Washington - President Barack Obama set a dangerous precedent by swopping five Taliban prisoners for a captured US soldier in Afghanistan and may have broken the law, members of Congress said Monday as they pressed for public hearings on the issue.
Fuelling criticism of the decision to swop Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, 28, for five Taliban detainees being held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba were accusations by some soldiers that the Idaho native was a deserter who cost the lives of several comrades.
The state department said it considered Bergdahl “a member of the military who was detained while in combat”.
The Pentagon said it was unable to confirm media reports that troops had been killed in operations trying to locate Bergdahl after his June 2009 disappearance.
There had been “looks” into his disappearance, “but we’ve never publicly said anything, primarily because we haven’t had a chance to speak with Sergeant Bergdahl himself”, said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
The White House pushed back against Republican criticism that the administration may have broken the law by releasing the five Taliban leaders without giving Congress 30 days notice. Officials said lawmakers had been briefed for years on efforts to free Bergdahl, including a potential prisoner swop.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said the deal to secure Bergdahl’s release “should not have been a surprise” to lawmakers.
“We did not have 30 days to wait to get this done,” McDonough said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “And when you’re commander-in-chief, you have to act when there’s an opportunity for action.”
Republican Congressman Mike Rogers dismissed the White House’s portrayal of events leading to Bergdahl’s release as urgent and sensitive. In comments on CNN he called it “nonsense”.
Republican lawmakers on the Armed Services panels in both the Senate and House called for public hearings into the prisoner exchange.
Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had made the decision, not the president.
Reuters