Holy Hell obama make up your fking mind.

[eaglethebeagle]

A video of an American citizen kidnapped in Pakistan last year was released online late Sunday, showing the hostage making a desperate plea to President Barack Obama.
"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," Warren Weinstein, the 70-year-old hostage, said in the two-minute video, posted on several Islamist websites. "If you accept the demands, I live. If you don't accept the demands, then I die."
According to CNN (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Av1U_JFYTELQZbRErB7udh7Nt.d_;_ylu=X3oDMTFoNjR mYmZuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ 0JvZHlUZW1wQXNzZW1ibHk-;_ylg=X3oDMTNicjZ0NXM3BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRw c3RhaWQDMDUxN2MwMjUtNTk2Ny0zZDFhLWFiNzctMjA3MTdkYz hjMzRiBHBzdGNhdANwb2xpdGljc3xkZXN0aW5hdGlvbjIwMTIE cHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=0/SIG=132thka2g/EXP=1337706036/**http%3A//www.cnn.com/2012/05/07/world/asia/pakistan-captured-american/index.html), those demands listed by Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri include:

• The lifting of the blockade on the movement of people and trade between Egypt and Gaza
• An end to bombing by the United States and its allies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza
• The release of anyone arrested on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and the Taliban
• The release of all prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and American secret prisons and the closure of Guantanamo and the other prisons
• The release of terrorists convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center
• The release of relatives of Osama bin Laden
Weinstein, a development consultant living in Pakistan, was reportedly kidnapped from his home last August. Al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for the abduction.
"It is important that you accept these demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video. "There'll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me."
"I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters," he said, asking viewers to relay a message his wife: "I'd like her to know I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of."
UPDATE: President Obama is aware of the video, the White House said late on Monday, but refuses to negotiate with the terror group.
"The president is aware of it," White House spokesman Jay Carney said the video plea. "I do not believe he's seen it, or I do not know that he's seen it. We remain greatly concerned for Mr. Weinstein's safety and his well-being. Our hearts go out to him and his family. We condemn his kidnapping in the strongest terms and call for his immediate release. The U.S. government will continue making every effort to see Mr. Weinstein released safely to his family, but we cannot and will not negotiate with al-Qaida."



Today we dont negotiate with terror groups just yesterday we are talking to the taliban...obama is a fuck nut beyond my understanding.:hb:


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/hostage-taken-al-qaida-makes-video-plea-obama-124328565.html

[gazzthompson]

Taliban ≠ Al Qaeda

[Sixx]

@ Gazz
lol
You don't think that the Taliban and Al qaeda are connected in Pakistan? You don't think that the Pashtun Talis help out the TTP?


Re-Read their demands dude,
yeah the Taliban have made demands in the past and currently almost identical to Al-qaeda....All the same, Free Alqaeda along with the rest out of GITMO /other hidden camps and get out of muslim land and stop the bombing....stop interfering with Islamic affairs etc. HIG has made similar demands too.

The same demands that these Al qaeda guys are making for this guys release.
Yes Taliban are considered terrorists, before 9/11 they were oppressive militant Islamists....they lost their foothold and resulted in using terror tactics against their own countrymen. Terrorists.
They use the same kidnapping and terror tactics and demands.

We rescue people from pirates which use their "booty" to fund Al-Shabaab.


Why can we not rescue that man?
We negotiate with Taliban but not Al-qaeda? I'm not for negotiating, but hell send a team into Pakistan again....along with more drones. Make an attempt.
An American is still American regardless of his profession and location.

What's with the picking and choosing?
BHO can suck a fattie.


I don't care what the U.S. State department says.... Fuck Hilldabeast
The Taliban are terrorists.





Hmmm, I wonder why the Obama administration refuse to put them on the FTO list
I wonder.......

It's a slap in the face to our wounded and dead Warriors....and the Warriors currently putting their lives on the line for our government.
Let's not forget about all the victims during the 9/11 attacks.

[eaglethebeagle]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/North_face_south_tower_after_plane_strike_9-11.jpg/220px-North_face_south_tower_after_plane_strike_9-11.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_face_south_tower_after_plane_strike_9-11.jpg)
http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.20wmf2/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_face_south_tower_after_plane_strike_9-11.jpg)
The United States identified the Al-Qaeda network based in and allied to the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks) in 2001 which killed up to 3,000 people.

