- Chicago Tribune
- 9 Jun 2014
JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/GETTY-AFP PHOTO Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that “no one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans.” He said the Taliban detainees exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be closely monitored in Qatar, where they were taken.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry, in his first remarks on the controversial prisoner swap involving Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, warned Sunday that the five released Taliban officials risk being killed by the United States if they re-enter the fight.
Kerry spoke as reports emerged that Bergdahl, held for nearly five years and released May 31, had been locked in a metal cage for long periods as punishment for trying to escape his captors.
Bergdahl’s release in exchange for five Guantanamo Bay detainees dominated the Sunday talk shows amid reports the FBI is investigating death threats against Bergdahl’s family.
Kerry, talking about the prospect of the former Guantanamo Bay prisoners returning to the battlefield, said: “I’m not telling you that they don’t have some ability at some point to go back and get involved, but they also have an ability to get killed doing that.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kerry said Qatar, where the Taliban officials will live for one year, would be monitoring the men. Asked whether he meant the U.S. would kill them, he replied, “No one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans.”
Sen. John McCain, RAriz., who was held captive in North Vietnam for more than five years, took issue with Kerry in a separate interview on the same program, saying 30 percent of the detainees released from Guantanamo Bay had resumed fighting, and “we certainly haven’t been able to kill all of them.”
“So what we’re doing here is … reconstituting the Taliban government, the same guys that are mass murderers,” he said.
McCain said he had in the past signed off on the outlines of a prisoner swap to retrieve Bergdahl, but not specifically the “top five picked by the Taliban.”
Asked whether reports that Bergdahl deserted his Army unit made him less worthy of rescue, McCain said no. But he added that the obligation to bring back captured military personnel had to be weighed against whether the effort “would put the lives of other American men and women who are serving in danger.”
“And in my view, this clearly would,” he said.
Top Senate Intelligence Committee officials, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said they had not been briefed by the Obama administration on Bergdahl being tortured or kept in a cage, allegations first reported Saturday on The New York Times website. Feinstein chairs the committee; its top Republican lawmaker, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., echoed her.
Both said they had heard “rumors” that Bergdahl had tried to flee, and both had concerns about the prisoner swap and the administration’s lack of openness with congressional leaders. They spoke on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
“What’s unfortunate is that I see no sign of the Taliban relenting,” Feinstein said. “And so some of us worry very much when we pull out (of Afghanistan), the Taliban finds its way back into power. And that would be tragic.”
Chambliss said Bergdahl — who is being treated in a military hospital in Germany — was released on a Saturday, and he and Feinstein were called by the administration the following Monday night.
“So this administration’s acted very strangely about this … and it’s kind of puzzling as to why they did not let us know in advance that this was going to happen.”
Journalist David Rohde, who was abducted by the same Taliban faction more than five years ago, said news reports about Bergdahl enduring harsh treatment sounded “very credible.”
Rohde, also speaking on “Face the Nation,” escaped after being held hostage for eight months.
He said Bergdahl needs to explain why he left his Army outpost but cautioned that many rumors surrounded his own kidnapping near Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008. Rohde, a Reuters reporter who was working for The New York Times at the time, said he still regrets going to an interview with a Taliban official that led to his abduction.
Speaking of Bergdahl, Rohde said: “He will regret this for the rest of his life, I guarantee you.”
Rohde said he had spoken recently to Bergdahl’s parents, who are getting death threats and are “heartbroken” about what’s been happening.
If any U.S. troops died in the search for Bergdahl, “that would break their hearts as well.”
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