Alan Gottlieb
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Congress needs to do its job and put the brakes on President Barack Obama, who turned loose five known Taliban terrorist leaders in exchange for one American soldier whose five-year captivity almost immediately raised questions on Capitol Hill and among veterans.
When the president, acting without first notifying Congress as the law requires, cut the deal to release the five Afghan prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Burgdahl in late May, he ignited a firestorm of criticism.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was outraged because at the same time the terrorists were returned to the Middle East, news was breaking that the Obama administration had been pressuring financial institutions to squeeze off funds to firearms and ammunition dealers.
“Congress has to suck it up and act now,” Gottlieb declared in a blistering press release. “Capitol Hill needs to rein in President Obama and his administration.”
“President Obama has broken the law by releasing five Taliban terrorist leaders in exchange for one soldier without notifying Congress,” he added, “and his administration has been trying to financially strangle gun companies with ‘Operation Choke Point,’ and they’ve done nothing wrong. This president’s priorities are way off the grid, and only Congress can stop this nonsense.”
A furor erupted over the trade of the five terrorists in exchange for Bergdahl, who went missing in late June 2009. Almost immediately after the swap was announced, former members of Bergdahl’s unit in Afghanistan expressed disgust, asserting that he had deserted his post and deliberately gone looking for a Taliban contact.
Various members of Congress angrily criticized the swap, and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) even hinted that one more snafu by the president could lead to an impeachment effort.
Meanwhile, the separate controversy erupted over Operation Choke Point, a Justice Department project that cuts off bank funds to allegedly questionable enterprises, but instead has also apparently been used to restrict funds to companies it finds “objectionable.” Those companies sell firearms and ammunition.
“The Obama administration has happily been pressuring banks to cut off funds to firearms retailers,” Gottlieb said, “who serve law-abiding citizens interested in protecting their homes and families, while turning loose terrorists who pose a clear and present danger to those same American families.
“And there is something else,” he added. “Right now Mexico is holding a U.S. Marine who accidentally crossed the border with legally-owned firearms in his car, and Obama has done nothing to set that man free. Perhaps the president should deport some Mexican criminals now in American prisons in exchange for our Marine. If Obama is going to trade criminals for one serviceman, he better be ready to do it again.
“It is time for Congress to step in and do its job as an equal branch of government,” Gottlieb said. “This administration has created one scandal after another, from Fast and Furious through Obamacare and Benghazi, the IRS the Veterans Administration and now the Taliban release. Congress needs to play the adult and put some brakes on the White House before we all lose our constitutional rights.”