[KGCNC]

Its pretty sad for the guy. But, he chose to work there. That sometime is the price for work in dangerous countries like that.Could we get him? Sure. I would say go. I would also enjoy helmet cam video of the AQ getting smoked in the process. ;-)

[serpa6]

Money is the Key offer enough money to some of the fuck tard terrorists, they will give up there own mother and donkey plus we have the resources and teams to do it If we can did 2 rats out of there holes Saddam Hussein and Osama bin asshole we can get this guy out and do like KG says take out some prime AL Qaeda operatives at the same time Why dont we negotiate like they do You kill one of ours we execute 10 of there's fuck it We don't why cause we are civilized That is getting a little fucking tired Best way to kill a rat (Aymini zakawi ) is to smoke him out and kill everything and anyone around him Hey its the truth it hurts some of our so called do do gooders Fuck it NO NEGOTIATING All of us Vets and presently serving gave an oath to Protect the citizens of this Country from enemies foreign and domestic I think this Apply's
And I don't want to here about Obama is the domestic enemy If the president is the enemy then all them before this idiot was so Keep that out of it
A Vet

[KGCNC]

Those who kidnap for ransom should be exterminated. Period. Film their elimination and post it freely on the web. None of this touchy-feely negotiation crap. Scuttle the pirate ships with all hands aboard. Put captured terrorists on the firing squad lane when they are captured. No Gitmo. No prison. Death. When they realize there are no dollar signs or political advances because of what they do, they will stop.

[eaglethebeagle]

Mujahideen Afghanistan Islamic Emirate

The Kuffar have failed the 10 year waged war in Afghanistan the same land where the Kuffar British Russians were Vanqusied and today are dust

The Essential nature of man is to repeat the mistake of those before them Afghanistan is the graveyard of their Empires

This Islamic Year 1433 and Grigorian Year 2012 the US Vice President had stated

"The Taliban Per Se is not out enemy"

This cowardly bowing action of the humiliated Kuffar is just the lesson of History
Allahu-Akbar

watch?v=QHb7a8Eyy1A&feature=channel_video_title

Watch this one

Taliban Islamic Emirate Mujahideen (1080p)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGh-fVIx1RQ



Thanks joe biden the taliban are using your words to recruit and feel victorious.

[eaglethebeagle]

@Serpa

I respectfully disagree... politics have everything to do with all of this. It is political not just here in America but for the taliban and al qaeda. All you have to do is see how the taliban want to be apart of the political structure in A stan now. That our own president is kowtowing to the taliban is disgusting and in my opinion treasonous. There is no other way to say it. Bush did not and would never have allowed negotiations with the taliban. That is complete and utter bullshit.

It is understandable to look for a dialing down of the war in a stan. Yet there is and never should be a need to involve the taliban as an equal partner in any political process. The future of A stan must be forward without the taliban. We have been training them for what? To fight who?

This is not very hard to understand for most here at AC. The majority of video on this site is of the taliban getting blasted by 30mm and our troops weapon of choice and a few hellfire as well.

This is truly the most fucked up thing and I actually am surprised not more people are not going ape shit with this news.

If I was out in a stan and I risked my life fighting these fucks and they killed my freinds with IEDs and or a lucky shot ot two I would be looking to get obama and biden to explain to me eye to eye what the fuck they are doing?


To say the taliban are not our enemy and that we should be negotiating with them now is fubar.


We are as people of America rather stupid and pathetic if we just accept what one man says as law. He is not our ruler and his actions and words show he is not looking out for our best interest.

