Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the five Taliban prisoners who were released in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “are not a threat to the United States,” despite recent statements from President Obama that suggest otherwise.
NBC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden prompted Mrs. Clinton: “I think an awful lot of people think that we’re less safe today than we were a week ago because these five guys are out.”
“These five guys are not a threat to the United States,” Mrs. Clinton responded. “They are a threat to the safety and security of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s up to those two countries to make the decision once and for all that these are threats to them. So I think we may be kind of missing the bigger picture here. We want to get an American home, whether they fell off the ship because they were drunk or they were pushed or they jumped, we try to rescue everybody.”
President Obama said during a press conference in Warsaw last week that the freed prisoners could very well rejoin the fight against America.
“Is there a possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely,” he said. “That’s been true of all the prisoners that were released from Guantanamo. There’s a certain recidivism rate that takes place.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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