Washington: The Pentagon concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military curbed any high-risk rescue plans. But the US kept pursuing avenues to negotiate his release, recently seeking to fracture the Taliban network by making its leaders fear a faster deal with underlings could prevent the freedom they sought for five of their top officials, American officials said.
The US government kept tabs on Bergdahl’s whereabouts with spies, drones and satellites, even as it pursued off-and-on negotiations to get him back over the five years of captivity that ended on Saturday.
Bergdahl was in stable condition at a US military hospital in Germany, but questions mounted at home over the way his freedom was secured: Five high-level members of the Taliban were released from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sent to Qatar. The five, who will have to stay in Qatar for a year before going back to Afghanistan, include former ministers in the Taliban government, commanders and one man who had direct ties to the late Al Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden.
A US defence official familiar with efforts to free Bergdahl said the US government had been working in recent months to split the Taliban network. Different US agencies had floated several offers to the militants, and the Taliban leadership feared that underlings might cut a quick deal while they were working to free the five detainees at Guantanamo, said the official and a congressional aide, both of whom spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about efforts to release Bergdahl.
There was plenty of criticism about how the deal came about.
“Knowing that various lines of effort were presented and still under consideration, none of which involved a disproportionate prisoner exchange, I am concerned by the sudden urgency behind the prisoner swap, given other lines of effort,” said Congressman Duncan Hunter, who has criticissed the government effort to seek Bergdahl’s release as disorganised.
One current and one former US official said Obama had signed off on a possible prisoner swap. The president spoke to the Qatari emir last Tuesday, and they gave each other assurances about the proposed transfers, said a senior administration official.
One official briefed on the intelligence said the Taliban also may have been worried about Bergdahl’s health, having been warned that the US would react fiercely if he died in captivity. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, which is caring for Bergdahl, said he was suffering from nutritional issues.
Bergdahl’s handoff to US special forces in eastern Afghanistan was never going to lead to an uncomplicated yellow-ribbon celebration. The exchange stirred debate over a possibly heightened risk other Americans being snatched as bargaining chips and whether the released detainees would find their way back to the battlefield.
Republicans in Congress criticised the agreement and complained about not having been consulted, citing a law that requires Congress to be given 30 days notice before a prisoner is released from Guantanamo.
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said the Pentagon notified the panel by phone on Saturday that the exchange was occurring in the next five hours.
“A phone call does not meet the legal standard of congressional notification,” the Republican members said in a statement and added that official notice of the move came Monday, “more than 72 hours after the detainees were released.”
Republicans also argued that the swap could set a dangerous precedent.
“The five terrorists released were the hardest of the hard-core,” said Sen Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “I fear President Obama’s decision will inevitably lead to more Americans being kidnapped and held hostage throughout the world.”
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough pushed back.
“All Americans should know that we did what was necessary to get Bowe back,” he said in a speech to a think tank. “We did not have 30 days to wait to get this done. And when you’re commander in chief, you have to act when there is an opportunity for action.”
US officials said they had to act quickly because Bergdahl’s health and safety appeared in jeopardy, but declined to explain how.
Nabi Jan Mhullhakhil, the provincial police chief of Paktika province in Afghanistan, where Bergdahl was stationed with his unit, said elders in the area told him that Bergdahl “came out from the US base ... without a gun and was outside the base when he was arrested by the Taliban.”
But the Pentagon maintained the circumstances of his capture were irrelevant.
“He is an American soldier,” Rear Adm John Kirby said. “It doesn’t matter how he was taken captive. It doesn’t matter under what circumstances he left. ... We have an obligation to recover all of those who are missing in action.”
The prisoner swap idea had evolved since early 2011, according to a former senior administration official familiar with the details. The official said an exchange was one of three confidence-building measures designed to facilitate direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