[serpa6]

Eagle I understand what you are saying and I did say no negotiations with terrorists true If you look at the History of this country (and I am not sticking up for this asshole Obama) Any president that is trying to get a peaceful ending to a war especially this one is going to be on the chopping block no matter how it is done Are we suppose to stay in ASTAN no The mission is done we do not want to leave in disgrace The thread that you started is going to blow everything off the roof and it fits the opposition just right just at the right time I will not vote in this election If you lived in mass when Romney was governor you would not vote to He fucked Massachusetts and now he will do it to the country to and if Obama stays in well lets just say we are fucked all around also about the man If there was a plan to get this man back alive do you think our military or government is going to say there is a plan to get him out hell no they will kill him immediately If it was another president what then everyone wants to know what they are going to do about it true? Do you see where I am going with this I hope you do

PS I hate politics so this will be the last comment I make on this thread Carry on

[gazzthompson]

Bush administration and high ranking military officials would never talk with the taliban. Only a Marxist commies Muslim like Obama would do that.. oh, wait:

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=6132704

[Sixx]

^^
Nice google hit bwahaha Was that the only one you could find? and you want to talk shit about eagle....

Here are some I found by doing a google search like you did. How come you didn't post these? The first link to pop suited your argument yeah?

http://www.examiner.com/article/taliban-force-america-to-negotiate-peace-with-them-on-their-terms
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-laurenti/afghanistan-peace-process_b_1187002.html




Former President Bush called talks with the Taliban a foolish delusion. But now the US has reportedly agreed to release high ranking Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay


The U.S. and Taliban representatives have met secretly several times over the past year in Europe and the Persian Gulf, even as the Taliban was killing American soldiers. This is part of the insanity of the war in Afghanistan under the Obama Administration.


After all those years of being constrained by the Bush administration's disapproval of negotiations with Taliban "dead-enders," Karzai now sees Barack Obama leapfrogging past his government to conduct talks directly with the Taliban.

Give it up. :) :)

I'm starting to think that you are being paid by the Obama Administration :) Disinfo Agent Gazz :)




P.S. I had a feeling that Obama had a direct line to the Taliban leadership :D
Thanks for making me google search that info Gazz.



*On a serious note*
Regardless of Administration...... negotiating with the Taliban is reckless and a slap in the face.

[gazzthompson]

Fair enough on the bush part, but as petraeus said "I do think you have to talk to enemies"
Apparently this guy knows a thing or two. Seems Obama is following his military advisors well, guess bush hated them (obviously secret taliban ) And between osama and todays news of the Yemen bomb plot foiled, Obama is doing a brilliant job fighting terrorism.

[Sixx]

Talking peace is one thing GAZZ. But bowing to their demands is weak ....... That's not what we do. Especially after what brought us there in the first place.


I'm all for Peace, we shouldn't even be there. I'm tired of our people dying for nothing.
But we should be the ones making the demands.

I say just leave.
Leave corrupt Karzai and Co in the dust.

If Afghanistan once again becomes a training ground for terrorists......use drones with a combination of Air/Sea launched cruise missiles.
No need for boots on the ground.....unless it's covert teams.


Makes you wonder what the "real" reason is for being in Afghanistan after all these years.
Or why the DEA was actively engaged in their own missions there, not just joint/Coop missions. It's not for Opium eradication....because they destroy a rival farmers crop and protect/control other *select* opium fields.

[eaglethebeagle]

"I do think you have to talk to enemies," Petraeus said on Oct. 8 in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "I mean, what we did do in Iraq ultimately was sit down with some of those that were shooting at us." The idea, officials explained, is to negotiate from a position of strength, supporting talks with those willing to renounce violence and hunting down those who don't.

Well this was why Petraeus was selected by obama to run the CIA. Unfortunatly there are political motives behind even our military commanders. I am not saying that there isnt a single person in our military that would agree or even think that speaking to the taliban is a good idea. The problem is this isnt Veitnam or Korea is it? Do you follow me?

This is not only a political power play by the taliban as we all are very understanding these scum are led by their funny faith. That funny faith isnt going to stop now because we think if we talk to them they will become friends with us and hold hands and sing kumbya now.



Its too bad that our own military cant simply look up a easy to find youtube page and see how the taliban view our recent actions.

biden has made us look weak and defeated. The taliban are saying they have defeated us like they did the russians or English before us.

That is reality I am not making this up it is right there on that youtube page.

So I dont need to convince any one what was a good idea or not.

Simple common sense shows that it was a mistake and the taliban will not ever be a non violent political partner with us or their own afghan government.

[gazzthompson]

@PzychoSixx

I agree with everything you just said.

