Lalla Mira

Bowe Bergdahl (boh BURG'-dahl) disappeared from his base in Afghanistan. Bergdahl was held captive for five years by the Taliban. The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to be briefed on the report as early as today. Details about the probe's conclusion are closely held. But Bergdahl could face charges of desertion or being absent without leave. The final disposition will determine whether he is charged or gets up to $300,000 in back pay and other benefits.

This Barry, who was getting increasingly worried that people were whispering that he was a rapist, seemingly had no recourse against Dunhams lie. Though he has never met her, filing suit would make him a public figure, one forevermore associated with rape (albeit a false accusation thereof). It wasnt until he began soliciting donations for a legal fund that Dunhams publisher offered to write a check and Dunham herself finally acknowledged that no Barry had sexually assaulted her. She had, she said, merely picked the name as a pseudonym. So it was just one of those unfortunate coincidences that she happened to accidentally smear an easily identifiable proponent of a political party she despises. Dunham clearly thinks of herself as one of our betters, hence unbound by troublesome truths. Rachel NoerdlingerPhoto: AP So did the $170,000-a-year ex-chief of staff to the first lady of New York City, Rachel Noerdlinger, who lied by omission during a city background check when she failed to disclose, as required, that she was living with not only a felon but a convicted killer her boyfriend. Khari Noerdlinger walks out of court after after his arraignment.Photo: R.

Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) during hearings on the issue. Yet CEO Mary Barra is still in charge despite her credulity-straining claims that she didnt learn of the problem, a topic of intense discussion within GM going back a decade, until last year. Private corporations, though, can at least be held responsible: They can be forced to pay out damages in court, their stock price can plunge, boards can become restive. Governments mainly laugh at attempts to hold them to account. Andrew CuomoPhoto: Getty Images Consider Gov. Cuomo, who announced in 2013, with much blaring of trumpets and unfurling of banners, that he would drain the cesspool of corruption in Albany via an investigative body called the Moreland Commission. When evidence led the group to subpoena a firm that placed ads for Democrats, including Cuomo himself, an aide of his ordered it withdrawn. Then Cuomo, who had promised the Moreland Commission would work for 18 months and had the authority to investigate anyone, including himself, quietly pulled the plug after nine months. Jonathan GruberPhoto: UPI Cuomo hoped ignorant voters wouldnt notice what he was up to, just as MIT economist Jonathan Gruber repeatedly boasted that when he helped design ObamaCare, the law was designed to mislead voters.

Rachel NoerdlingerPhoto: AP So did the $170,000-a-year ex-chief of staff to the first lady of New York City, Rachel Noerdlinger, who lied by omission during a city background check when she failed to disclose, as required, that she was living with not only a felon but a convicted killer her boyfriend. Khari Noerdlinger walks out of court after after his arraignment.Photo: R. Umar Abbasi Required to live in New York like other city employees, Noerdlinger had asked for and received a hardship exemption based on the physical and emotional fragility of her son, who had been in two car accidents and supposedly had to remain in New Jersey to be near his doctors at all times. Then we saw the pictures of Khari Noerdlinger. Far from being in traction, he was in cleats: He recorded 41 tackles and two sacks while playing linebacker for his high-school football team last year. In response, Mayor de Blasio was enraged that anyone had called Noerdlinger on her lies. A lot of really nasty stuff was done here, he said.

I know very well that we have given money; I know people myself who have given money. It happens. We have to stop lying to ourselves. The alternative, he said, is to have hostages killed by their kidnappers like the British and Americans held by Islamic extremists. One American soldier held by Taliban fighters, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, was freed in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners from the prison in Guantanamo Bay. In the failed rescue Saturday in Yemen, U.S. officials said special forces were trying to free American hostage Luke Somers because al-Qaida had threatened to kill him. They did not realize that he was being held with a South African hostage, Pierre Korkie, who was on the verge of being freed after ransom negotiations with the kidnappers.

It was not clear if they remained in Niger. A French official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive said Lazarevic was freed Tuesday but declined to give any details on the release of the al-Qaida prisoners beyond saying the negotiations over Lazarevics release were led by Mali and Niger. Lazarevic and Verdon were kidnapped from their hotel in Hombori in northeastern Mali while doing a feasibility study for a future cement factory, their families have said. Speculation is widespread, however, that there were other reasons for their presence in Mali, a long-time desert hideout for al-Qaida and other extremists in Africas Sahel region. Hostage-taking is a lucrative business in Mali and other Sahel countries. American officials have quietly accused France and other European countries of paying ransoms for their kidnapped citizens. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb took numerous Western hostages until France intervened in Mali in January 2013 to rout out extremists.

Advocates for the Huangs suggested the lab report was fabricated and said their request with the Qatari judiciary for a formal investigation went unanswered. Criticism of Qatari justice The case against the Huangs shined a light on the Qatari justice system and drew complaints from the United States. Qatar is a key ally in the U.S.-led coalition against the terror group ISIS and host to many countries' forces involved in airstrikes. The Qatari government also helped the United States secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban captivity this year. Despite the close ties, the State Department had expressed concern about the legal proceedings and disappointment in the verdict. Officials requested in October that Qatar's government lift the Huangs' travel ban, allowing them to return to the United States.

Desertion in the military is technically punishable by death. But given the circumstances of Bergdahl's case, such a sentence is essentially out of the realm of possibility. Bergdahl, the only American prisoner in the war in Afghanistan, could face a lesser administrative punishment including forfeiture of back pay or even jail time. But Army officials are acutely aware of the potential political backlash that could follow severely punishing a prisoner of war. Meanwhile, Bergdahl is still serving as a sergeant at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He has a desk job with the Army after being held captive for roughly five years, much of that time spent in a metal box. Bergdahls May 2014 release, which was secured by exchanging five high-value Taliban detainees from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, has sparked widespread controversy.

sent five other Arab captives to resettlement in Europe. The United States disclosed the transfer of the Saudi citizen Saturday morning once Zahrani was back in his homeland. The sudden spurt in transfers the Saudi was the 13th prisoner released this year has unsettled some in Congress as the Pentagon works toward President Barack Obamas goal of closing the detention center in southeast Cuba. What the Obama Administration is doing is dangerous and, frankly, reckless, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon said after Thursdays transfer. If just one U.S. soldier loses their life over these transfers, we will have failed in our duty to the American people, McKeon said.

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