AI
Sunday, June 01, 2014 12:14:02 PM
Hagel: Bergdahl's life was in danger
This file image provided by IntelCenter on Dec. 8, 2010, shows a frame grab from a video released by the Taliban containing footage of a man believed to be Bowe Bergdahl, left.
(Photo: AP)
Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
11:13 a.m. EDT June 1, 2014
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's health — even his survival — demanded the deal to get him back from his Taliban captors, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday.
Bergdahl's release Saturday came after dozens of U.S. special operations troops faced off with 18 armed members of the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not officially cleared for release.
President Obama made the decision to trade five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl. His national security team was unanimous in its support of the trade, Hagel told reporters traveling with him in Afghanistan.
In his first extensive public comments about Saturday's operation, Hagel said intelligence the United States had gathered suggested that Bergdahl's "safety and health were both in jeopardy, and in particular his health was deteriorating."
The urgency to make the move was made in part because Bergdahl's health had been deteriorating after five years as a Taliban prisoner, Hagel said. The decision to secure his release now was made, Hagel said, "essentially to save his life."
Secretary of State John Kerry informed Afghan President Hamid Karzai after Bergdahl was safely transferred because of concerns that leaks could scuttle the deal, Hagel said. Very few people knew about the operation until after it was completed.
Meanwhile, Bergdahl arrived at the Army's hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He has not yet spoken to his parents.
Taliban members handed Bergdahl over to special operations forces in eastern Afghanistan, and later in the day the detainees were flown from the Guantanamo detention center to Qatar.
The Pentagon did not give Congress the required 30-day notice for the release of detainees.
Hagel said the president has the authority to order such a release under Article 2 of the Constitution.
Hagel said the special operations forces conducting the operation took every precaution, using intelligence gathering, surveillance, well-positioned security assets and a lot of helicopters to ensure that things did not go wrong.
Several dozen special operations troops were involved in the operation, according to a senior defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. In addition, to helicopters, spy planes provided surveillance of the transfer.
There was potential for violence: there were 18 armed members of the Taliban at the transfer, the official said.
"No shots were fired. There was no violence," said Hagel. "It went as well as we not only expected and planned, but I think as well as it could have …The timing was right. The pieces came together."
Hagel said he was hopeful the prisoner exchange could lead to a breakthrough with the Taliban.
He said the focus of the operation was on the successful return of Bergdahl, but "maybe this could provide some possible new bridge for new negotiations."
The United States has long argued that the best way to a successful outcome in Afghanistan included reconciliation with the Taliban insurgents.
Asked if this type of swap might embolden other militants to take hostages, Hagel said that this operation was a prisoner exchange. And he said terrorist groups are already kidnapping young school girls, business people and other innocent people.
Hagel declined to say whether he believes Bergdahl was attempting to desert the Army or go absent without leave when he walked away from his unit and disappeared nearly five years ago.
"Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family," Hagel said. "Other circumstances that may develop and questions — those will be dealt with later."
He added that his own time in Vietnam and the fact that he knew people like Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was a prisoner of war, gives him a personal connection to such an exchange.
"This is a very happy day for the Bergdahl family," Hagel said. "It's a very important day for our troops and our country."
Hagel said he planned to talk to the Bergdahls soon, and will speak with the soldier at the appropriate time, so as not to interfere with his health care needs.
"I am particularly happy for the family. What they have had to endure, how they've endured it — it's been remarkable. They have not been bitter. They have adjusted, they never lost hope and faith," Hagel said.
Contributing: Associated Press
© 2014 USA Today and Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/01/bergdahl-hagel-congress/9835403/ [with embedded video, and comments]
--
Hagel Celebrates Bowe Bergdahl’s Release in Surprise Afghan Visit
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, with James Cunningham, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, arrived at Bagram Air Base on Sunday.
Credit Pool photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais
By HELENE COOPER
JUNE 1, 2014
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had departed for Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany eight hours before, but that did not stop Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel from taking a figurative victory lap around this base to celebrate the release of the lone remaining American prisoner of war in the Afghan conflict.