@eagle

You dismiss this guys comments as political spin because you don't agree with him. Is there a single person more qualified to comment than him? Looking at the guys rap sheet online ... Fuck he's qualified.

But, he's automatically disqualified because he made a comment in line with Obama's current policy. It's shit like that which makes people like you lose any seriousness. Your like the boy who cried wolf (or in this case boy who cried "Obama is a -enter insult here-) . After a while it gets old and its the feeling of "oh look, eagle ranting and raving again.. same old same old.."

I dislike bush, but he did good things and I can accept that. I dislike Obama less than others, but he's done some bullshit moves, I can accept that . Current UK coalition is a bunch of cunts, but have done things I support. You seem to be the personification of the infamous US political polarization. If Obama single handedly cured cancer, I have no doubt you would turn it into some Muslim, socialist conspiracy


If any administration can secure a political AND military end which suits ours and NATOs goals, brilliant. Will it fail? Could do, but its worth a fucking shot. It's been said MANY MANY times on here war and politics go hand in Hand, let our boys smash the fighters on the ground, but also seek political ends. End this shit before thousands more of our guys die.

[Sixx]

If any administration can secure a political AND military end which suits ours and NATOs goals, brilliant. Will it fail? Could do, but its worth a fucking shot. It's been said MANY MANY times on here war and politics go hand in Hand, let our boys smash the fighters on the ground, but also seek political ends. End this shit before thousands more of our guys die.

I totally agree. You must secure a political and military end for this war.
However, I feel that we must not do it in a manner where it makes America and it's allies look weak and scared in front of the Muslim world...so that fledgling terror jihadist will not think we'll be push-overs in future attacks or conflicts.



There will never be total peace because religion still exists.
The numbers of practicing Christians, Jews, and Catholics are dropping annually.....however the numbers of Islam followers increase very rapidly worldwide.
Even if Christianity and all forms of religion other than Islam disappeared and people became Atheists instead, we would still have attacks by Islamic terrorists.

[gazzthompson]

Unfortunately, I agree. I hate mankind sometimes.

[Sixx]

^^
You and me both :)
I try to avoid people in general.....but sometimes they come a-knockin' :D

[eaglethebeagle]

