DAILY BEAST Column: …James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, according to three U.S. intelligence officials flat out rejected the release of the five detainees, saying there was too high a risk these Taliban commanders would return to the battlefield and orchestrate attacks against Americans.
Clapper was not alone. Leon Panetta, who was then the Secretary of Defense, declined to certify that the United States could mitigate the risk to national interests of releasing the Taliban commanders.
A lot has changed since 2012. To start, President Obama won reelection. Panetta is gone, and in his place is Chuck Hagel, a Republican former senator who has been much more in sync with Obama’s views on the war on terror than his predecessors… (more)
EDITOR: As the New York Times reported a week ago, the trade was seen as opening reliable negotiations with the Taliban. Whether it was a blunder, we simply don’t have enough information to tell. It doesn’t look good on the surface.
