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Bowe Bergdahl. The Army's investigation into the circumstances under which the Hailey native left his Afghanistan base wrapped up in October, yet no new information has been released. Bergdahl's fellow soldiers say he deserted the base, which is a crime under military law. A military defense councilman speculated Wednesday that the delay could mean no charges will be filed. The question remains a mystery. What events led up to the disappearance of Bergdahl and his capture by the Taliban in 2009? He was held captive for five years. Military officials will determine whether or not wrong doing occurred, and if those actions warrant punishment. Brian Bouffard, a criminal and military defense councilman, feels as though Bergdahl played an active role in his disappearance.

When such data dont bear out the narrative, activists rely heavily on anecdotal evidence like the Rolling Stone story then say false anecdotes dont matter either. We have a society where rapists are given the benefit of the doubt, often despite overwhelming evidence, wrote Sally Kohn of CNN, adding that [Feminists] cannot apologize for erring on the side of a fair, compassionate and credulous hearing of a womans account. Except being credulous with a liar means you arent being fair to those she is lying about. Lena DunhamPhoto: AP If rape accusations serve as a useful weapon against despised groups, it doesnt matter whether any individual rape story is accurate. Lena Dunham, who said in her book Not That Kind of Girl that she was raped at Oberlin College by Barry, the campuss resident conservative, let this lie simmer for months without anyone calling her on it. Then National Reviews Kevin Williamson wrote that a few seconds of Googling led directly to a prominent Republican who was at Oberlin at the same time as Dunham and has the highly unusual name Barry. 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.

It still hasnt been released. No doubt it will require a lot of careful proofreading over the final 25 months of the Obama era. In the meantime, Bergdahl, who happily serves the Army in a desk job in Texas, and Rice continue to draw public paychecks. Lois LernerPhoto: AP As does IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who swore that Lois Lerners e-mails were destroyed in an unfortunately timed series of hard-drive crashes and hence unrecoverable. In November, the inspector general informed Congress that backup tapes do exist and have yielded some 30,000 Lerner e-mails. At least the head of the Secret Service was forced to resign after its shocking incompetence placed the president in personal danger. An armed intruder at the White House ran past the stairway leaving to the presidential family quarters and made it all the way into the East Room.

PARIS A Frenchman held for more than three years by al-Qaidas North African branch was freed Tuesday, days after two of the men implicated in his abduction were reportedly released from a prison in Mali. Negotiations among the governments of Niger, Mali and France led to freedom for Serge Lazarevic, 51, who was described by the French president as in relatively good health despite his long captivity. Tuesdays release, greeted with joy among many in France, stands in contrast to the attempted rescue in Yemen last weekend that ended in the deaths of two hostages an American and South African held by al-Qaida. Lazarevic was now en route to Niamey, the capital of Niger, French President Francois Hollande said as he thanked Nigers president for helping to free the Frenchman. We no longer have any hostages in any country of the world and we should not have any, Hollande added. Hollandes government insists it pays no ransoms and does not exchange prisoners, although in September he acknowledged for the first time that other countries have done so to help us. President Barack Obama last month ordered a review of the U.S. response to citizens being taken hostage abroad after the deaths of several Americans held by Islamic extremists. But the Obama administration said the review will not include changing the policy against ransoms.

Some efforts, like touting the deal for Bowe Bergdahl or managing the NSA scandal with allies, have been fiascoes, self-inflicted wounds. If the president wants to fix a broken national security apparatus, however, he will have to consider a change at the top of the NSC. Susan Rice has also served the president from the earliest days of his campaign and has been a smart and capable aide. She was also unfairly attacked by partisans over Benghazi and the president loyally and admirably stood by her. But there is no denying that she has presided over the NSC during one of its roughest patches in modern memory and that some of the responsibility for the problems it incurred must rest with her. She is part of the problem with relations with other departments, with key allies, and she is not seen as the kind of disinterested honest broker a national security adviser should be. Rice is also decidedly not strategic, and a different national security adviser who could better emulate the model set by successful predecessors like Gen. Brent Scowcroft on both fronts would be welcome.

PHOTOS: Election disaster and Obama's other biggest White House fails The Texas Republican asserted that Mr. Obama set a dangerous precedent for such negotiations earlier this year by authorizing the release of five former high-level Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American held hostage in Afghanistan for five years. But Mr. Somers case is notably different. The 33-year-old photojournalist is an American citizen who born in Britain. He had been working in Yemen since 2011 as a freelancer for the Yemen Times when operatives from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) kidnapped him in September 2013. The video circulated Thursday was the first showing Mr. Somers in captivity.

Im certain that my life is in danger. So as I sit here now, I ask, if anything can be done, please let it be done. Thank you very much. Before Mr. Somers statement, the video shows local al Qaeda commander Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, reading in Arabic and speaking about alleged American crimes against the Muslim world. Al-Ansi criticizes US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State group and President Obama for his latest foolish action, referring to the failed operation in Hadramawt. He says an elite group of mujahedeen, or holy warriors, were killed in the U.S. raid. He also warned the U.S. against more stupidities, referring to future attempts to rescue hostages.

Pressure that's coming from inside the Obama administration but also from advocacy groups such as Human Rights Watch , where Laura Pitter is senior national security counsel. "It does seem like there is a renewed effort to reinvigorate the transfers out of Guantanomo," she says. Pitter says those transfers stalled after the prisoner swap obtaining the release of Sergeant Bergdahl. GOP lawmakers were outraged that the administration failed to give the required 30 days notice of that transfer. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reminded the House Intelligence Committee after that episode that it's he who signs off on all prisoner transfers from Guantanamo: "I take that responsibility, Mr. Chairman, members of this committee, damn seriously, damn seriously." Nearly five months would then go by with no more transfers. That time coincided with the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and a new battlefield for jihadists.

Chairman, members of this committee, damn seriously, damn seriously." Nearly five months would then go by with no more transfers. That time coincided with the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and a new battlefield for jihadists. Then, this month, seven more transfers. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon said continuing such releases was unwise. At a recent hearing he said, "Secretary Hagel, how can the administration continue to press ahead with transfers from Guantanamo at this time? Isn't this in conflict with your policy of stemming the flow of foreign fighters?" Hagel replied, "The intelligence community assessed that more than 90 percent of those detainees had not intended to or had in fact, we had not evidence of returning to the battlefield." Ten days later, Hagel announced he was stepping down . He'd already notified Congress, though, that there would be more transfers.

HUNTER says: " number one, you can't pay ransoms. i mean the DOD can't break the law and have no repercussions whatsoever, no oversight over what they did. " The Pentagon responded in a letter to hunter on November 21 and insists the U.S. Government did not pay for Bergdahl's release, which is currently against the law. KIRBY says: " there was no ransom offered. There was no ransom paid. There was no -- no money exchanged at all to secure Sergeant Bergdahl's release. Nor was there an attempt to do so that failed." GRIFFIN says: " The President has ordered a review of how American hostages are handled by the US government following complaints by the families of those held in Syria.