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Treadwell Thanks God for Bergdahl, the Suspected Deserter Who Reportedly Converted to Islam, Declared Jihad

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Photo Credit: Fox News Bergdahl Declared Jihad in Captivity, Secret Documents Show

By James Rosen / Fox News.

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a “mujahid,” or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News.

The reports indicate that Bergdahl’s relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, “he became much more of an accepted fellow” than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.

The documents show that Bergdahl at one point escaped his captors for five days and was kept, upon his re-capture, in a metal cage, like an animal. In addition, the reports detail discussions of prisoner swaps and other attempts at a negotiated resolution to the case that appear to have commenced as early as the fall of 2009.

The reports are rich in on-the-ground detail — including the names and locations of the Haqqani commanders who ran the 200-man rotation used to guard the Idaho native — and present the most detailed view yet of what Bergdahl’s life over the past five years has been like. These real-time dispatches were generated by the Eclipse Group, a shadowy private firm of former intelligence officers and operatives that has subcontracted with the Defense Department and prominent corporations to deliver granular intelligence on terrorist activities and other security-related topics, often from challenging environments in far-flung corners of the globe.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: ReutersTaliban: Bergdahl Swap Just Means More Kidnappings

By David K. Li.

A senior Taliban leader said the five-for-one exchange for Army ​POW Bowe Bergdahl will only inspire insurgents to grab more Americans.

One of the Taliban leaders directly involved in Saturday’s swap laughed when Time magazine asked if the deal with America would prompt more abductions.

“Definitely,” the chuckling terrorist told Time in a report published online Thursday​.

“It’s better to kidnap one person like Bergdahl than kidnapping hundreds of useless people. It has encouraged our people. Now everybody will work hard to capture such an important bird.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APHagel to face House grilling on legality of Bergdahl-Taliban trade

By Bill Gertz.

The House Committee on Armed Services on Wednesday will question Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on why the Obama administration failed to obey a new law requiring the White House to notify Congress 30 days before releasing any Guantanamo Bay terrorists.

The hearing is expected to be contentious in examining last weekend’s swap of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at the prison.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, California Republican and committee chairman, expressed relief over Sgt. Bergdahl’s release but said “we have a responsibility to both the American people and the troops still in harm’s way in Afghanistan to get to the bottom of this deal with the Taliban.”

“I am particularly troubled by the release of five senior Taliban leaders, men with the blood of many on their hands, and the implications for our deployed forces,” Mr. McKeon said. “I am no less concerned that the Obama administration broke a national security law, passed with bipartisan support and signed by the president, in transferring these detainees.”

A classified briefing on the exchange is set for Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill for House and Senate members.

Read more from this story HERE.

Joe Miller Wins Poll at Anchorage UFL-CPG U.S. Senate Debate

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U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller got another boost this week after being voted the winner of a debate with Republican Mead Treadwell and Libertarian Mark Fish. The exit poll followed the United for Liberty – Alaska/Conservative Patriots Group U.S. Senate debate at the Wilda Marston Theater in Anchorage and was conducted by the debate’s sponsors. There were approximately 200 people in attendance. The other Republican in the race, Dan Sullivan was a no-show.
 
“Joe’s second straw poll win in less than a week reflects the growing momentum the campaign has been seeing on the ground,” said spokesman Randy DeSoto. “Joe turned in a strong performance in the debate, proving he is the true conservative/reform candidate and is the right choice to represent the Republican Party against Senator Begich in the fall.”
 
Some major differences between Miller and Lt. Gov. Treadwell were highlighted during the debate, including Treadwell’s support for a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens (Amnesty), as well as his support for the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). Miller opposes both. Miller’s opposition to LOST is, in part, based on the authority it grants the United Nations to directly tax and regulate the American people. Treadwell also affirmed his belief in man-caused climate change, a theory for which Miller believes the science is inconclusive.

 
One of the highlights of the debate came near its close when the candidates were given the opportunity to ask direct questions of each other. Miller inquired into Treadwell’s past support, financially and otherwise, of left-leaning Republicans and liberal Democrats over conservative challengers, including Lisa Murkowski, Matt Claman and Sheila Selkregg. All three are ardent backers of the big-government agenda, as well as socially liberal policies such as abortion and special rights for homosexuals. Miller questioned how Treadwell could be trusted to support a consistent conservative agenda in Washington when he has been unable or unwilling to do so in Alaska.

