Thread: Drudge Report: Former fed prosecutor: Release of prisoners impeachable offense

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Former fed prosecutor: Release of prisoners impeachable offense...



Former fed prosecutor: Taliban prisoner swap could lead to IMPEACHMENT

'The transfer violates the law against material support to terrorism,' argues an author who once put Islamist terrorists behind bars. Sending Taliban leaders back onto the battlefield, he says, is 'a high crime and misdemeanor,' and the Bow Bergdahl case will give the public a reason to condone remo…
Daily Mail

Taliban prisoner swap was ILLEGAL claims GOP as former federal prosecutor says it could lead to Obama's impeachment

• The president ignored a law – which he signed last year – requiring him to notify Congress 30 days before releasing anyone from Guantanamo Bay
• The Obama administration never told Capitol Hill until after Bergdahl was in American custody and the US Taliban prisoners were preparing to leave
• A former federal prosecutor told MailOnline that while the 30-day-notice law is probably unconstitutional, putting enemy combatants back in a position to harm Americans is an impeachable offense
• A White House insider said Obama administration officials didn't anticipate how controversial Bergdahl's rescue would be, and compared it to the 1981 release of 52 US hostages in Iran
  
• Since Saturday several of Bergdahl's former military comrades have said he was an Army deserter, and some have speculated that he also aimed to join with the Taliban in Afghanistan
• An official Pentagon report concluded in 2010 that Bergdahl 'walked away,' so little effort was made to retrieve him, according to the AP
  

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
Published: 13:03 EST, 2 June 2014 | Updated: 17:44 EST, 2 June 2014
1,825 shares
274 View comments

Several Videos at the page link :

Barack Obama broke a federal law that he signed just six months ago when he authorized the release of five high-ranking Taliban terror targets from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in exchange for the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, senior congressional Republicans claimed today.

And the president may also have written a new chapter in the case for his own impeachment, according to a former federal prosecutor who helped bring the 1993 World Trade Center bombers to justice.
'The return of senior terrorists to the Taliban [is] ... a "high crime and misdemeanor",' author Andrew C. McCarthy told MailOnline.
His book 'Faithless Execution: Building the case for Obama's impeachment,' is set to be published Tuesday.

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President Barack Obama made Jani and Bob Bergdahl happy by rescuing their son, but may have put his presidency in jeopardy by ignoring Congress when he released five high-value Talican terrorists in exchange


Dereliction of duty? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (C) made press statements aboard a military aircraft but failed to notify Congress that five Guantanamo Bay detainees would be walking free

Obama 'clearly violated laws which require him to notify Congress thirty days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, and to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated,' House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon of California and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. JIm Inhofe of Oklahoma said Saturday.
'Our joy at Sergeant Berghdal’s release is tempered by the fact that President Obama chose to ignore the law, not to mention sound policy, to achieve it.'
What makes the news more controversial still is that many do not see Bergdahl as a hero. Instead he has been branded a 'deserter' by many of his former comrades.
An official Pentagon report in 2010 concluded that he 'walked away' from his post, so the U.S. Army did not exert any extraordinary efforts to find him after an initial flurry of searches, according to an insider who spoke to the Associated Press.
And at least six soldiers lost their lives in circumstances related to the Idaho native's disappearance from his post on June 30, 2009. Parents of one dead military men were told that their son perished in a mission aimed at taking down a Taliban target, not capturing a deserter.
With the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance no longer in any substantial doubt, the remaining outrage has focused on the Obama administration's decision to trade five high-value Taliban terror detainees for him – several years after the Pentagon decided he wasn't worth recovering.

Yet it appears the administration believed it would win a P.R. victory big enough to eclipse any legalistic hand-wringing on Capitol Hill, and whatever objections might surface among the military rank-and-file.
A White House official told MailOnline on Monday morning that Obama's deputies were caught flatfooted by the intensity of public outrage in some quarters after Bergdahl's rescue by Special Forces.
'Everyone thought this would be a January 1981 moment,' the insider said, referring to the negotiated release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran after 444 days in captivity.

