01-30-2015, 12:01 AM
....according to the White House. This is part of the article.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">"Even so, the White House does not call the Afghan Taliban a terrorist organization, Earnest explained, because they are “different than an organization like al Qaeda that has a much broader global aspiration to carry out acts of violence and acts of terror against Americans and American interests all around the globe.”
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">The issue has come up because the White House insisted on Wednesday that a prisoner exchange between Jordan and ISIS would be different than the prisoner exchange the United States made last year with the Taliban to gain the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">“Our policy is that we don't pay ransom. We don't give concessions to terrorist organizations,” Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Wednesday. “This is a longstanding policy that predates this administration. And it's also one that we've communicated to our friends and allies across the world.”
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">Schultz explained that the exchange the United States made with the Taliban -- releasing five Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in exchange for the release of Sgt. Bergdahl -- was consistent with that policy because the Taliban is an “armed insurgency” and not a terrorist organization.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">But the Obama administration isn’t entirely consistent on this point.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">On one hand, the Afghan Taliban are not on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (the Pakistan Taliban is on that last). On the other hand, the Taliban is on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, a classification that allows their assets to be frozen.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">And even as Earnest was explaining why the Taliban are not terrorists, he slipped, calling them ... “terrorists.”"
I don't even know what to say. So when it suits the WH/government/politicians they are terrorists, but when it doesn't they aren't? Two-faced. That's what this WH is. And it has been for a long, long time. Longer than the current CIC has been in office, but he seems to have upped the ante on just about every level.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">"Even so, the White House does not call the Afghan Taliban a terrorist organization, Earnest explained, because they are “different than an organization like al Qaeda that has a much broader global aspiration to carry out acts of violence and acts of terror against Americans and American interests all around the globe.”
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">The issue has come up because the White House insisted on Wednesday that a prisoner exchange between Jordan and ISIS would be different than the prisoner exchange the United States made last year with the Taliban to gain the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">“Our policy is that we don't pay ransom. We don't give concessions to terrorist organizations,” Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Wednesday. “This is a longstanding policy that predates this administration. And it's also one that we've communicated to our friends and allies across the world.”
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">Schultz explained that the exchange the United States made with the Taliban -- releasing five Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in exchange for the release of Sgt. Bergdahl -- was consistent with that policy because the Taliban is an “armed insurgency” and not a terrorist organization.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">But the Obama administration isn’t entirely consistent on this point.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">On one hand, the Afghan Taliban are not on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (the Pakistan Taliban is on that last). On the other hand, the Taliban is on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, a classification that allows their assets to be frozen.
<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size:15.0000019073486px;">And even as Earnest was explaining why the Taliban are not terrorists, he slipped, calling them ... “terrorists.”"
I don't even know what to say. So when it suits the WH/government/politicians they are terrorists, but when it doesn't they aren't? Two-faced. That's what this WH is. And it has been for a long, long time. Longer than the current CIC has been in office, but he seems to have upped the ante on just about every level.