The Obama administration doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. At least that was the going policy until the president appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House the last weekend of May to announced that the U.S. had agreed to swap five high-level Taliban members for the release of an American POW named Bowe Bergdahl.
OK, so the Obama administration does negotiate with terrorist. At least the president would never agree to pay a ransom to terrorist group to procure the release of a U.S. citizen held in captivity, right? Er, not according to a new Wall Street Journal report (h/t Weasel Zippers):
[W]ithout a ransom, there was nothing in this deal for the Haqqani, who were the actual people holding Bergdahl. If the Taliban got their commanders back, what did the Haqqani get? And yes, the Haqqani are also listed as terrorists by the State Department.
Paying a ransom was not the option on the table. Another was swapping Bergdahl for an Afghan warlord.