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Backlash: Some of the men who served with Bowe Bergdahl are furious that he is being hailed as a hero and claim that he deserted his post

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Bergdahl, the last American hostage from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, was released this weekend in a prisoner exchange that saw five Guantanamo terrorism suspects freed

Five Taliban Guantanamo prisoners arrive in Qatar


The United States won their freedom by releasing about $8 billion in Iranian assets that were frozen during the hostage standoff, and immunizing the Iranian government from any lawsuits that might be filed after the crisis was over.
'Reagan negotiated with terrorists in the weeks before he took office,' the official said. 'I don't remember anyone objecting at the time. They just wanted our people home.'
What the White House didn't count on was a cadre of Bergdahl's former platoon-mates coming forward and describing him as a dishonorable soldier beyond redemption.
The law Obama is accused of breaking, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2013, requires Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to 'notify the appropriate committees of Congress ... not later than 30 days before the transfer or release' of detainees from Guantanamo.
Hagel is required to explain why prisoners are being let go, why it's 'in the national security interests of the United States,' and what the administration has done 'to mitigate the risks' that the terror targets will 're-engage' in war against the U.S.

Obama signed the lengthy law in December – it sets budgets and policy for the entire Defense Department – but issued a statement saying that he thought the notification requirement was unfair.

More...

• EXCLUSIVE - 'A cover up just like Benghazi': Outraged parents of officer who died hunting for 'deserter' POW Bergdahl lash out at Obama over 'LIES' they were told about how their hero son died
• 'Bowe Bergdahl deserted and Americans lost their lives searching for him': The bitter backlash from soldiers who served with Taliban POW as the SIX men who were killed looking for him are revealed
• EXCLUSIVE - 'Bowe was made to dance': Taliban POW's ballet teacher reveals how Bergdahl was not a typical 'rough, tough' soldier and how the moves he learned could have helped him survive his ordeal
• Taliban PoW was captive for so long he even forgot how to speak ENGLISH... as his parents reveal he has a long road to recovery
• Taliban leaders given hero's welcome in footage claiming to show prisoners arriving in Qatar after Guantanamo release ... with no American presence in sight
• 'I am ashamed to be an American': Emails from freed PoW before he was captured and held by Taliban for five years show he had become disillusioned and planned to leave

'[I]n certain circumstances,,' he wrote, it 'would violate constitutional separation of powers principles. The executive branch must have the flexibility, among other things, to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers.'

Congress had moved significantly in the president's direction, compared with the previous year's NDAA. That law expressly forbade the administration from spending any money to release enemy combatants to foreign countries from Guantanamo.
Now Obama can make his move, provided he keeps Congress in the loop – which by all accounts he failed to do.
Administration officials were quick to assert that an emergency related to Bergdahl's health made convening a war council impracticable.

'We had reason to be concerned that this was an urgent and acute situation,' National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday on ABC.
'Had we waited and lost him, I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.'
But Monday morning on CNN, outgoing White House Press Secretary Jay Carney couldn't back up that assertion.




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Prisoner swap: Abdul Waq-Hasiq, left, and Norullah Noori, right, are to be freed from Guantanamo Bay




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Former combatants: The prisoners, including Khirullah Khairkhwa, left, and Mohammed Nabi, right, will remain in Qatar for at least next year as part of the terms of their release

'Now that you have him,' host Chris Cuomo asked, 'have they been able to diagnose anything that substantiated the concerns?'
'Well, you know, I think at this point, Chris,' Carney said, 'we need to allow for Sergeant Bergdahl to recover privately. Out of respect for him and his family. we're not going to get into details of that process. We're just thrilled that he is back.'

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War criminal?: Mohammad Fazi is believed to have been at the command of a mass killing

It's not flouting the defense law that upsets McCarthy, the prosecutor-turned-author.
He thinks the NDAA itself is unconstitutional since it forbade Obama from moving chess pieces around the battlefield – instead of continuing to prohibit him from spending money to do it, which is Congress' job.
But putting senior Taliban leaders back in a position to harm U.S. national interests, McCarthy argues, could be Obama's undoing.
'I don't think it's an impeachable offense for violating the NDAA,' he told MailOnline.

'Congress unconstitutionally restricted the president's war power over the disposition of enemy combatants.'

'They could have properly done it by using the power of the purse to deny funds for the transfers, but that's not what they did [this time].'
But transferring the five high-value prisoners to Qatar, as Obama has authorized, 'violates the law against material support to terrorism,' McCarthy said.

'And because high crimes and misdemeanors are not statutory offenses but political wrongs that endanger the United States, the return of senior terrorists to the Taliban while we still have soldiers in harm’s way is, in my view, a "high crime and misdemeanor".'
Article Two of the United States Constitution provides Congress with a way to remove officials, including the president, from the executive branch.
Parents of freed US soldier express gratitude and joy

'The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,' it reads in part.

