The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
This Is a Job for Deer Abby
“Seek Advice Before Taking In Young Deer; They May Not Need Help”–headline, Windsor (Ontario) Star, June 9
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
“Missouri Woman Wins 2014 Miss Kansas Competition”–headline, Associated Press, June 8
Taliban Flip-Flop
“In 2011 a federal judge ruled that one of the five Taliban terror leaders traded by the White House for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl nine days ago was too dangerous to consider releasing,” London’s Daily Mail reports:
The same Obama administration that downplayed the likelihood Khairulla Said Wali Khairkhwa could return to the battlefield against the U.S. argued three years ago that he should be denied habeas corpus rights and kept locked away in an orange jumpsuit at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
The U.S. solicitor general’s office, arguing on behalf of the president–the named defendant in a federal lawsuit–told the court that Khairkhwa was in the class of terrorists who were actively involved in the leadership of a group that killed Americans.
Reconciling the administration’s positions then and now is not logically impossible. Perhaps there are now, but were not then, sufficient safeguards to prevent Khairkhwa’s return to the battlefield. But we’re skeptical.
Meanwhile, The Weekly Standard’s Michal Warren reports:
The last question asked at Monday night’s closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban’s lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?
According to Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, the Obama administration’s briefers told the gathered House members that the person responsible for the decision to make the deal was not President Obama but Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense.
It sounds as if they’re looking for a fall guy, doesn’t it? After all, the White House didn’t go out of its way to blame the death of Osama bin Laden on [former Secretaries of State] Bob Gates or Leon Panetta.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
