Calls for impeachment hearings against Barack Obama have been common throughout his presidency, which has been plagued by numerous scandals and allegations of increasingly brazen cover-ups.
The latest controversy surrounding the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has given those proponents even more ammunition to use against Obama. It has also brought new voices in favor of impeachment to the debate.
Among those are former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West, who explained Tuesday why he feels the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s release from Taliban custody likely warrant impeachment. He listed a number of factors that helped him reach this opinion.
First, he explained that Obama unilaterally declared unconstitutional a measure he himself signed into law requiring he give 30 days’ notice to Congress before releasing Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
“Once again Obama used selective discretion as to what law he feels he must adhere to – in this case it has severe ramifications for our national security,” West wrote.
The White House negotiated with the Taliban, he continued, which is a “non-state, non-uniform terrorist organization.”
Furthermore, when choosing which five terrorists he would allow to be exchanged for Bergdahl, West noted he picked a quintet of the most dangerous terrorists in the facility.
“There are some 141 detainees at GITMO,” he wrote. “The five released were senior Taliban officials, basically members of Mullah Omar’s inner circle. If we wanted to release detainees in exchange for Bergahl, there were many others to choose from. Why these?”
The recidivism rate among released terrorists has doubled, he wrote; and even administration sources up to and including Obama admit these five released prisoners pose a real threat to American safety.
In exchange for setting such dangerous individuals free, West concluded that America received in return a “deserter, who by his own self-proclamation harbors anti-American sentiments.”
While Obama claims that “no American should be left behind,” West points out the apparent hypocrisy of that statement, wondering if he has “forgotten about Benghazi and Marine SGT Tahmooressi.”
West concludes by declaring Obama’s “unilateral negotiations with terrorists and the ensuing release of their key leadership without consult – mandated by law – with the U.S. Congress represents high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachable offense.”
He went on to call on congressional leaders “to draft articles of impeachment as no one is above the law in America.”