Mad Magazine created a spoof movie poster mocking President Barack Obama, entitled Trading Private Bergdahl , as a political statement about the controversial Bowe Bergdahl Taliban prisoner swap.
The Trading Private Bergdahl blog post reads:
“They got five Taliban leaders and we got one deserting weasel. Recently, President Obama exchanged five Taliban leaders for an American POW, Bowe Bergdahl. Once prisoner for five is an iffy trade to begin with – but even more so when it was revealed that Bergdahl had deserted his post. So, Obama got his man, but there was a lot of collateral damage – it kind of reminds us of a move we once saw…”
The Mad Magazine spoof movie poster features a “rating” in the bottom corner which says, “NC – No Congressional Approval.” The Trading Private Bergdahl poster prominently features an image of Barack Obama in the middle of the photos of the faces of the Guantanamo Bay detainees swapped for Bergdahl who are being referred to as the Taliban Dream Team or the Gitmo Five by conservative media outlets.
An unnamed military intelligence source told Fox News that the Obama administration “largely bypassed” the entire intelligence community when approving the Taliban Dream Team swap for Bowe Bergdahl . The source went on to claim that if the Gitmo detainees deal did not go through a second option involving a ransom payment that was also on the table.
According to the military source, the cash ransom plan also involved reaching out to leaders in Pakistan that reportedly had Taliban ties to “float the possibility of trading cash” and not prisoners for Bergdahl. The ransom plan was allegedly temporarily tabled in December when the source claims his agency was informed that President Obama wanted to push forward with a prisoner swap instead.
When the idea of a Gitmo detainee swap for Bergdahl was reportedly first mentioned in 2012, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Director or National Intelligence James Clapper expressed their opposition to the proposed deal.
Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee said the Taliban detainees are more dangerous now that they have been held and freed than they were before their capture.
“This is Mullah Omar’s board of directors, it’s his fab five team,” Chambliss said. Backlash over the Bowe Bergdahl Taliban swap does not appear to be much of a partisan issue, with Democrats also voicing their displeasure and concerns over how the swap played out.
What do you think about the Mad Magazine spoof movie poster, Trading Private Bergdahl ?