Taliban talks of more kidnapping of Americans

A Taliban commander tells the press his group is now planning to stage more kidnappings, after their prisoner trade with the United States.

U.S. Army Sargent Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban. President Obama recently negotiated a trade, exchanging five Taliban prisoners for the American. The leader stated this made kidnapping U.S. soldiers much more tempting for his forces.

He told the press, “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.”

The Taliban leader is remaining anonymous because he is not authorized by the group to speak on the subject. However, he is well-known to the press, and has supplied valuable information in the past.

Bergdahl was America’s only living prisoner of war. While he was in the hands of the Taliban, many advocacy groups were calling for the administration to secure his release. Now, many people and lawmakers are saying the trade was too great for the United States.

Senator Ted Cruz said, “What does this tell terrorists? That if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorist prisoners?”

The Texas Senator also stated the exchange of five memebers of the Taliban for one America sets a “dangerous precedent.”

Bergdahl was captured by the Haqqani network, allies of the Taliban, in June 2009. The circumstances surrounding his capture are hotly debated.

Fox News claims they have documents showing the American converted to Islam while in captivity.