Sen. Angus King said Thursday the Obama administration did not offer senators at a closed-door briefing Wednesday assurances or a guarantee that the five former Taliban commanders involved in a prisoner swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will not return to the fight or pose a threat to the United States or its allies.
“No, absolutely not,” Mr. King, Maine independent, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “There was no such guarantee. In fact, the intelligence people explicitly said that was a risk, and I think it is a risk.”
Mr. King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the swapping of five former Taliban commanders from Guantanamo for Sgt. Beghdahl’s freedom is a situation where a year from now, President Obama will look like a genius or people will say the five former detainees got back into the fight, but that there’s no way to make that call right now.
“Clearly, it’s a high-risk deal,” he said. “Would I have made the deal? I don’t know. I can’t answer that because I don’t know all the facts, and I don’t know what the other options are to get this [man].”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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