Says US will monitor activities of freed detainees
Brushing aside the shrill Republican criticism, President Barack Obama has stoutly defended his administration’s controversial swap deal, setting free five Taliban detainees to secure the release of captured American soldier Bowe Bergdahl.
“Regardless of circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that,” Obama said on Tuesday, adding that’s what every mom and dad who sees a son or daughter sent over to the war theatre should expect.
Obama, answering questions in Warsaw at the start of a three-nation European visit, asserted that the United States would still be monitoring the activities of the freed Taliban detainees and it could still go after them if they posed a threat. The release of the men was “conditioned on the Qataris keeping eyes on them and creating a structure in which we can monitor their activities”, he said, adding: “We will be keeping eyes on them….we have confidence that we will be in a position to go after them if, in fact, they are engaging in activities that threaten our defenses.”
While Obama spoke of a “sacred” obligation not to leave any American soldier behind, NBC News reported that the US military was planning an inquiry into whether Bergdahl actually deserted as has been stated by several fellow soldiers.
Asked if Bergdahl could face punishment for leaving the unit on his own, Obama said: “That’s not something that we’re discussing at this point because our main priority is making sure that the transition that he’s undergoing after five years of captivity is successful.”
“With respect to the circumstances of Sergeant Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, we obviously have not been interrogating Sergeant Bergdahl. He is recovering from five years of captivity with the Taliban. He’s having to undergo a whole battery of tests, and he is going to have to undergo a significant transition back into life,” Obama said.
Responding to charges that he has violated the law by not notifying Congress 30 days in advance of the planned release of the detainees, Obama asserted that consultations did take place with Congress, but the process had to be truncated because of the circumstances.
“We have consulted with Congress for quite some time about the possibility that we might need to execute a prisoner exchange in order to recover Sergeant Bergdahl,” he said.