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Officials Say Disclosure of Prisoner Swap Could Have Endangered Bergdahl Fears for Sergeant’s Life Led to Secrecy About Swap, Obama Official Says
(about 4 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Defense and intelligence officials told senators at a classified briefing on Wednesday that they kept secret from Congress the pending swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners because they feared for his life if the deal became public, a senior administration official said Thursday. WASHINGTON — A senior Obama administration official said Thursday that the operation to free Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was kept a closely held secret because of fear that splits within the Taliban could lead gun-wielding guards to kill the soldier before he was turned over to American forces last weekend.
“The Senators were told, separate and apart from Sgt. Bergdahl’s apparent deterioration in health, that we had both specific and general indications that Sgt. Bergdahl’s recovery — and potentially his life — could be jeopardized if the detainee exchange proceedings were disclosed or derailed,” the official said in a statement. In an interview, the official said the administration never received a direct or indirect threat from the Taliban that Sergeant Bergdahl, who had been held for nearly five years, would soon be killed. But the concern about what could happen if news became public of the impending swap of Sergeant Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees was rooted in a fear that the Taliban themselves were split about the wisdom of the trade. The group holding Sergeant Bergdahl, a Taliban faction called the Haqqani network, has sometimes been at odds with the Taliban’s leadership.
Several senators said Thursday that officials in the classified briefing justified the president’s decision to swap Sergeant Bergdahl for the Taliban prisoners by suggesting that quick action was needed to save his life. The official was provided by the administration on the condition that he not be identified discussing sensitive negotiations.
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, said the lawmakers were told that the threat to Sergeant Bergdahl from the Taliban came from “a credible intelligence source.” Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, also said that it was made clear that “his life was threatened.” “A variety of sources said that something could go wrong after a deal with the Taliban leadership but before it was executed,” said the official, who was involved in the talks. “But that didn’t mean that every guy with an AK-47 guarding Sergeant Bergdahl has signed off on the deal, too.”
Several lawmakers expressed skepticism that disclosure of the operation to lawmakers would have jeopardized Sergeant Bergdahl’s life, noting that congressional leaders and members of the intelligence committees are often given classified information. Many Republicans said they doubted the threat at all. The explanation came the same day that President Obama responded to the chorus of criticism about freeing Sergeant Bergdahl, who senior military officials say walked off his remote combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan. Mr. Obama strongly defended his decision to recover Sergeant Bergdahl regardless of whether the soldier had deserted his unit and framed the choice in terms of helping anxious parents recover a son.
“This flies in the face of everything we know about the value of prisoners,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and a former prisoner of war. “Threatening to kill him is a very unlikely scenario.” “I write too many letters to folks who, unfortunately, don’t see their children again after fighting a war,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Brussels after a summit meeting. “I make absolutely no apologies for making sure that we get back a young man to his parents and that the American public understand that this is somebody’s child and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.”
Traveling in Europe on Thursday, Mr. Obama pushed back against the chorus of criticism from across an ocean, and strongly defended his decision to recover Mr. Bergdahl regardless of whether the soldier had deserted his unit. He framed the choice in terms of helping anxious parents recover a son. Since Mr. Obama first announced the prisoner swap from the Rose Garden of the White House on Saturday, there has been rising anger from members of Congress who say the administration ignored a statute requiring 30 days’ notice before prisoners are released from the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, where the five Taliban members were held.
“I write too many letters to folks who, unfortunately, don’t see their children again after fighting a war,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference after an international summit meeting. “I make absolutely no apologies for making sure we get back a young man to his parents.” He added that the American people should “understand this is somebody’s child and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.” While the White House has said that the need for secrecy explained why it had to ignore the statute, Mr. Obama’s aides have had a difficult time explaining why they could not have warned a small group of Senate national security leaders, called the “Gang of Eight,” that often receives briefings on covert or highly sensitive programs. The official said that inside the administration roughly 100 people were aware that a deal could be imminent, and that it had come together much more quickly than expected.
Mr. Obama’s remarks came as Pentagon officials said that Sergeant Bergdahl was continuing to recover at an Army medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany. Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that Sergeant Bergdahl was gaining strength. Senators who attended a classified briefing Wednesday night emerged largely unsatisfied.
“His doctors say his health continues to improve daily,'’ Colonel Warren said. “Sergeant Bergdahl is conversing with medical staff and becoming more engaged in his treatment care plan. He is resting better.” The administration official also provided new details about the terms of the five Taliban members’ stay in Qatar, which has promised to hold them for at least a year. He said that while the five were free to leave their homes and engaged in routine activities — “They are not under house arrest, and they can go to the market,” the official said — they would be barred from fund-raising for the Taliban and inciting their brethren in Afghanistan.
Colonel Warren told NBC News that Sergeant Bergdahl, who spent five years in Taliban captivity, was being helped by psychologists who were working with him to “regain control of his emotions.” NBC said Colonel Warren declined to say anything else about Sergeant Bergdahl’s treatment. Other officials have said that the five will be closely monitored by American intelligence, and that if they rejoin the Taliban in Afghanistan or elsewhere they could be targeted by the United States.
Mr. Obama’s assertive defense of his decision was the second time in his four-day European trip that he had tried to quell the furor over the prisoner swap. This time he spoke with more passion and showed frustration about criticism over what he considered a clear choice. Although aides have said they anticipated attacks over releasing Taliban detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for Sergeant Bergdahl, they have been surprised by the intensity of the focus on whether the soldier merited the effort given the circumstances of his capture. “No official gave them that warning,” the official said when asked whether the United States had specifically warned the Taliban before returning them. “Frankly, that is not a warning that they require, given the history of what happened to others who re-engaged” after returning to Afghanistan, he said.
In private moments, White House officials have scorned critics of the deal for hypocrisy, given that some of the detractors previously supported the concept of a prisoner trade and that questions about Sergeant Bergdahl’s own behavior had long been known publicly. But they recognized that the criticism had gained momentum and so the president tried to refocus attention, not on the soldier but on his parents. At the Pentagon, officials said that Sergeant Bergdahl was continuing to recover at an Army medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany. Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that Sergeant Bergdahl was gaining strength.
“I think it was important for people to understand this was not some abstraction,” Mr. Obama said, defending his Rose Garden statement with Sergeant Bergdahl’s parents last weekend. “This was not a political football. You had a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land who they hadn’t seen in five years and they weren’t sure they would ever see again. And as commander in chief of the United States armed forces, I am responsible for those kids.” “His doctors say his health continues to improve daily,” Colonel Warren said. “Sergeant Bergdahl is conversing with medical staff and becoming more engaged in his treatment care plan. He is resting better.”
Michael D. Shear reported from Washington and Peter Baker from Brussels. Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting from Washington. Colonel Warren told NBC News that Sergeant Bergdahl was being helped by psychologists working with him to “regain control of his emotions.”
In Brussels, Mr. Obama’s assertive defense was the second time in a four-day European trip that he had tried to quell the uproar. This time, he spoke with more passion and showed frustration about criticism over what he considered a clear choice.
Although aides have said they anticipated attacks over releasing Taliban detainees in exchange for Sergeant Bergdahl, they have been surprised by the intensity of the focus on whether he merited the effort given the circumstances of his capture.
In private moments, White House officials have scorned critics of the deal for hypocrisy, given that some of the detractors previously supported the concept of a prisoner trade and that questions about Sergeant Bergdahl’s own behavior had long been known publicly.
“This is not a political football,” Mr. Obama said. “You have a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land who they hadn’t seen in five years and weren’t sure whether they’d ever see again.”