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/rqKFl.5QByZw3JMqQhDFDw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/theenvoy/rendellmekap.jpgFormer Penn. Gov. Ed Rendell speaks at a pro-MEK rally near the White House Oct. 22, 2011. (Jose Luis Magana/A …
The U.S. Treasury Department has issued subpoenas in an investigation into several prominent former senior American officials taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees to promote a controversial Iranian terrorist group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK).
Among the former cabinet level officials whose speaking agencies have received subpoenas in the investigation are former Pennsylvania governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, former FBI director Louis Freeh, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton, NBC's Michael Isikoff reported (http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/16/10710422-ex-us-officials-investigated-over-speeches-to-iranian-dissident-group-on-terror-list) Friday. Rendell first disclosed that his speaking agency had received a subpoena in the investigation in a report by the Washington Times' (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/9/treasury-probes-rendell-over-speeches-for-iranian-/?page=all) Guy Taylor last week.
The Treasury Department investigation, which dates back to last summer, is seeking to understand where the money for the pro-MEK lobbying campaign is coming from, people familiar with the investigation said. At least 11 subpoenas have been issued to date in the probe, one source briefed on it said Friday.
The investigation "is targeted less at individuals, and more at where the money is coming from," said Reza Marashi, a former State Department official whose group, the National Iranian American Council, advocates against taking the MEK off the terrorism list, in an interview with Yahoo News Friday.
Several U.S. government agencies--including Treasury, the State Department, and the FBI--"are putting their heads together on this," he said.
The Treasury Department, contacted by Yahoo News Friday, declined to comment on the investigation. However it did note that the U.S. government considers the MEK a terrorist group, thus forbidding American citizens from taking money from it either directly or indirectly, without a license from the Treasury Department.
"The MEK is a designated terrorist group; therefore U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with or providing services to this group," Treasury Department spokesman John Sullivan told Yahoo News in an emailed statement Friday. "The Treasury Department takes sanctions enforcement seriously and routinely investigates potential violations of sanctions laws."
The emergence of the investigation comes as supporters of the MEK are lobbying for it to be taken off the State Department's list of designated terror groups, an issue which is currently under review by the State Department. But few of his old colleagues at the State Department Iran desk believe the group should be taken off the list, Marashi reported (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reza-marashi/mek-terrorist-organization_b_1350676.html) Friday. A former senior U.S. intelligence official told Yahoo News Friday the United States should have nothing to do with the group, whose leader Marjam Rajavi urged her followers as recently as 2003 to set themselves on fire (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/24/international/europe/24rajavi.html?pagewanted=all) after she was taken into custody by French police.
Founded as a Marxist-Islamist movement in the 1960s which advocated armed violence to topple the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran (and killed Americans in that campaign), the MEK has continued to use terrorism to attack the regime which succeeded him. It is widely despised as a cult terrorist group among Iranians of all political persuasions, among other reasons, for having allied with Iraq's Saddam Hussein to wage war against Iran in the 1980s. The group also has reported ties to Israeli intelligence (http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/08/10354553-israel-teams-with-terror-group-to-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-us-officials-tell-nbc-news), which some reports say has used it as a proxy group to carry out attacks and gather intelligence inside Iran. Other reports have claimed the MEK has been a cut-out for Israeli intelligence claims about Iran's nuclear program.
A legacy of its twenty year alliance with Saddam, the MEK currently has some 3,000 members at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The current Shiite-led Iraqi government, with close ties to Iran, is hostile to the group and has signaled its intent to close the camp. The United States has recently persuaded some 800 members of the camp to move to another Iraqi location, Camp Liberty, to try to defuse a potential humanitarian crisis.
Attorneys and Washington policy experts said they did not find the investigation surprising, given how conspicuous the American public relations and lobbying campaign--featuring television, newspaper and even bus stop ads over the past year--has been on behalf of a group that is on the U.S. terror list.
"Honestly, this is not a surprise to me," Douglas Jacobson, a Washington attorney who specializes in international trade law, told Yahoo News in an interview Friday. "First of all, OFAC [the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control] reads the newspapers to get info. This is a clear situation that merits an inquiry."
Asked if the former officials could argue they were just exercising their free speech rights to speak in favor of a group, Jacobson said they could only make that case if they did not take money from the terrorist group, either directly or indirectly. It did not appear, given the investigation, that the former officials or their speaking agencies had applied for a license or waiver from Treasury's OFAC to represent the group, he said.
"It all goes back to the funds," he said.
The former officials are reported to have received from $20,000 to $30,000 per speech for the MEK, plus travel expenses. Rendell "has received $160,000 over the past year for appearing at about seven conferences and rallies" his office told NBC.
Calls by Yahoo News Friday to the office of Tom Ridge, and Ridge's speaker's bureau the Washington Speakers bureau were not returned. A spokesman for Louis Freeh told Yahoo News Friday that he did not have immediate comment on the case.
The irony, both Jacobson and Marashi said, is that for all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent on the MEK public relations campaign, it is unlikely to affect the State Department's decision.
"This is a big waste of their money," Jacobson said. "These decisions are based upon the facts. They are based upon evidence and they are based upon foreign policy determinations."



My opinion is good as gold my good man.... for it has been long ago before you were a drop of sperm in your fathers nutsack that for the right price a man will sell out our country or any country for the right price.. example provided to help you learn jack-gazz.

[eaglethebeagle]

one more thing there is no man that is completely trustworthy and our government is not any exception.

The president the highest ranking general no one is to be trusted with no questions asked...

Did Bill Clinton lie to America?

Did Dick Nixon lie to America?

Do you think there has never been a high ranking military leader that has sold out our nation?

Your just plain ol dumber than a box of rocks.

[KGCNC]

Politicians are liars by trade.

[BrendenF11]

They're damn good at making the public believe that they aren't lying though KGCNC.

