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| Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi |
The Veterans of Foreign Wars is demanding President Obama personally seek the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican jail where he has been held since March 31 for entering the country with several firearms.
VFW National Commander William Thien wrote in an open letter on Friday that if Obama can break U.S. policy on talking with terrorists to secure the freedom of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl then he should be able to call Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and ask for Tahmooressi's release.
"We understand that the U.S. State Department and our embassy in Mexico are working this, but that's too much political bureaucracy," Thien says in his letter. "The VFW urges you to show the same sense of urgency toward Tahmooressi as you did to secure the release of Bergdahl. A personal call from you to Mexican President Nieto can make this happen."
Thien said he first asked the president to intervene in a letter he sent to the White House on Tuesday, June 3.
In his letter Friday, Thien points out in that while Tahmooressi "languishes in a Mexican jail ... Bergdahl, a former Taliban captive who disappeared under questionable circumstances, recuperates in a U.S. Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany."
A petition on the White House website calling for Obama to intervene has garnered nearly 123,000 signatures. To date, there has been no response from the White House to either the petition or Thien's letter.
Obama on Friday was in France where he and other European leaders marked the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Tahmooressi was arrested in Mexico after border police there stopped his truck and found three weapons – a .45 caliber pistol, a 12-guage shotgun and a 5.56-caliber rifle. The Marine reportedly told authorities he had entered Mexico by mistake after taking a wrong turn near the border with San Diego, Calif.
Alejandro Gonzalez Guilbot, head of Mexican customs, said the pistol was found in the door pocket below the driver's side window and the other weapons also within reach of the driver. The paper said Tahmooressi previously described the 5.56-caliber rifle as an AR-15.












Amen! We should be helping out Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi just he a real American hero. He has been in jail for 72 days and if Pres. Obama really cares about the vets he will help this disabled vet out.
ReplyDelete@hipbluecat