Officials Predicted Detainees in Bowe #Bergdahl Swap Would Rejoin Taliban

As Krauthammer noted earlier, it's lie after lie with this administration.

And now at WSJ, "Classified Assessment Says Two of the Men Would Return to Senior Positions":

WASHINGTON—Before the U.S. transferred five Afghan Taliban detainees to secure the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, American intelligence officials predicted that two of the men would return to senior positions with the militant group, according to U.S. officials.

The classified assessment, a consensus of spy agencies compiled during the prisoner-swap deliberations, said two others of the five were likely to assume active roles within the Taliban, while only one of the five released detainees was considered likely to end active participation in the group's effort to undermine the elected government of Afghanistan.

The existence of the assessment adds to the debate over the release of the five Taliban officials. It gives lawmakers who oppose the transfer ammunition that the move was ill-advised. Obama administration officials said there were larger strategic and political goals in play, most crucially clinching the freedom of the sole American prisoner of war, who was believed to be in danger.

Some administration officials also saw in the swap a chance to establish a precedent for reconciliation talks with the Taliban as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan winds down, and some argue the same five Taliban could have been released someday even without a prisoner-exchange agreement.

Some officials also thought the transfer could speed up the stalled effort to eventually close the Guantanamo prison, although angry lawmakers now are proposing even steeper restrictions on the administration's transfer authority.

The Pentagon and other government officials defended the decision to go forward with the exchange despite the intelligence community assessment, citing an agreement with the emirate of Qatar, which took in the detainees, that will allow the U.S. to monitor and track them.

Qatar also agreed to provide a "re-education program" designed to draw the detainees away from militancy, which some officials hope will help in the next year to ease some of the risk that the detainees will return to the battlefield.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the assurances the U.S. has received will substantially mitigate the threat posed by the release of the detainees. Adm. Kirby said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel wouldn't have signed off on the deal if it weren't in the best interest of the U.S.  "They re-enter the fight at their own peril," Adm. Kirby said...

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