For Mr. Hagel, who made an unannounced stop in Afghanistan on Sunday, the release of Sergeant Bergdahl after five years in captivity marked the high point of his tenure so far as defense secretary, made doubly so by the fact that he is the first enlisted soldier to serve in the Pentagon’s top job.
Like Sergeant Bergdahl, Mr. Hagel was a sergeant as well, when he served in Vietnam. He has friends who were prisoners of war during that time, he said, including Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
“When you can bring one of your own people home, when you think of what he has endured the last five years — my own experiences in Vietnam as we had POWs taken,” Mr. Hagel told reporters aboard his flight to Afghanistan, appearing to struggle for words. “I am intensely happy and gratified.”
He said that he was particularly struck by the fact that unlike Mr. McCain and other prisoners of war who knew there were other American prisoners nearby even when they were in solitary confinement, Sergeant Bergdahl was alone, bereft of any solace that could come from knowing there were fellow soldiers close by who were in the same situation. “In this case, Bergdahl was by himself,” Mr. Hagel said. “As far as we know, there were no other Americans.”
Even as new details were emerging about the operation to swap Sergeant Bergdahl for five detainees at Guantánamo Bay — the leader of the Special Forces team that whisked Sergeant Bergdahl by helicopter from the Pakistani border region had been in constant communication with the Taliban in the minutes leading up to the swap — Defense Department officials were also weighing the overall messiness of the case of Sergeant Bergdahl, who went missing from his unit five years ago, amid reports that he walked off his base voluntarily, in violation of Army regulations.
A senior Defense Department official indicated on Sunday that the Army would probably not be punishing the sergeant for any violations of rules. “Whatever he may have done, I think he’s more than paid for it,” the official said. “Five years is a long time.”
By the time Mr. Hagel arrived at Bagram on Sunday afternoon, the sergeant had been transported to Germany, as military officials and doctors determined that the sooner they got him out of Afghanistan, the better. Mr. Hagel said he planned to talk to Sergeant Bergdahl soon, but would not interfere with the sergeant’s recovery.
Responding to criticism that President Obama had bypassed Congress in releasing the Afghans from Guantánamo in exchange for Sergeant Bergdahl, Mr. Hagel said that the sergeant’s health was in serious jeopardy. “It was our judgment that if we could find an opening, we needed to get him out of there, essentially to save his life,” Mr. Hagel said.
But there was some ambivalence among the troops waiting in a hangar at Bagram to hear from Mr. Hagel on Sunday. “Releasing five Taliban for one — I don’t know about that,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Matthew McGlynn, 23, of Williamstown, N.J. “This isn’t a conventional war that we’re fighting. I’m not sure it’s an even exchange.”
Sitting next to him, Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Kurt Tomcavage, 28, disagreed. “I’m just happy he can get back to his family,” he said. Asked about reports that Sergeant Bergdahl had walked away from his base five years ago, Petty Officer Tomcavage just shook his head.
“He’s still an American citizen,” he said.
A few minutes later, Mr. Hagel walked into the hangar to address the troops. He had just spent five minutes meeting with more than a dozen members of Special Operations units who were involved in the operation to retrieve Sergeant Bergdahl. A senior Defense official said that Mr. Hagel had thanked the forces, telling them that he was proud of what they do every day.
But his talk before the 200 or so troops in the hangar was subdued. The men and women sat quietly as Mr. Hagel spoke.
“This is a happy day,” he said. “We got one of our own back.”
*
Related Coverage
Bowe Bergdahl, American Soldier, Freed by Taliban in Prisoner Trade
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/bowe-bergdahl-american-soldier-is-freed-by-taliban.html
Lesson for P.O.W.’s Father: Men Sometimes Do Come Back
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/bowe-bergdahl-obama-frees-pow-of-taliban-five-years.html
A Soldier Is Missing. What Comes Next?
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/timeline-how-us-army-finds-missing-soldiers-bergdahl-pow-wikileaks-documents-details.html
*
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/world/asia/hagel-celebrates-bowe-bergdahl-release-in-surprise-afghan-visit.html [with embedded videos]
This file image provided by IntelCenter on Dec. 8, 2010, shows a frame grab from a video released by the Taliban containing footage of a man believed to be Bowe Bergdahl, left.
