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Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5188
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2015 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch announced today that on November 18, 2014, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense seeking "any 'determinations'" made by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that the five Guantanamo terrorists traded for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl were "no longer a threat to U.S. national security." The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v Department of Defense (No. 1:14-cv-01935)).
Judicial Watch also announced today that on January 2, 2015, it filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. State Department seeking access to the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Qatar relating to the terrorist release. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v Department of State (No.1:15-cv-00003)).
Bergdahl left his post and was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan from June 2009 until May 2014. The circumstances surrounding Bergdahl's disappearance and subsequent capture have become the subject intense controversy. He was released on May 31, 2014, as part of a prisoner exchange by the Obama administration for five Taliban terrorist leaders who were held at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. NBC News reports today that Bergdahl will indeed be charged with desertion, but is likely to face no jail time.
Federal law states that the Secretary of Defense can transfer or release a Guantanamo detainee to a foreign country only "if the Secretary determines, following a review…that the individual is no longer a threat to the national security of the United States." (Section 1035 (a) (1) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 26, 2013.) Judicial Watch sued the Pentagon in November 2014 after it refused to comply with Judicial Watch's June 3, 2014, FOIA request for the Secretary Hagel's reviews of the national security threats posed by the detainees he released.
The Judicial Watch lawsuit was filed against the State Department after the agency ignored a FOIA request filed on June 3, 2014, seeking access to the following:
The bilateral memorandum of understanding between the United States and Qatar relating to the release from U.S. custody of five detainees held at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in exchange for the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Judicial Watch now has filed four lawsuits relating to the controversy surrounding the Bergdahl-terrorist trade. In November 2014 Judicial Watch filed two FOIA lawsuits against the Pentagon and the State Department to obtain records concerning arrangements made between the U.S. government with third parties or another state regarding agreements and monetary payments to secure Bergdahl's release.
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