[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 20076]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          PRESIDENT OBAMA BROKE THE LAW WITH THE BERGDAHL DEAL

  (Mr. WILSON of South Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, in May 2014, the President 
shocked the world by announcing that he had negotiated with terrorists 
to secure the disgraced Sergeant Bergdahl's release from the Taliban.
  Yesterday the House Armed Services Committee, led by Chairman Mac 
Thornberry, issued an in-depth report dealing with the President's 
secret negotiations. The report verified that the transfer violated 
several laws.
  The American public was misled about the efforts to arrange the 
terrorists' pardon before it took place. Senior officials within the 
Department of Defense that were best equipped to evaluate the national 
security risk with this specific transfer were excluded from the 
process.
  The President failed to take significant precautions to eliminate the 
risks posed by the Taliban Five, putting all American families as 
targets of more murderous attacks.
  In conclusion, God bless our troops, and may the President, by his 
actions, never forget September the 11th in the global war on 
terrorism.
  We should all appreciate the six American heroes from the 4th Brigade 
Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, who were killed in 
action while searching for Bergdahl to leave no one behind.

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