U.S. President Barack Obama found himself facing potential embarrassment over his 2014 decision to swap top Taliban commanders held in Guantanamo Bay prison for Bowe Bergdahl after the Pentagon this week slapped the Army Sergeant with charges of “desertion” and “misbehaviour before the enemy.”
Although State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that Washington had a commitment to “do everything” to bring troops home, Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee noted, “Today’s announcement is the exclamation point on the bad deal the Obama administration cut to free five terrorist killers in its rush to empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay.”
However Ms. Psaki said, “I think the President’s been clear that it’s in our national security interest to close Gitmo but this was about bringing home an individual who served his country.”
Sgt. Bergdahl abandoned his post in Afghanistan in June 2009 before being taken captive by the Taliban, who held him for five years in harsh conditions.
Last June, Afghan Taliban leader had Mullah Omar said that the exchange agreed to by the Obama White House was a “big victory,” raising fears about the release of the men described as the “Taliban Dream Team.”
At the time Republicans condemned Mr. Obama’s action as a case of “negotiating with terrorists,” and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon and the ranking Republican on the Senate committee, James Inhofe, further said that in executing this transfer, Mr. Obama had “violated laws which require him to notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay.
While the White House pleaded that it had to act despite the legal requirement for the transfer due to the “unique and exigent circumstances” of the case, Mr. Obama’s position was further weakened by the fact that at least six U.S. soldiers were said to have been killed while looking for the missing man. The military’s charges carry a sentence of life in prison, although reports said that if Sgt. Bergdahl were convicted on either charge, he could also be dishonourably discharged, reduced in rank and have to forfeit all pay.