(Photo: AP)
Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
11:13 a.m. EDT June 1, 2014
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's health — even his survival — demanded the deal to get him back from his Taliban captors, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday.
Bergdahl's release Saturday came after dozens of U.S. special operations troops faced off with 18 armed members of the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not officially cleared for release.
President Obama made the decision to trade five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl. His national security team was unanimous in its support of the trade, Hagel told reporters traveling with him in Afghanistan.
In his first extensive public comments about Saturday's operation, Hagel said intelligence the United States had gathered suggested that Bergdahl's "safety and health were both in jeopardy, and in particular his health was deteriorating."
The urgency to make the move was made in part because Bergdahl's health had been deteriorating after five years as a Taliban prisoner, Hagel said. The decision to secure his release now was made, Hagel said, "essentially to save his life."
Secretary of State John Kerry informed Afghan President Hamid Karzai after Bergdahl was safely transferred because of concerns that leaks could scuttle the deal, Hagel said. Very few people knew about the operation until after it was completed.
Meanwhile, Bergdahl arrived at the Army's hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. He has not yet spoken to his parents.
Taliban members handed Bergdahl over to special operations forces in eastern Afghanistan, and later in the day the detainees were flown from the Guantanamo detention center to Qatar.
The Pentagon did not give Congress the required 30-day notice for the release of detainees.
Hagel said the president has the authority to order such a release under Article 2 of the Constitution.
Hagel said the special operations forces conducting the operation took every precaution, using intelligence gathering, surveillance, well-positioned security assets and a lot of helicopters to ensure that things did not go wrong.
Several dozen special operations troops were involved in the operation, according to a senior defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. In addition, to helicopters, spy planes provided surveillance of the transfer.
There was potential for violence: there were 18 armed members of the Taliban at the transfer, the official said.
"No shots were fired. There was no violence," said Hagel. "It went as well as we not only expected and planned, but I think as well as it could have …The timing was right. The pieces came together."
Hagel said he was hopeful the prisoner exchange could lead to a breakthrough with the Taliban.
He said the focus of the operation was on the successful return of Bergdahl, but "maybe this could provide some possible new bridge for new negotiations."
The United States has long argued that the best way to a successful outcome in Afghanistan included reconciliation with the Taliban insurgents.
Asked if this type of swap might embolden other militants to take hostages, Hagel said that this operation was a prisoner exchange. And he said terrorist groups are already kidnapping young school girls, business people and other innocent people.
Hagel declined to say whether he believes Bergdahl was attempting to desert the Army or go absent without leave when he walked away from his unit and disappeared nearly five years ago.
"Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family," Hagel said. "Other circumstances that may develop and questions — those will be dealt with later."
He added that his own time in Vietnam and the fact that he knew people like Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was a prisoner of war, gives him a personal connection to such an exchange.
"This is a very happy day for the Bergdahl family," Hagel said. "It's a very important day for our troops and our country."
Hagel said he planned to talk to the Bergdahls soon, and will speak with the soldier at the appropriate time, so as not to interfere with his health care needs.
"I am particularly happy for the family. What they have had to endure, how they've endured it — it's been remarkable. They have not been bitter. They have adjusted, they never lost hope and faith," Hagel said.
Contributing: Associated Press
© 2014 USA Today and Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/01/bergdahl-hagel-congress/9835403/ [with embedded video, and comments]
--
Hagel Celebrates Bowe Bergdahl’s Release in Surprise Afghan Visit
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, with James Cunningham, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, arrived at Bagram Air Base on Sunday.
Credit Pool photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais
By HELENE COOPER
JUNE 1, 2014
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had departed for Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany eight hours before, but that did not stop Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel from taking a figurative victory lap around this base to celebrate the release of the lone remaining American prisoner of war in the Afghan conflict.
