WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration told senators
it didn’t notify Congress about the pending swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
for five Taliban officials because of intelligence the Taliban might
kill him if the deal was made public.
That fear — not just the
stated concerns that Bergdahl’s health might be failing — drove the
administration to quickly make the deal to rescue him, bypassing the law
that lawmakers be notified when detainees are released from the U.S.
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, congressional and administration
officials said Thursday.
They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Since
Bergdahl’s release on Saturday, administration officials including
President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and National
Security Adviser Susan Rice have said publicly that the key reason for
the secret prisoner swap was evidence that Bergdahl’s physical health
was deteriorating after five years in captivity. But on Wednesday night,
administration officials told senators in a closed session that the
primary concern was the death risk if the deal collapsed.
At a
news conference in Brussels on Thursday, Obama said he makes no
apologies for recovering Bergdahl, and he said the furor in Washington
over the exchange has made the matter a "political football." He
appeared to be referring to potential danger to Bergdahl’s life when he
said that "because of the nature of the folks that we were dealing with
and the fragile nature of these negotiations, we felt it was important
to go ahead and do what we did."
There was no overt threat by the
Taliban but rather an assessment based on intelligence reports that
Bergdahl’s life would be in jeopardy if news of the talks got out and
the deal failed, said two senior U.S. officials familiar with the
efforts to free the soldier.
In public comments, State Department
spokesman Marie Harf told reporters Thursday, "There were real concerns
that if this were made public first, his physical security could be in
danger." The risks, she said, included "someone guarding him that
possibly wouldn’t agree and could take harmful action against him. So as
we needed to move quickly, all of these factors played into that."
Not everyone in Congress was convinced.
"I
don’t believe any of this," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "First, we
had to do the prisoner deal because he was in imminent danger of dying.
Well, they saw the video in January and they didn’t act until June. So
that holds no water. Now the argument is the reason they couldn’t tell
us is because it jeopardized his life. I don’t buy that for a moment
because he was a very valuable asset to the Taliban."
Bergdahl
himself remained in a military hospital in Germany. His hometown of
Hailey, Idaho, called off a big celebration planned for his eventual
homecoming, citing security concerns.
Several administration and
congressional officials said that a December video shown to senators in a
briefing portrayed Bergdahl’s health as in decline but not so
desperately that he required an emergency rescue. An assessment by U.S.
intelligence agencies about the video in January came to the same
conclusion, said two congressional officials familiar with it.
Still,
the administration continued to cite the health issue. Obama said, "We
had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated and we were deeply
concerned about. And we saw an opportunity and we seized it."
Defense
Secretary Hagel was referring in part to the threat from Bergdahl’s
captors when he said Sunday that "there was a question about his
safety," administration officials told the senators in a closed-door
briefing on Wednesday.
In that meeting, both Republican and
Democratic senators complained that not even the chairman and ranking
member of the intelligence committee, who are trusted with some of the
nation’s most sensitive secrets, were notified of the agreement, said
three congressional officials who were in the briefing. They spoke only
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss
the matter publicly.
In public, Sen. Angus King, an independent
from Maine, told The Associated Press in an email, "We were briefed that
if these discussions had leaked out, there was a reasonable chance Bowe
Bergdahl may have been killed. And that was one of the pieces of
information that gave some credence as to why it had to be kept quiet."
Taliban
fighters freed Bergdahl Saturday and turned him over to a U.S. special
operations team in eastern Afghanistan. Under the deal, five Taliban
militants were released from Guantanamo and flown to Qatar, where they
are to remain for a year under conditions that have not been spelled out
in public.
A federal law requires Congress to be told 30 days
before a prisoner is released from Guantanamo, but Obama administration
officials said it did not apply in what they deemed an emergency
situation.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition
of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to discuss the
matter publicly, said that "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."
Sen. Saxby Chambliss,
R-Ga., said after the briefing Wednesday night that Bergdahl appeared
drugged but not at imminent risk of death.
A spokesman for James
Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement
Wednesday that three factors led Clapper to support swapping Bergdahl
for the five Taliban men.
"The first was evidence that Sergeant
Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating and that he may be in need of
medical attention," spokesman Shawn Turner said. "Second was the fact
that, as we draw down our forces in Afghanistan, we will have fewer
resources available to dedicate to his recovery. Lastly, that the DNI
was satisfied with the assurances from the Qatari government that these
five individuals will be closely monitored and subject to travel
restrictions."
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Associated Press writers Robert Burns,
Lara Jakes, Bradley Klapper, Nedra Pickler and Donna Cassata in
Washington and Lolita C. Baldor in Paris contributed to this report.