Take on Brody

When I read that the US had completed a successful prisoner exchange
with the Taliban, I was both relieved and completely frightened.
Obviously, getting Bowe Bergdahl released was important as he was the
last remaining POW in Afghanistan or Iraq. He was in such bad shape
when we was brought back by the US Special Forces that he had trouble
speaking English after having spent 5 years in captivity.

What bothers the Editorial Board of this newspaper was that not only was this
guy a deserter who put many US servicemen and women in harms way,  in
exchange for Bergdahl's release the US released five of the most
dangerous captives from Guantanamo Bay. Say what you will about
Guantanamo but we do believe that it housed some pretty bad dudes and
although may be unconstitutional and cruel, it kept a certain element
out of the battle fields. We always believed that IF Obama could have
closed Guantanamo, he would have but somehow the people they are
holding there cannot be brought to light without it being either i)
dangerous, ii) irresponsible, iii) embarrassing or all of the above.
What worries us is that although they aren't going to be released
right back onto the battle field, they are now in the hands of Qatar
which is about as bad, unless of course they can help build some
WorldCup stadiums with air-conditioning.

If anybody thinks keeping these guys in Qatar is a good idea for a
year, we are in for a big surprise. This is like arming Bin Laden
during the 80's, these guys after a decade of torture in Cuba
are now extra pissed at the blanco. These guys wheeled and dealed
their way through the FIFA process, I have no doubt that a couple of
donkeys and a couple of barrels of oil can't get there five guys
smuggled back to Afghanistan in a week.

The other thing that is scary is that although we all wanted the US
soldier back, we can't shake the thought of a real live Nicholas Brody
entering the national stage.