u.s.-held taliban prisoners. lieutenant colonel tony shaffer predicted the charges of desertion would indeed come this month. the pentagon shot that story down until they came out with their news yesterday. tony shave schaefer joins us now. good to have you as always. >> thank you, martha, for having me on. martha: you took a bit of heat. >> just a bit. martha: pentagon came out, admiral kirby said absolutely not. that is not happening here. what happened? >> reality facts spokes for themselves. don't get me wrong. i love john kirby. he is a great guy. he had essentially to do what he had to regarding the pentagon's position at that moment. frankly the army did the right thing here, martha. there was huge pressure behind the scenes from the white house to make this quietly go away. notably there are a number of folks behind the scenes at the pentagon and army who wanted to keep this on the front burner. that is why you saw essentially this issue forced, i think