White House: Hagel, not Obama, made final decision to swap Bergdahl....[updated]

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/OutFrontCNN/status/476145559129300992


OutFrontCNNVerified account ‏@OutFrontCNN

Classified #Bergdahl briefing just finished. WH officials say Secy. Hagel made the final call on #Bergdahl swap. @BuckMcKeon is #OutFront.

[mystery-ak]

Looks like they made Hagel do it...the resident idiot!

[Bigun]

Looks like they made Hagel do it...the resident idiot!

Swoosh!!! Under the bus he goes!

[sinkspur]

 

Are you friggin' kidding me? 

Things have gotten so hot for Obammy that he has to pawn off the blame on that clueless Hagel?

We truly are in a parody here.

And we're just finding this out now?

[Chieftain]

Blame the useful idiot, and bleary-eyed Chuckie Hagel is just the idiot they need. 

When will Obama accept Hagel's resignation??  How long till Chuckie has bus tire tread marks across his forehead??

 

[mountaineer]

If the White House planned all along on Hagel being the scapegoat for negotiating with terrorists, perhaps they weren't really so surprised at the public outrage over the 5-for-1 swap, after all.

[mystery-ak]

 

[SPQR]

Nonsense. Hagel had to get the OK from the President. Hagel could not give that sort of decision if the White House knew.

[Carling]

Nonsense. Hagel had to get the OK from the President. Hagel could not give that sort of decision if the White House knew.

Valerie Jarrett gave the "go" call, at least the best that I can guess.  They keep Barry secluded in his own area watching sports, and they send him out to golf or get a cup of coffee once in a while.

[Oceander]

seriously?  so when is Obama going to start being president?  to hear it from him, Bush is responsible for everything (because everything is going poorly) even though he's been out of office for 6 years, and now Hagel, one of the president's minions, has acted without presidential authority?  is the White House really tacitly admitting that Obama is so absolutely impotent as this?  Anyone remember the brouhaha when Al Haig, Reagan's Secretary of State, said he was in control immediately after the assassination attempt on Reagan, while Reagan was still in surgery?  Where's the brouhaha now that Obama has himself admitted that Hagel was in fact "in control" of things re: Bergdahl?

[musiclady]

Wow.  I'd say this administration is like the Keystone Kops, but the Keystone Kops were funny, and these morons are risking our very lives. 

[Oceander]

Wow.  I'd say this administration is like the Keystone Kops, but the Keystone Kops were funny, and these morons are risking our very lives. 

you're being a little unfair to the Keystone Kops! 

[musiclady]

you're being a little unfair to the Keystone Kops! 

A LOT unfair, I'd say......

[mystery-ak]

Hagel will be on the Hill Wednesday and it should be interesting to say the least...

[katzenjammer]

Unreal...

[SPQR]

Valerie Jarrett gave the "go" call, at least the best that I can guess.  They keep Barry secluded in his own area watching sports, and they send him out to golf or get a cup of coffee once in a while.

Susan Rice is the head of the National Security Council.She is invoved in every foreign decision the President makes. She should be up there in front of those committees. I agree that Valerie Jarrett should be up there because she is an advisor to the President.Jarrett is one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama

[Chieftain]

If the White House planned all along on Hagel being the scapegoat for negotiating with terrorists, perhaps they weren't really so surprised at the public outrage over the 5-for-1 swap, after all.

And Hagel is too frackin' stoopid to see this one coming....serves him right if Obammy throws him overboard once his pants are on fire and his ass is catchin'.......

 

[SPQR]

Susan Rice is the head of the National Security Council.She is invoved in every foreign decision the President makes. She should be up there in front of those committees. I agree that Valerie Jarrett should be up there because she is an advisor to the President.Jarrett is one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama

Another group of people would be the White House Counsel who also signed off on this to explain their legal interpretation.

[Carling]

If he wasn't such an opportunist, I'd feel bad for Hagel.

He's being thrown to the wolves tomorrow, and the WH says he is to blame.  I hope his family members are secure should Chuck decided to be an upstanding American and tell the truth about what happened. 

[Oceander]

If he wasn't such an opportunist, I'd feel bad for Hagel.

He's being thrown to the wolves tomorrow, and the WH says he is to blame.  I hope his family members are secure should Chuck decided to be an upstanding American and tell the truth about what happened. 