Treadwell claimed personal friendship was the reason he chose to support candidates who work against his stated values.
 
“Joe believes principle must trump party, and even friendship,” said DeSoto. “Without strong core convictions concerning fundamental issues, the pressures in Washington will quickly turn campaign rhetoric into false promises.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.
 

If You Are Pro-Family, Pro-Life, This Alaska GOP Candidate Is Deceiving You

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Ever wonder why so-called pro-life, pro-family candidates never lift a finger for family values once they get to Washington? Maybe if the pro-family community did a better job of vetting their pro-family candidates, this wouldn’t happen.

This weekend, Alaska’s Lt Governor Mead Treadwell (right in photo above) is in Washington DC seeking the support of the pro-family movement for his campaign to become Alaska’s new US Senator. I doubt he will tell the gathered conservative leaders what some simple research exposed about his true core beliefs.

Mead is like many GOP candidates who in every election cycle tout so-called “Family Values” while campaigning to win Republican primaries; but for them, it is an exercise of guile and deceit.

Treadwell is running for the Republican nomination in Alaska as a pro-life, traditional values kind of guy. The only problem is, as it turns out, he’s been working for the other side too.

As recently as 2010, Treadwell supported liberal pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage Republican Lisa Murkowski, who was defeated in the Republican primary by a Joe Miller, a staunch supporter of the pro-life cause and advocate for traditional marriage.

Treadwell let the proverbial cat out of the bag in a March 2013 article with Politico Magazine.

“I voted for Lisa Murkowski in the primary and in the general, and I think Alaskans made the right decision,” Treadwell said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller: Sullivan and Treadwell’s LOST History ‘Deeply Troubling’

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Republican US Senate Candidate Joe Miller today addressed his primary opponents’ history of support for the United Nations’ Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).

“I find my opponents’ history of support for this naked power grab by our would-be global governors at the United Nations deeply troubling,” Miller said. “It is simply not enough that Mr. Treadwell and Mr. Sullivan are running from their records during a hotly contested senate election.” 

Miller continued, “I could never support a treaty that surrenders the sovereignty of the people of the United States and empowers the United Nations, for the first time, to directly tax and regulate our citizens. Freedom from the arbitrary decrees of unaccountable rulers is the very reason we fought the Revolutionary War. Why should we voluntarily submit to such a regime in our time?”

Dan Sullivan has been described in the Anchorage Daily News as “a strong advocate in government meetings, congressional testimony and public speeches on the importance of U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention.”

In a speech delivered at the 2007 Arctic Energy Summit in Anchorage, Sullivan praised Senator Murkowski for her “leadership on [Arctic] issues, particularly the Law of the Sea ratification.” He further stressed that “updating our Arctic policy will involve working closely with Congress on a variety of issues, including U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention.”

Sullivan went on to say that “avoiding nationalistic policies and sovereignty conflicts” should be a high priority, and stressed the need for “a global community working toward common global interests.”

Mead Treadwell also has a long history of support for ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

In a speech before the Juneau World Affairs Council in 2011, Treadwell stated unequivocally that “international cooperation in the Arctic must be strengthened — with the force of both international law and ratification of the Law of the Sea.”

The Alaska Dispatch described Treadwell’s advocacy for LOST in a 2012 story: 

“Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell is doing his part to keep it on the table. Although he says he has concerns about the treaty, Treadwell, who has a long history of working for the treaty and for Arctic issues, has worked diligently toward passage. He has testified repeatedly in front of Congress, regularly partakes in the State Department-chaired monthly Arctic Policy Group meeting, attends conferences where the treaty is discussed, and leads Alaska in its representation to the Arctic Council, where the Law of the Sea is the agreed-upon legal framework for resolving Arctic issues.”

Joe Miller concluded, “Both candidates’ meager efforts to back away from their past, hardline backing of LOST are likely to be seen by increasingly skeptical Alaskan voters as election-year pandering.”

Climate Change: Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan’s Inconvenient Truth

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Photo Credit: usarmyalaskaJoe Miller today is calling on Republican challengers Dan Sullivan and Mead Treadwell to come clean with voters on their history of support for the man-made ‘global warming’ agenda.

