Thursday, January 16, 2014

American POW's fate could hang in balance as US, Afghanistan struggle to strike security pact



Efforts to search for America's only living POW currently held by the Taliban could be seriously set back if the U.S. and Afghanistan governments cannot agree on a vital security pact.
The Obama administration has set a new deadline of Jan. 28 for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign the agreement, which would provide U.S. troops with protections they need in order to stay after 2014.
But few think the unpredictable Afghan president will sign before he leaves office in April. And military experts say that without an agreement, all U.S. troops will likely be pulled from the country at the end of this year.
For Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban in 2009 and traded to a Pakistani faction known as the Haqqani group, failure to sign the security agreement could be a death sentence, officials say -- as it would make it increasingly difficult to track him and secure his safe release.
A new video intercepted by the U.S. government marks the first time Bergdahl has been seen in three years. The proof of life shows a prisoner who is in deteriorating health, which has U.S. Defense officials worried. It makes reference to Dec. 14, 2013 and Nelson Mandela's death, which has led U.S. intelligence analysts to conclude that the video was made recently.
Bergdahl's parents pleaded in a written statement to his captors to release their only son and gave words of encouragement to Bergdahl himself.
"As we have done so many times over the past  4 and a half years, we request his captors to release him safely so that our only son can be reunited with his mother and father," Bowe's parents wrote from their home in Idaho. "BOWE - If you see this, continue to remain strong through patience. Your endurance will carry you to the finish line. Breathe!""
But the security agreement talks loom over their efforts.
Among the revelations in former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' new book, "Duty," is just how difficult it's been to secure status of forces (SOFA) and bilateral security agreements at the end of America's contentious wars. Gates recalled how he was told by his commanders -- in this case, Gen. David Petraeus, who oversaw the surge forces in Iraq -- that Iran was in fact paying Iraqi officials not to consent to the agreement which would allow U.S. forces to stay after the Iraq war ended.
"Petraeus told me an Iranian brigadier general had been arrested in Iraq for bribing legislators with $250,000 each to vote against the SOFA," Gates wrote in his memoir. "Later in the fall, we learned that the head of the Iranian Quds Force, Major General Qassem Suleimani, had told President Talabani that Iraq should not sign any agreement with Bush."
Similar meddling by those who do not want the U.S. to keep its influence in the region after 2014 can be assumed to be occurring in Afghanistan.

Investigate the investigators? GOP lawmakers urge probe of IRS scandal review

Republican lawmakers, frustrated by the Justice Department's slow-moving probe into the IRS targeting scandal and "conflict of interest" concerns, are now calling for the investigators to be investigated. 
Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Wednesday formally requested that the Justice Department's inspector general launch his own probe into the department's review of IRS activities.
The request marks a serious escalation of their complaints about the department's conduct and, specifically, a decision to have a President Obama backer lead the investigation.
"The Department has created the appearance that it is not taking seriously its responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation of IRS misconduct," Issa and Jordan wrote in a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Such complaints have come to a head this week, as conservative groups and lawmakers worry that the investigation is fizzling -- eight months after the agency first acknowledged it singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
In their letter, Issa and Jordan cited a litany of concerns, including recent claims from administration officials that criminal charges in the case are unlikely. But they centered on the decision to appoint Barbara Kay Bosserman to lead the FBI probe. Campaign finance records show Bosserman has given more than $6,000 to Obama's two presidential campaigns.
"Publicly available information suggests that Ms. Bosserman may have a conflict of interest in this matter," they wrote, also citing a Fox News report that she attended a bill-signing ceremony at the White House in 2009.
Separately, the lawmakers wrote to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez asking him about any possible involvement, given his prior position as Bosserman's boss in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.
The Justice Department, though, has pushed back hard on those questioning Bosserman's fitness for the role.
One official said last week that simply because a trial attorney exercised her constitutional right to make a political donation does not mean she's not acting professionally. Officials stressed that they cannot consider political affiliation when handing out case assignments.
"It is contrary to Department policy and a prohibited personnel practice under federal law to consider the political affiliation of career employees or other non-merit factors in making personnel decisions," the department said in a statement.
On Monday, a DOJ official also said that the ceremony Bosserman attended in 2009 -- for the signing of hate crimes legislation -- was attended by the Civil Rights Division team, which was described as "typical" given their "technical support" on the bill.

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