?’

Once again the Obama administration is playing games with words. Newsflash to Susan Rice by the associative property, if a=b and b=c then a=c, you negotiated with terrorists.

CNN host Candy Crowley pressed White House national security adviser Susan Rice on the Taliban prisoner swap conducted Saturday, asking “point blank, did the US negotiate with terrorists” in violation of its long-held policy?

Crowley spoke with Rice on Sunday about the exchange of five high-ranking Taliban detainees — two of which are accused of the mass murder of religious minorities in Afghanistan — for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl, whom many claim was captured after deserting his post and walking into the Afghan wilderness in 2009.

Berghdahl was captured by the Haqqani network, a close ally of the Taliban and an acknowledged terrorist organization according to the State Department.

“Point blank, did the US negotiate with terrorists for his release?” Crowley asked.

“Candy, what we did was ensure that, as always, the United States doesn’t leave a man or woman on the battlefield,” Rice replied. “It’s very important for folks to understand, if we got into a situation where we said because of who has captured an American soldier on the battlefield, we will leave that person behind.”

John McCain went on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ and questioned the swap of “highest high-risk people” for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. McCain called the GITMO detainees, “These are the hardest of the hard core” and added that he was disturbed the Taliban named the prisoners they wanted in exchange for Bergdahl’s freedom.

Current and former U.S. officials welcomed the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan, but voiced concern about the release of five members of the Taliban who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay as part of a negotiated prisoner swap.

“These are the hardest of the hard core. These are the highest high-risk people, and others that we have released have gone back into the fight,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in an interview on “Face the Nation,” adding that he was disturbed the Taliban named the prisoners they wanted in exchange for Bergdahl’s freedom.