A 'high' crime is one that only a person in a position of power or authority can commit.
American history has seen only three serious attempts at impeachment: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Nixon resigned before he could be removed from the White House over the Watergate affair. The U.S. Senate failed to gather the two-thirds majority required to convict (and depose) either Clinton or Johnson.

McCarthy said he's spoiled for choice with Obama's impeachable offenses, and the Bergdahl affair doesn't crack the top tier.

'If it was a standalone, I would never impeach based solely on it, but I would add it to a larger indictment,' he told MailOnline.
That indictment, laid out in his book, includes references to Obamacare's 'multiple unilaterally decreed amendments,' security failures in Benghazi, 'a Department of Justice that has covered up the Fast & Furious scandal' and the 'selective targeting' of conservative groups by the IRS.


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Andrew McCarthy (L) is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. His book 'Faithless Execution' makes the case that President Obama has repeatedly ignored the rule of law, and that Americans should make their peace with the idea of firing him


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Bizarre: Bowe Bergdahl was 'made to dance,' his former ballet teacher told MailOnline of the wayward soldier
US hopes prisoner swap might bring Taliban breakthroughs



But he is under no illusion that the release of five Taliban in exchange for a U.S. soldier who may have deserted his post and plotted to join with the enemy will suddenly bring out the peasants and their pitchforks.

And the lessons of Republicans' failed effort to remove President Bill Clinton from power, he says, must not be forgotten.
'The error to avoid is not the endeavor to remove a rogue president,' he told MailOnline. 'It is the endeavor to remove a rogue president without first having convinced the public that his removal is warranted – that the punishment fits the crime.'
He wrote Monday in the New York Post that 'at this point, impeachment seems farfetched. ... You can prove a thousand impeachable offenses, but absent the public will to remove the president from power, impeachment is a non-starter.'
'The political case for ousting a president must be built. That is a good deal tougher than building the legal case.'


Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...PEACHMENT.html

Hints rising the Bergdahl-Taliban swap may lead to downfall of Obama presidency

Play

Video at the Page Link:

In the wake of Bowe Bergdahl's release, some soldiers are calling the former POW a deserter who became disillusioned with military life.on.aol.com

Timothy Whiteman
Wilmington Conservative Examiner

Wikimedia-Commons, Public Domain.

June 2, 2014

Obama allowed the Taliban to hand-pick the "Gitmo Five" to be released...

With the number of scandals plaguing the Obama Administration seemingly popping up by the day, Kevin Cirilli of the inside-the-beltway news portal The Hill reported on June 1, 2014 that the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has managed to knock the deaths of 40 vets at the Phoenix, Ariz VA hospital off the headlines, at least for the time being. In the wake of the Bergdahl-Taliban deal, a growing chorus from media outlets across the political spectrum have been raising previously under-reported or flatly ignored specifics of Barack Obama's prisoner exchange deal with the terrorist network.
Reporters James Rosen and Hannah Allam of McClatchy News (Washington, DC bureau) cited on June 1, 2014, the reaction of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) who stated the five Guantanamo Bay al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees released were "the hardest of the hard-core." To add insult to injury, McCain revealed that Obama conceded to the Taliban that they could hand-pick which five were released in exchange for the Army sergeant who reportedly walked off his post five years ago and subsequently captured by the Haqqani branch of the Taliban.
The normally hard left-leaning The Daily Beast gave a brief biography on most of the specially chosen terror operatives, whom Thomas Joscelyn, a senior editor at the Long War Journal, described as "undoubtedly among the most dangerous Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo."

The breakdown...
Mullah Mohammad Fazl - the Taliban’s former Deputy Defense Minister is a wanted man the United Nations for his role in the savage massacres of thousands of Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority.
Mullah Norullah Noori - one of the more senior Taliban military leaders. Reportedly was personally asked by Usama bin Laden in 1995 "to participate in an offensive against northern alliance warlord Rashid Dostum."
Abdul Haq Wasiq - the former Deputy Minister of Intelligence, at the onset of US intervention in Afghanistan was supposedly working with the American military, but "was holding out information he had on other top al Qaeda and Taliban leaders during interrogations." Was also considered a "crucial liaison between the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups while he was Deputy Intelligence Minister."
Khairullah Khairkhwa - the former governor of Herat during they heyday of the Taliban. Considered by the Pentagon to be a likely heroin trafficker. Also "participated in meetings with Iranian officials after 9-11 to help plot attacks on U.S. forces following the invasion."
Mohammed Nabi Omari - CNN separately reported he was the Taliban's former Chief of Communications who was also involved in aiding "al Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan."

