Obama administration officials were put on the defensive Friday over reports that one of the five Taliban leaders swapped last year for captured Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had tried to return to the fight.
Controversy over the release of the five men to Qatar in May 2014 from the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had not died down when CNN reported Thursday that U.S. officials suspected one of them was resuming his old activities — which the administration said would not happen. The men were supposed to stay in Qatar for a year after their release, and are believed to still be there.
Officials downplayed the significance of the reports.
“We had reason to believe that there was some activities by at least one, centered around potential re-engagement, and we communicated with the government of Qatar over these activities and proper steps are being put in place to further limit it,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday.
“We remain confident — as we were when we sent them there — that the assurances we received are sufficient enough to help us mitigate any future threat that these individuals might pose.”
Added White House spokesman Josh Earnest: “None of these individuals have returned to the battlefield.”
But Republicans in Congress who opposed the swap in the first place were quick to note that their worst fears had been realized.
“This report is troubling, but wholly predictable,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said. “After the Obama administration released five top Taliban leaders, we were assured that these terrorists would be sidelined for at least a year. This lousy deal seems to have fallen apart.”
The Government Accountability Office has ruled the administration broke the law by carrying out the swap without notifying Congress at least 30 days in advance and by using appropriated public funds for a different purpose.
But administration officials have defended their actions, saying it was urgent to get Bergdahl out of Taliban hands after five years of captivity.
The debate has been colored as well by reports that Bergdahl came into Taliban hands after walking away from his post in Afghanistan. Army officials are considering whether to charge him with desertion.
