White House: The Taliban Isn't a Terrorist Group

Katie Pavlich | January 29, 2015 8:05 AM

Remember when the Obama administration tried to argue that the Islamic State (ISIS) is not "Islamic." Yesterday during the daily White House press briefing, Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz argued that the Taliban is not a terrorist group, but instead an "armed insurgency." Schultz' comments came during discussion of a potential prison swap between the Jordanians and ISIS.

Ah I got it. So because the Taliban is an "armed insurgency" and not a terrorist organization according to the White House, the trade of five top Taliban commanders for alleged deserter Bowe Bergdahl is completely justified....except for it's not. As Guy wrote earlier this week:

The administration has insisted that the Bergdahl swap was not an instance of the US government violating its longstanding policy against negotiating with terrorists, assuring the country that it was a routine prisoner exchange. This assertion is contradicted by the nature of Bergdahl's captors, and the White House's own spin that the plan had to be hatched and executed quickly, without informing Congress (as required by law), because the terrorists had threatened to kill Bergdahl. That's not how routine prisoner exchanges work. Another one of their excuses wilted under light scrutiny. The reality is that the Obama administration has been ideologically hellbent on emptying Gitmo for years, despite Congress' repeated refusals to go along. This scenario offered the president a chance to "get rid of" five dangerous terrorists and dress it up as a happy homecoming story. So the decision was made to (effectively, if not explicitly) negotiate with terrorists, then deny that any such thing had occurred.