“Clearly, both of my primary opponents have joined with climate change alarmists to push for top-down federal regulation,” Miller said. “It’s unclear how empowering the federal government to control even more of our economy, on the authority of dubious scientific claims, comports with free-market economics and Constitutional liberty. Mr. Treadwell and Mr. Sullivan have either had an election-induced conversion, or they’re conveniently side-stepping this issue that could have a profound impact on the lives of ordinary Alaskans.”

A recent study conducted by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks concluded that the average temperature in Alaska declined by 2.34 degrees between 2000-2010, and a Fox News story last fall cited a National Snow and Ice Data Center report that found a 60% increase in Arctic sea ice between 2012-2013.

During his time at the State Department, Mr. Sullivan gave numerous speeches and interviews addressing the so-called ‘climate change’ problem. In them, he unequivocally accepted the premise that climate change is man-caused and embraced numerous mitigation strategies: including a national goal of steep reductions in the consumption of fossil fuels, an aggressive regime to increase the use of economically non-viable bio-fuels, billions in grants for government research to develop new environmentally friendly technologies, and subsidies and tax breaks for unsustainable “green energy” projects.

Mr. Sullivan’s views can be summed up in the following excerpts taken from his speeches:

Our energy challenges and climate change challenges stem primarily from a common source—an over-reliance on hydrocarbons as the world’s primary form of energy.

On the climate issue . . . we want to underscore . . . the seriousness with which we take this initiative. It will be the beginning of a process by which we hope to work with the major economies to achieve . . . [our] greenhouse gas reduction goal.

Mr. Treadwell has also voiced support for a similar agenda, testifying before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2009:

In the global dialogue on climate change . . . Arctic research is warning us now that Arctic ‘feedbacks,’ already observed from the loss of sea ice, the release of stored carbon, and the acidification of the ocean are dramatically ‘raising the bar’ for the global climate mitigation strategy the world seeks to agree upon in Copenhagen later this year.

Mankind cannot build an effective regime to limit its own emissions without understanding emissions coming natural sources in the Arctic. The U.S. is committed, with other Arctic nations, to build a sustainable Arctic Observing Network, known as SAON. Further, because the Arctic region is one of the largest terrestrial storage zones of carbon on earth, research could help us find ways that the Arctic can be part of the global mitigation solution. Forest and fire management, carbon sequestration, development of new energy sources in the Arctic, and other products of research, including so called methods of ‘geoengineering,’ may ultimately add to an effective global mitigation strategy.

Research underway aims at using cleaner fuels and methods to avoid emissions of soot, black carbon which promotes Arctic warming.

Both Mr. Treadwell and Mr. Sullivan also supported Lisa Murkowski’s campaign against the Republican nominee in the state’s last US Senate election. Their support came after the senator had co-sponsored Cap and Trade legislation that, according to Fox News, would have cost the private economy as much as $1 trillion. She has also entertained a carbon tax, something for which Mr. Sullivan, ironically, has sharply criticized Democrat Senator Mark Begich during this election cycle.

Miller concluded, “It never ceases to amaze me how during election time everyone’s a champion of liberty. It is vitally important to weigh what candidates say against what they’ve actually done.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.

Sullivan, Treadwell Try to Hide Their 2010 Support for Murkowski

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republican-democrat-battleIn an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, US Senate candidates Dan Sullivan and Mead Treadwell tried to deceive Alaskans about their support for one of the most liberal “Republicans” in the United States Senate during Alaska’s 2010 US Senate race.
 
According to the AP, “Sullivan, who was Alaska’s attorney general during the 2010 elections, told a reporter he didn’t publicly take sides in that race. He said he was neutral, as someone in his position at the time should be.”
 
Yet, just a few months back, Sullivan himself reportedly claimed in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that, acting as Attorney General, he spearheaded the effort to assist the write-in candidate by arguing – in clear violation of State Administrative Code – that write-in candidates’ information would be allowed in polling places.
 
His double-speak becomes even more outrageous when one considers the fact that the move was unprecedented in Alaska and opposed by both the state Democrat and Republican Parties. Sullivan was obviously under no legal obligation to support Murkowski’s write-in candidacy and argue the case from the same side her campaign did.
 