For Mr. Hagel, who made an unannounced stop in Afghanistan on Sunday, the release of Sergeant Bergdahl after five years in captivity marked the high point of his tenure so far as defense secretary, made doubly so by the fact that he is the first enlisted soldier to serve in the Pentagon’s top job.
Like Sergeant Bergdahl, Mr. Hagel was a sergeant as well, when he served in Vietnam. He has friends who were prisoners of war during that time, he said, including Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
“When you can bring one of your own people home, when you think of what he has endured the last five years — my own experiences in Vietnam as we had POWs taken,” Mr. Hagel told reporters aboard his flight to Afghanistan, appearing to struggle for words. “I am intensely happy and gratified.”
He said that he was particularly struck by the fact that unlike Mr. McCain and other prisoners of war who knew there were other American prisoners nearby even when they were in solitary confinement, Sergeant Bergdahl was alone, bereft of any solace that could come from knowing there were fellow soldiers close by who were in the same situation. “In this case, Bergdahl was by himself,” Mr. Hagel said. “As far as we know, there were no other Americans.”
Even as new details were emerging about the operation to swap Sergeant Bergdahl for five detainees at Guantánamo Bay — the leader of the Special Forces team that whisked Sergeant Bergdahl by helicopter from the Pakistani border region had been in constant communication with the Taliban in the minutes leading up to the swap — Defense Department officials were also weighing the overall messiness of the case of Sergeant Bergdahl, who went missing from his unit five years ago, amid reports that he walked off his base voluntarily, in violation of Army regulations.
A senior Defense Department official indicated on Sunday that the Army would probably not be punishing the sergeant for any violations of rules. “Whatever he may have done, I think he’s more than paid for it,” the official said. “Five years is a long time.”
By the time Mr. Hagel arrived at Bagram on Sunday afternoon, the sergeant had been transported to Germany, as military officials and doctors determined that the sooner they got him out of Afghanistan, the better. Mr. Hagel said he planned to talk to Sergeant Bergdahl soon, but would not interfere with the sergeant’s recovery.
Responding to criticism that President Obama had bypassed Congress in releasing the Afghans from Guantánamo in exchange for Sergeant Bergdahl, Mr. Hagel said that the sergeant’s health was in serious jeopardy. “It was our judgment that if we could find an opening, we needed to get him out of there, essentially to save his life,” Mr. Hagel said.
But there was some ambivalence among the troops waiting in a hangar at Bagram to hear from Mr. Hagel on Sunday. “Releasing five Taliban for one — I don’t know about that,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Matthew McGlynn, 23, of Williamstown, N.J. “This isn’t a conventional war that we’re fighting. I’m not sure it’s an even exchange.”
Sitting next to him, Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Kurt Tomcavage, 28, disagreed. “I’m just happy he can get back to his family,” he said. Asked about reports that Sergeant Bergdahl had walked away from his base five years ago, Petty Officer Tomcavage just shook his head.
“He’s still an American citizen,” he said.
A few minutes later, Mr. Hagel walked into the hangar to address the troops. He had just spent five minutes meeting with more than a dozen members of Special Operations units who were involved in the operation to retrieve Sergeant Bergdahl. A senior Defense official said that Mr. Hagel had thanked the forces, telling them that he was proud of what they do every day.
But his talk before the 200 or so troops in the hangar was subdued. The men and women sat quietly as Mr. Hagel spoke.
“This is a happy day,” he said. “We got one of our own back.”
*
Related Coverage
Bowe Bergdahl, American Soldier, Freed by Taliban in Prisoner Trade
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/bowe-bergdahl-american-soldier-is-freed-by-taliban.html
Lesson for P.O.W.’s Father: Men Sometimes Do Come Back
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/bowe-bergdahl-obama-frees-pow-of-taliban-five-years.html
A Soldier Is Missing. What Comes Next?
MAY 31, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/timeline-how-us-army-finds-missing-soldiers-bergdahl-pow-wikileaks-documents-details.html
*
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/world/asia/hagel-celebrates-bowe-bergdahl-release-in-surprise-afghan-visit.html [with embedded videos]
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upon the Right of Election, 1790
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