WASHINGTON
(June 6, 2014) —
The commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
wrote President Obama today to urge his personal involvement to get Marine Sgt.
Andrew Tahmooressi released from a Mexican jail. Text from the letter by
William A. Thien is below, and a PDF copy is available here.
Dear
Mr. President:
I
write as the national commander of the 1.9 million-member Veterans of Foreign
Wars of the United States and its Auxiliaries to once again urge your immediate
action to secure the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who languishes
in a Mexican jail while Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a former Taliban captive who
disappeared under questionable circumstances, recuperates in a U.S. Army
hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
To
secure Bergdahl’s release, the government broke longstanding U.S. policy to not
negotiate with terrorists, yet all I asked in a letter sent Tuesday was for a
simple phone call between you and Mexican President Nieto. We understand
that the U.S. State Department and our embassy in Mexico are working this, but
that’s too much political bureaucracy. 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.
Respectfully,
WILLIAM
A. THIEN
Commander-in-Chief
cc: Secretary of
State John Kerry
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power
U.S. Ambassador to
Mexico E. Anthony Wayne