"The soldiers involved asking why we were burning so much gasoline trying to find a guy who had abandoned his unit in the first place..."

Ex-soldier Nathan Bethea who was with the same command in Afghanistan as Bergdahl, penned for The Daily Beast a very blunt retelling of the disappearance and subsequent deaths of American troops who were involved in multiple operations to locate and rescue the missing Bergdahl:

Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

Bethea also cited Bergdahl "failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass."
Not quite done yet, the combat veteran responded to sporadic reports that Bergdahl actually fell behind while on foot patrol, which resulted in his supposed capture:

Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not "lag behind on a patrol,” as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted.

The former Infantry officer also made a point of citing the eight soldiers killed in the various operations to rescue the missing soldier:

Private First Class Aaron Fairbairn, Private First Class Justin Casillas, Private First Class Matthew Martinek, Private First Class Morris Walker, Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey and Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews.

Obama official weighs in...
Susan Rice, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations and current National Security Advisor to Barack Obama stated in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos (video here) that Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction." Despite Rice having no authority over members of the Armed Forces, when asked if Bergdahl would face possible charges of desertion, Rice stated matter-of-factly:

Certainly anybody who's been held in those conditions, in captivity for five years, has paid an extraordinary price. But that is really not the point. The point is that he's back.

http://www.examiner.com/article/hint...ama-presidency

Allen West

Folks there is way more to this than meets the eye. Nobody is reporting Berdgahl's dad's first words at the White House were in Arabic. Here's what it meant: http://allenbwest.com/2014/06/bombshell-first-words-bergdahls-father-white-house-arabic/


VIDEO Bombshell: First words of Bergdahl’s father at White House were Arabic

Written by Allen West on June 2, 2014

Video at the Page Link:

Clare Lopez is a former CIA operations officer, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, WMD, and counterterrorism issues, and a friend of mine.
She emailed me this morning a very poignant analysis that only someone knowing language and Islam could ascertain. She wrote:

“What none of these media is reporting is that the father’s (SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob) first words at the WH were in Arabic – those words were “bism allah alrahman alraheem” – which means “in the name of Allah the most gracious and most merciful” – these are the opening words of every chapter of the Qur’an except one (the chapter of the sword – the 9th) – by uttering these words on the grounds of the WH, Bergdahl (the father) sanctified the WH and claimed it for Islam. There is no question but POTUS knows this.”

Folks, there is a lot to this whole episode — like Benghazi — that we may never know. And this is not conspiracy theory, it is truth based upon Arabic and Islamic dogma and tradition.
And here’s the video if you have any questions.

Tags: Benghazi, Bowe Bergdahl, Qur'an


http://allenbwest.com/2014/06/bombshell-first-words-bergdahls-father-white-house-arabic/

Western Center for Journalism

Oooops!



Obama's POW Exchange Could Have Just Unleashed His Worst Nightmare

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy describes exactly what could...
Western Center for Journalism

Expert: Obama Broke The Law With Prisoner Exchange And It Is An Impeachable Offense

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy describes exactly what could happen to Obama

B. Christopher Agee — June 2, 2014



According to multiple experts, the Obama administration’s actions in facilitating the release of American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl was an obvious violation of law and could ultimately result in his impeachment proceedings.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy has a new book in which he details the case of Obama’s impeachment. The recent deal with the Taliban to release five terrorist subjects for Bergdahl’s return, he explains, is yet another route that could lead to charges.

Republican leaders explain Obama himself signed a law last year requiring him to give Congress 30 days’ notice prior to releasing any Guantanamo Bay prisoner.
Aside from the fact that Bergdahl has since been accused of being an Army deserter who expressed his shame about being a soldier and an American, the administration’s handling of his return has become a controversy in itself.
In a recent statement, Rep. Buck McKeon and Sen. Jim Inhofe – both ranking members of their respective armed services committees – explained that Obama not only violated the 30-day notice law but also failed “to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated.”
The Daily Mail cites a White House insider who was stunned by the public backlash against the move, noting administration officials expected “a January 1981 moment” of celebration, as with the release of 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran.
White House sources contended that fears for Bergdahl’s health made his release a priority; however, Press Secretary Jay Carney would not confirm that assertion in a recent press conference.
McCarthy is far more concerned about the release of five dangerous terrorist suspects than in the administration’s failure to give adequate notice to Congress.
He said that “because high crimes and misdemeanors are not statutory offenses but political wrongs that endanger the United States, the return of senior terrorists to the Taliban while we still have soldiers in harm’s way is, in my view, a ‘high crime and misdemeanor.’”
The latest scandal is just one more piece in a puzzle that adds up to a president deserving of impeachment, he explained.
“If it was a standalone, I would never impeach based solely on it,” he said; “but I would add it to a larger indictment.”
Photo Credit: Facebook/Overpasses For America

http://www.westernjournalism.com/tal...s-impeachment/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/hagel-hopes...2/#post1415197

Treason?