[eaglethebeagle]

If we can let loose taliban fucks for secret deals then why can we not get this guy freed?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Frustrated by what they said are stalled efforts to free a U.S. soldier taken prisoner three years ago in Afghanistan, the man's parents have gone public with previously secret U.S. attempts to trade him for Taliban prisoners in U.S. hands.
Bob Bergdahl and his wife, Jani Bergdahl, said in interviews that they are concerned the U.S. government hasn't done enough to secure the release of their son, 26-year-old Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
"There is a dynamic here that has to change," Bob Bergdahl said in an interview with the Idaho Mountain Express. "Everybody is frustrated with how slowly the process has evolved."
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was captured in June 2009 and is believed held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, probably somewhere in Pakistan. He is the subject of a proposed prisoner swap in which the Obama administration would allow the transfer of five Taliban prisoners long held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Obama administration had worked out a framework deal to send those prisoners to Qatar, where they would be under some form of loose house arrest or supervision, while Bergdahl would be returned to the U.S. military.
The proposed deal has been in limbo for months and faces serious opposition in Congress if it ever gets off the ground. The Taliban walked away from talks in March, saying the U.S. had reneged on several promises. The Obama administration is trying several gambits to restart talks, including proposing looser terms for the detention or monitoring of at least one of the Guantanamo prisoners upon their release, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are sensitive and elements of the U.S. engagement with the Taliban are classified.
The Associated Press has periodically reported on Bergdahl's case since his capture. But the news agency had agreed since last year not to report on the proposed prisoner swap and ongoing negotiations at the request of the Pentagon and White House, on the grounds that public discussion would endanger Bergdahl's life.
With public discussion of the deal Wednesday by Bergdahl's parents, the AP and other news organizations reported the proposed swap.
Bob Bergdahl told the Idaho newspaper that swapping Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo for his son represents a "win-win" for the United States. He said in addition to his son's safe return, the United States could foster good will with the Afghan people.
The imprisonment of suspected militants at Guantanamo is an irritant in U.S. relations with Muslim nations including Afghanistan, which has long demanded the release of its citizens held since shortly after the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul in 2001.
A senior U.S. military official said the Pentagon believes Bergdahl to be alive, in relatively good health and in captivity somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because efforts to free Bergdahl remain sensitive.
A senior Obama administration official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns for Bergdahl's safety, told reporters that the case has been a topic at each of several direct meetings that U.S. officials have held with the Taliban. Direct contact, once taboo for the United States, began in secret last year in hopes that the channel could speed larger peace talks with the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai and ultimately end the long Taliban insurgency.
The official said the U.S. hopes to revive the Bergdahl deal with the Taliban.
Bob Bergdahl said he and his wife are hoping for a peaceful resolution, preferably one that doesn't put other American soldiers in danger.
"We don't want to see Americans killed," he told the Idaho paper.
Even so, he said the time for a change in strategy has come, and that he hopes renewed public attention to their son's plight would help secure his release.
"I'm pushing it hard," Bob Bergdahl said.
The Bergdahls did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.
Marine Col. David Lapan, spokesman for Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the military has a "collaborative" relationship with Bergdahl's family, which is given quarterly updates from Washington. He said the family is not advised on whether to discuss the case with the news media.
"Our message to them is: We are working hard to obtain Sgt. Bergdahl's release, to bring him back into U.S. hands," Lapan said.
Asked about the family's complaint that the U.S. government has not done enough, Lapan said: "It's perfectly understandable that parents whose son has been kept in captivity for several years now are frustrated. We certainly understand that. That's why we do everything thing we can to try to keep them updated, to the extent we can."
He added: "If they are angry and/or frustrated, that is certainly understandable. I would say that our leaders are frustrated as well."
Bowe Bergdahl disappeared June 30, 2009, while deployed with his U.S. Army unit. He's spent three birthdays in captivity.
To solicit support for further action, Bob Bergdahl plans to speak at an annual demonstration to recognize prisoners of war over Memorial Day weekend in Washington. The event, organized by the nonprofit POW support group Rolling Thunder, typically attracts more than 100,000 motorcyclists to the nation's capital.
"With all that's going on, we really need a diplomatic path to get this resolved," Bob Bergdahl said.
___
AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.



Why are we not doing deals for our own men?

[KGCNC]

They're damn good at making the public believe that they aren't lying though KGCNC.
Lack of critical thinking skills on the publics part is to play also. Not everyone,but quite a few. The politicians tell you what you want to hear and bam! Suckered in. Dont bother thinking how they are gonna get you what you want and what its gonna cost you....