According to District Court Judge Frank Pfiffner, Sullivan’s argument was “illogical” and in clear violation of at least four separate laws: the relevant Administrative Code, the Administrative Procedures Act, electioneering Statutes, and the Voter Rights Act which required pre-clearance from the Department of Justice.
 
While the Alaska Supreme Court overturned the lower court decision, it is noteworthy that they chose not to address Judge Pfiffner’s concerns. The High Court issued no written opinion offering the legal justification why Pfiffner’s lengthy decision and interpretation of the clear requirements of the law was in error. This has led many to believe the Supreme Court’s decision was a purely political, and has only fed popular discontent with its activist proclivities.
 
United Press International also reported that the non-statutory standards deployed during the 2010 vote-count in Juneau, in direct violation of Alaska Statute, came at the advice of then-Attorney General Dan Sullivan.
 
Sullivan’s breaking with historic precedent to circumvent the plain text of the law in order to provide an advantage to one candidate is anything but remaining neutral. There is little doubt, if the shoe were on the other foot and Senator Murkowski was the party nominee facing a write-in challenger, the law would have been interpreted as it always had been.
 
Treadwell’s claim of neutrality is equally troubling. Not only did Treadwell make public statements in 2010 meant to convey the message that he supported the write-in campaign, he was reportedly pressuring Governor Parnell behind the scenes to endorse Murkowski over Miller, a charge he has declined to challenge in private conversation.
 
Further, Treadwell presided over a white-washing of the 2010 election, refusing to allow an independent investigation, despite serious allegations of fraud levied by eye-witnesses in sworn affidavits, under penalty of perjury.
 
Treadwell now travels the state peddling his wares as a Constitutional Conservative. Yet somehow he wants to forget that Lisa Murkowski went back to Washington and offered Barack Obama bi-partisan legitimacy by voting for every piece of his 2010 “lame duck” agenda immediately following the election (which included the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the new START Treaty, the DREAM Act, and a partial repeal of the Bush era tax cuts), fought for funding for Planned Parenthood, accused Republicans of a “war on women,” came out in support of Anchorage Prop. 5 (ENDA), voted multiple times to raise the debt ceiling, helped confirm numerous activist judges . . . and the list goes on.
 
How did Mead Treadwell respond to all this? When asked by Politico Magazine last spring, Treadwell said, “I voted for Lisa Murkowski in the primary and in the general, and I think Alaskans made the right decision.”
 
Since then, Murkowski has come out in support of gay marriage, and continued her trajectory as a big spending, big government politician. It was reported in Roll Call earlier this year that Senator Murkowski voted with Barack Obama over 72 percent of the time, making her the second most likely Republican Senator to do so, falling only slightly behind Susan Collins of Maine. Indeed her support for the President’s agenda is far closer to Democrat Mark Begich than to most of the Republican caucus. Pretty hard to run against a Democrat whose voting record is similar to your Republican mentor.

Perhaps Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Treadwell need a civics lesson. We have a representative form of government. The folks we send to Washington represent us. If you vote to send someone to Washington to represent you, you are responsible for what they do. In a very real sense, you did it.
 
Forgive the Editorial team at Restoring Liberty if we don’t buy the claims of neutrality and high sounding rhetoric about Party loyalty coming from folks who selectively choose when it applies. From where we sit, it sounds a lot like the same political double-speak we’re used to hearing from big government politicians.

Miller: It’s Not Federal Overreach, It’s Tyranny (+video)

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Screen Shot 2014-04-27 at 1.57.34 AMThis past Friday, I joined the two other candidates vying for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in the first televised forum of the campaign season. One of the questions put to us at the “Alaska Asks” forum, which aired on the local NBC affiliate, addressed the role the federal government should play in our state. I said, in contrast to my opponents, we are not dealing merely with an issue of federal overreach, but a form of tyranny.

The Constitution does not authorize the federal government to control over two-thirds of Alaska’s land, nor approximately 85 percent of Nevada’s. The stand-off in that state and the government shutdown last fall, during which Alaskans were denied the opportunity to hunt and provide for their families on these lands as an act of political retaliation, highlighted a federal government that exercises far too much control over our daily lives and livelihoods.

