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September 18

September 18

TAKING A BULLET FOR BERGDAHL –  Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was in the news again this week for an Article 32 hearing to determine whether he should face a military tribunal on charges of desertion.  Every time his name comes up, it stirs debate among those who had to make difficult decisions in the multiple missions to locate and rescue him.  Dead Drop sources say that far from the public eye, there were internal debates on multiple levels about how to best use technological resources that would have to be diverted from other missions in order to locate Bergdahl.  One would think that it might have been an even tougher decision to send special operations troops into harm’s way but a former special operator who was shot trying to rescue Bergdahl told us that he’d do it again without hesitation.  Why?  His answer was one worth repeating: ‘I did it then and I’d do it again because he’s an American.  And he has a mother.  And she didn’t deserve to see her own son beheaded on television.’   I think we know who the true American heroes are. (Incidentally, that same guy told us that he thought the heroes were his buddies who saved his life in the middle of the firefight that took him down).  Another hero on that mission that didn’t make it: Remco.  Remco was a special operations K9 who found the enemy hiding in the bushes and did exactly what he was trained to do – alerted his human counterparts.  He was shot and killed by the enemy for doing it.

SHOCK AND AWE – Senate Armed Services Committee members are still reeling from Wednesday’s testimony by U.S. Central Command Commander General Lloyd Austin that the $500 million Pentagon program to train and equip Syrians to fight off ISIS is an utter failure.  A Dead Drop source with intimate knowledge of the Syria issue says The White House is trying to shrug off embarrassment, saying they knew the plan was never gonna work.  Sources say CENTCOM leaders are frustrated though, that General Austin didn’t offer the committee details on some of the options that are being considered to improve the situation against ISIS.  We’re told that Committee Chair John McCain and his staffers are livid (no shocker there), but McCain believes he may now be at a point where he can get bi-partisan support to put pressure on the administration for a change in policy.

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