Kerry calls threats of swapped Taliban prisoners to resume jihad “a lot of baloney”

Robert Spencer Jun 9, 2014 at 12:07pm




“No one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans,” said Kerry. Oh, really? What about all the many Americans murdered by their Afghan allies over the past few years? What happened to our capacity to protect them? It was sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, specifically to the refusal of our government and military to face the fact that there is no way to protect the Afghan army and police from jihadist infiltrators.

“Kerry calls threats of swapped Taliban prisoners to resume war ‘a lot of baloney,’” by David Lerman and Greg Giroux, Bloomberg, June 9, 2014 (thanks to Samantha):


WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said threats by the five freed Taliban prisoners swapped for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to return to war and kill Americans are “a lot of baloney.”

Defending the swap that secured the release of the last American prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Kerry said the movements of the five Taliban prisoners released to Qatar will be closely monitored.

“No one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans,” Kerry said from France in a taped interview for CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday.

Bergdahl, held captive for almost five years, was released May 31 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held by the U.S. at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. The deal requires that the five men remain in Qatar for at least a year.

“They’re not the only ones keeping an eye on them,” Kerry said of the Qataris, while declining to elaborate.

“We have proven what we are capable of doing with al-Qaida,” he said.

The threats by the Taliban prisoners to resume fighting in Afghanistan and kill Americans amount to propaganda, Kerry said. “They’ll say whatever they want to stir the waters,” he said.

With the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan coming to an end and most troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2016, opportunities for Taliban to kidnap Americans will dwindle, Kerry said.

Whether or not Bergdahl deserted his post in eastern Afghanistan, as some of his former fellow soldiers claim, “it would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind,” Kerry said….

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