The federal government’s continued stranglehold on Alaska’s resource development, as other states like North Dakota boom economically, is unacceptable. The EPA’s armed raid of a family mining facility in Chicken, Alaska last fall demonstrates just how out of control Washington is. 

We need fundamental reform. Tweaking at the margins and increasing the go-along-to-get-along caucus in the Senate will do nothing to address the daunting challenges we face. 

Ronald Reagan said nearly 50 years ago, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.” 

Let us do our part to ensure America remains the land of “the free and the home of the brave” in our time, and let us set an example for generations yet to come.

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It the highlights below, the candidates field questions concerning the federal government’s blocking of resource development in Alaska, Senator Rand Paul’s “Life at Conception” Act, and the constitutional issues raised by the surveillance state.

 

Miller Questions Opponents’ Willingness to Take on Federal Spending Crisis

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Joe Miller speakingJoe Miller questioned the willingness of his opponents to truly take on the budget crisis facing this nation when their actions are considered in light of the passage of the $1.1 trillion Omnibus bill. President Obama signed the bill into law over the weekend, which implements, in part, the agreement laid out in the Murray-Ryan budget last month. 

The Murray-Ryan budget plan rolled back the budget cuts made under sequestration and increased spending by $63 billion. Unbelievably, while the agreement called for increased spending throughout the federal government, it cut military veteran retirees’ pay by $6 billion. The $1.1 trillion measure, over 1500 pages long, began implementing this agreement, which included keeping the pay cut for the majority of retired military veterans. The Alaska delegation, Republican and Democrat, voted for the bill. Joe Miller was the only Republican candidate for U.S. Senate to come out against Murray-Ryan. 

“That a $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill, laden with pork and breaching our commitments to our military veterans, would sail through Congress with substantial Republican support is a source of amazement and disappointment to me,” said Miller. 

A review of the Omnibus spending bill reveals an astounding level of wasteful and even immoral use of American taxpayers’ money, including: taxpayer-funded abortion, billions in green energy projects, massive transportation boondoggles, unrestricted money to the Justice Department, and – unbelievably – funding for the continued administration of TARP.

Joe Miller stated, “The Omnibus spending bill highlights everything that is wrong with Washington right now. The ‘go-along to get-along’ mentality that allowed its passage is the same mentality that is bankrupting America.” He concluded, “At a time when big government is seen as the top danger to the future of the nation, this vote only validates the people’s worst fears. It is clear the only way this issue will be addressed is with bold, new leadership, unafraid to take on the political establishment.” 

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

Miller Welcomes Dan Sullivan Into the U.S. Senate Race

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Fairbanks, Alaska. October 15, 2013 — Today U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller welcomed Dan Sullivan into the U.S. Senate race in Alaska.

Campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto stated, “Competition is good for the Republican Party. We look forward to a healthy debate about how to best restore what has been our nation’s true birthright: to live in a land where our constitutional freedoms are secure and where the American dream is alive and well. We trust during the course of this campaign the primary voters will learn the clear distinctions between the candidates and their views of the role of government in our daily lives.”

Sullivan joins Miller and Mead Treadwell, who officially announced his candidacy last month. John Jaramillo and Kathleen Tonn have also indicated they will seek the Republican nomination.

Senate Expected To Take Up United Nations Treaty As Early As Tuesday

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photo credit: cliff1066

The Senate is expected to vote on the pro-abortion CRPD treaty on Wednesday and pro-life groups are asking pro-life advocates to contact members of the Senate urging them to vote against it.

The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, after members voted 61-36 to move the treaty to the floor for debate.

The International Right to Life Federation says pro-life groups oppose this legislation because it leaves open the potential for the international community to permit sterilization or abortion for the disabled. The terminology, found in Article 25, requires, “free or affordable health care including the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based health programs.”

Bradley Mattes, president of the International Right to Life Federation, stated, “This is a misleading measure in that it does nothing to protect life. It is disguised as a way to ‘help’ the disabled. Instead it intentionally sacrifices the most vulnerable – the disabled and the unborn – all in the name of population control.”

He continued, “Many don’t realize that this international treaty could potentially supersede future attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Read more from this story HERE.