June 2, 2014 By TPNN Staff


A former Army Sergeant and platoon member of recently released soldier Bowe Bergdahl is calling into question Obama’s decision to exchange five terrorist leaders from GITMO in exchange for Bergdahl while he and several others who served with Bergdahl are calling him a “deserter” rather than a military hero.

One went even further calling the action “treason.”

“I don’t understand why we’re trading prisoners at Gitmo for somebody who deserted during a time of war, which is an act of treason,” former Sergeant Matt Vierkant told CNN.

“I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on,” Vierkant said in the interview, going on to say that, “Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him.”

Vierkant was a member of the same platoon as Bergdahl in 2009 when Bergdahl became missing five years ago. The Taliban turned Bergdahl over Saturday morning to U.S. special forces in exchange for five notorious Islamic terrorists who had been being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Three days prior to going missing, Bergdahl detailed his disillusionment with the U.S. military’s campaign in Afghanistan in an email to his parents.

“I’m sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, he wrote. “I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of U.S. soldier is just the lie of fools.” “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting,” he concluded.

First-hand accounts from fellow soldiers reveal that Bergdahl left duty without weapons and had nothing with him except a compass, a knife, water, a camera and his diary.

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/06/02/treason/

Michelle Malkin

James Rosen reports US intel community has ‘major classified file’ on Bowe Bergdahl ==> http://twitchy.com/2014/06/02/this-s...bowe-bergdahl/

Jeffrey Toobin: Obama ‘Clearly Broke the Law’ on Bergdahl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=_jaWUK_Bk-s

WATCH: Jonathan Turley Warns that America Is at a Constitutional Tipping Point Under Barack Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=U-4_bnPxiHs

'A cover up just like Benghazi': Outraged parents of officer who died hunting for 'deserter' POW Bergdahl lash out at 'cover up'...



EXCLUSIVE - 'A cover up just like Benghazi': Outraged parents of officer who died hunting for 'deserter' POW Bergdahl lash out at Obama over 'LIES' they were told about how their hero son died

• Lt Darryn Andrews, from Dallas, Texas, died at the age of 34 on Sept 4, 2009 during his second tour of Afghanistan
• Top brass told his parents, Sondra and Andy, that he had been looking for a top Taliban commander
• But former comrades have now claimed the truth is that he was looking for Bowe Bergdahl
• Said to be one of six soldiers who died looking for the POW
• Father said: 'For his family it’s good to get him back but we will never be able to get our son back because of the actions of this guy'
• Lt Andrews' parents revealed their son thought Bergdahl was a 'deserter'
• Lt Andrews was posthumously given a silver star for his bravery
• At time of his death his wife Julie, 30, had already given birth to their son, six. Their daughter was born three-and-a-half months after he died
• Father Andy against trade with terrorists
• The Facebook group 'Bowe Bergdahl is NOT hero!' has 5,400 members
• Bergdahl e-mailed his parents saying he 'was ashamed to be an American'

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Via Daily Mail:

The furious parents of an officer who they claim was killed while searching for freed Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl today said that they have been lied to as part of a ‘cover up just like Benghazi’.
The mother and father of Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews are angry that they have been told different stories about how their son died.
First his commanders said that their son was blown up while hunting a Taliban commander – but only now that Bergdahl has been freed after five years in captivity are they learning the truth.
Lt Andrews’ parents told MailOnline that their own son branded Bergdahl a ‘deserter’ before he was killed.
In an exclusive interview his father Andy Andrews told MailOnline: ‘For his family it’s good to get him back but we will never be able to get our son back because of the actions of this guy (Bergdahl).
‘I think people need to be aware that the guy was not a hero and American lives have been lost trying to save this deserter’.
Lt Andrews was one of six men who died while apparently searching for Bergdahl, who is said to have voluntarily left his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.
Keep reading…

http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines...-hero-son-died