Former CIA Director Tells Gary R'Nel And Rich Zeoli The Administration Paid Too Much For Bowe Bergdahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Gary R'Nel and Rich Zeoli talked with former CIA Director Porter Goss on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the decision to trade five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay for POW Bowe Bergdahl.
Goss said President Obama's administration paid too high of a price to recover Bergdahl and the detainees released will aid the enemy in their attacks against Americans in the future.
Former CIA Director On Release Of Bowe Bergdahl
"In this case, the Administration has gone about paying an absurdly high price which is going to continue to revisit our pocketbooks with even more costs down the road with the mischief with these five guys are going to be able to make and the amount of inspiration they are going to be able to spread through the Caliphate, through the radical community, with the amount of recruiting opportunity they're going to make for these terrorist individuals and the amount of money they're going to be able to raise for their war chest," he stated.
He thinks President Obama made this deal as part of a plan to empty Guantanamo of detainees to fast forward the end of the war in Afghanistan.
"This is a very bad example of how to go about getting back our soldiers… This is not the way you do it. I think the Administration knew that which is why they bypassed Congress and just decided to do it anyway because President Obama apparently has an agenda to close Guantanamo and to end the war because he says it's over. Unfortunately, the people who declared this war are still out there and they have not declared it over and they are not going away and we are foolish to think that they might," Goss commented.
Goss insists there is no difference between the Taliban, who claim to want to govern Afghanistan, and other terrorist organizations and that, if left unchecked, they will continue to cause problems around the globe.
"The Taliban warriors are really not different than the Al Qaeda or many of the other Al Qaeda franchises. What you really have is tribal people on Jihad and whether or not they are flying under this flag or that flag doesn't really matter… This is completely asymmetric, unconventional warfare. It's very tribal and these folks live in sanctuaries. Right now, the sanctuary area for them to operate safely, to raise money, to train, to recruit or do all that sort of thing is expanding just extraordinarily rapidly, geometrically, unfortunately, because we have backed out, left a vacuum and not left anybody in control," he said.
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