I'm sure he's already been set up with a comfy sinecure courtesy of the deep-pocketed liberals who have propped this charade up along with the MSM all along.

[mystery-ak]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2653672/Now-White-House-says-Hagel-final-call-Bergdahl-criticism-Obama-prisoner-swap-mounts.html

Now the White House says Hagel made final call on Bergdahl as criticism of Obama over prisoner swap mounts

    Congress learned on Monday that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave final approval for the prisoner exchange that freed Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
    Last week, Hagel said the swap was a unanimous decision made by senior officials
    Hagel is expected to defend the prisoner exchange on Wednesday in an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee

By Zoe Szathmary

Published: 01:05 EST, 10 June 2014 | Updated: 01:05 EST, 10 June 2014



FInal approval for the prisoner exchange that freed Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was made by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, members of Congress learned on Monday from administration officials.

'They indicated (it was) Secretary Hagel (who made the final call),' Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) said after a classified briefing, ABC points out.

'It was the president of the United States that came out (in the Rose Garden) with the Bergdahls and took all the credit and now that there’s been a little pushback he’s moving away from it and it’s Secretary Hagel?'

Last week, Hagel said the swap was a unanimous decision when speaking to the BBC.

'It was the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of National Intelligence, Attorney General,' he said.

'It was our judgement based on the information that we had that his life, his health were in peril,' Hagel also told the channel in defense of not giving Congress 30 days' notice of the plan.

'Can you imagine if we would have waited or taken the chance of leaks over a 30-day period?' Hagel said.

Congress was upset to learn on Monday that 80 to 90 people in the Obama administration knew of the exchange - but that no Republicans or Democrats in the House were told.

'It strikes me as unfortunate that they could have 80 to 90 people in the administration aware of what was happening and not be able to trust a single Republican or Democrat in the House or the Senate,' Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), said, Reuters points out.

''There was a sense of anger that members of Congress didn’t know about this,' Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) said to reporters after the briefing, ABC notes. 'Obviously, if there is secure information — members of Congress knew about the capture of Osama bin Laden — and yet 80 to 90 staff in the White House knew about this.'

Hagel is expected to defend the prisoner exchange on Wednesday in an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee.

[mystery-ak]

Does anyone really believe this man was the brains of this deal! 



besides Obama tried to sell this Deal to Congress in 2012 and they refused.

[DCPatriot]

He told the BBC it was a "unanimous decision" last week.

He's testifying tomorrow.

Getting my popcorn ready.......

[mystery-ak]

http://americanthinker.com/assets/3rd_party/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/06/it_looks_like_obama_has_found_his_bergdahl_deal_patsy.html

une 10, 2014
It looks like Obama has found his Bergdahl deal patsy
By Thomas Lifson

Every cover up needs a fall guy, and according to Rep. Buck Mckeon’s comments after last night’s Congressional briefing on the Bergdahl deal, the Obama administration seems to be floating the name of their patsy. The Weekly Standard reports:

    The last question asked at Monday night's closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban's lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?

    According to Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, the Obama administration's briefers told he gathered House members that the person responsible for the decision to make the deal was not President Obama but Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense.

    "Now wait a minute, are you saying it was Secretary Hagel that made this decision, or was this the president of the United States?" McKeon, a California Republican, said to reporters. "It was the president of the United States that came out with the Bergdahls and took all the credit. And now that there's been a little pushback, he's moving away from it?"

    The administration's claim that Hagel, not Obama, made the decision is at odds with what Hagel himself said on Meet the Press on June 1. "I signed off on the decision," Hagel said. "The president made the ultimate decision."

Very interesting, indeed. Will Hagel, a nominal Republican, be a stand-up guy and take the fall? Given his on-the-record statement about the president, and given the declining trust the American people place in the current occupant of the White House, this might be a difficult story to sell.

If Hagel refuses to take the fall, and if he decides to spill his guts, what then?

It’s always tricky coming up with a patsy. My all-time favorite treatment of the subject comes from Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon. The brilliant film rendering of the scene where the gang (all of whom have dirty hands) come up with a fall guy is instructive.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqOByzMoS_A

[EC]

'Can you imagine if we would have waited or taken the chance of leaks over a 30-day period?' Hagel said.

If you can't trust Congress to keep their damned mouths shut if needed, America is electing the wrong people.