XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: jtw@msnbc.com   
      
   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For President Barack Obama, it seemed   
   like the right thing to do, according to officials in his   
   administration: Release five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay   
   prison in return for Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American   
   prisoner of war in Afghanistan.   
      
   As a political firestorm engulfs the White House over that deal,   
   Reuters interviews with current and former Obama administration   
   officials involved in the negotiations, along with U.S.   
   lawmakers, reveal how a close-knit circle in the Obama   
   administration pursued the plan despite intense discord in the   
   past over similar proposals.   
      
   The White House was ultimately persuaded to go ahead, in part,   
   after Qatar agreed to take the Taliban detainees and said it   
   would allow the United States to track the five men in the Gulf   
   emirate. Under that arrangement, the United States installed   
   extensive surveillance equipment to monitor their movements and   
   communications, the officials said.   
      
   The deal, however, has caused an uproar among Republicans in   
   Congress, who have questioned both the secrecy of the prisoner   
   swap and the wisdom of freeing five Taliban prisoners. Some of   
   Bergdahl's former comrades have also accused him of deserting   
   his post before his capture by the Taliban in June 2009. The   
   Pentagon has declined to comment on those allegations.   
      
   While they were prepared for some political blowback, Obama   
   administration officials said they felt the outcry would have   
   been fiercer if in six months' time, as the United States wraps   
   up its mission in Afghanistan, it emerged that Obama had missed   
   an opportunity to secure Bergdahl's freedom.   
      
   The officials said Obama himself decided to make the swap and   
   chose to broadcast the news on national television with   
   Bergdahl's parents at the White House. He wanted to send a clear   
   signal to Americans that this was his decision and that he would   
   uphold the maxim that the United States will always bring home   
   all its troops from the battlefield, the officials said.   
      
   "The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that   
   is we don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind," Obama   
   told reporters in Warsaw on Tuesday.   
      
   Obama was aware that Bergdahl had been accused of desertion in   
   Afghanistan. But the vitriolic nature of the criticism has   
   surprised some in the Obama administration, the officials said.   
      
   The idea of swapping Bergdahl for Taliban detainees wasn't new.   
   It was first raised nearly four years ago and quickly ran into   
   opposition in the administration and Congress.   
      
   "There were real big, serious issues here about whether we   
   should exchange people, whether it would do any good” in terms   
   of the broader Afghan peace effort, said David Sedney, a deputy   
   assistant secretary of defence responsible for Afghanistan, who   
   left government in May 2013.   
      
   Sedney said he was sceptical of the deal while in government.   
      
   Officials involved in the diplomacy told Reuters that then-   
   Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and his predecessor, Robert   
   Gates, along with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,   
   initially raised strong objections to exchanging Bergdahl for   
   the five Taliban detainees.   
      
   At first, Clinton was deeply sceptical of talks with the   
   Taliban, but then supported a prisoner swap as a "confidence-   
   building measure" that would help start peace talks between the   
   Afghan government and the Taliban, the officials said. Those   
   broader talks never fully got under way, and Saturday’s prisoner   
   exchange was all that survived of that effort.   
      
   In public remarks this week, Clinton did not criticise Obama's   
   decision.   
      
   http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0EG05920140605   
      
       
      
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