By Ben Barrack

The outrage over the exchange of five top level Taliban commanders for Bowe Bergdahl, a deserter at best and traitor who helped the Taliban murder his fellow soldiers at worst, is palpable. The role of CIA Director John Brennan in pushing for this deal could bolster the claims made by former FBI Agent John Guandolo last year that Brennan converted to Islam while a station chief in Saudi Arabia in the 1990’s, as relayed by Shoebat.com.

John Brennan: Pushed for the release of five Taliban leaders since 2011.

According to the Daily Beast, Brennan – along with another interesting figure – have been pushing for the release of these five Taliban terrorist commanders since at least 2011:

For years, CIA Director John Brennan and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough were part of a small group of Obama administration officials who believed that five relatively high-ranking Taliban commanders could be released under certain conditions with manageable risk of harm to American interests. For years, senior defense and intelligence officials disagreed—and were poised to block a potential trade for the Taliban five and American hostage Bowe Bergdahl.

By 2014, many of the skeptics had left the Obama administration; Brennan, McDonough, and their allies assumed new roles at the very top of the Obama administration; and the White House and its allies at State were able to convince their replacements to sign off on the deal.

“All of us on the National Security team were unanimous in supporting and recommending that we take this opportunity,” National Security Advisor Susan Rice told CNN Friday. But for years, that was not the case and Brennan and McDonough were opposed to other senior officials.

The logic Brennan used when making his case was suspect as well. Moreover, two figures that have by and large been Obama loyalists even objected to the deal:

Back in 2011, the idea these five prisoners could be released safely was opposed by Leon Panetta, who served in Obama’s first term as secretary of defense and director of the CIA. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, was also opposed. But Brennan and others argued that the Taliban five were primarily focused on fighting against other Afghans and never had a record of attacking Americans outside of their own country. They had extensive ties to al Qaeda, but were focused on their own civil war, not international jihad.

As Shoebat.com has reported, when it comes to U.S. national security, Brennan has often demonstrated a desire to defer to the umbrella group under which the Taliban essentially resides.

Also in 2011, Muslim Brotherhood agent and attorney Farhana Khera sent Brennan a letter imploring him to create a task force that would “purge” the training materials used to educate law enforcement and homeland security officials. Materials deemed offensive to Muslim Brotherhood individuals and groups (America’s enemies) would be taken out. Not only did Brennan promptly respond to Khera but he granted her much of what she wanted.

Earlier this year, Shoebat.com relayed and analyzed the findings of Seymour Hersh and discovered that Brennan’s predecessor – David Petraeus – was in charge of a weapons trafficking operation run out of Benghazi that was designed to ship weapons to Syrian rebels. The country of Qatar funded this operation in conjunction with Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

It’s rather obvious that the agenda of funding the rebels has remained in place. As such, Brennan is clearly interested in aiding in the effort. Earlier this week, Shoebat.com reported on the likelihood that the five Taliban commanders released to Qatar would actually become assets for that country’s interests in Syria.

Based on these new developments relative to the controversial release of Bowe Bergdahl – along with Brennan’s interest in pushing for it – the interview with Guandolo during which he made the explosive claim that Brennan converted to Islam takes on added significance. Here are the relevant portions of it:

I interviewed Guandolo nearly a year after he made that shocking claim. If you listen, you will know that Guandolo is adamantly sticking by his story: