Secretary of State John Kerry defended yesterday the prisoner swap that freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl who was said to have been sometimes kept in a metal cage and in total darkness while in captivity.
Kerry doubled down on President Barack Obama’s controversial decision to release five Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay a week ago in exchange for the freedom of Bergdahl, who the top US diplomat said was at risk of being tortured by his captors.
“It would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind, no matter what, to leave an American behind in the hands of people who would torture him, cut off his head, do any number of things,” Kerry told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
Kerry made the remarks — his first on the controversial prisoner exchange — amid a news report about the grim conditions in which Bergdahl was held while a hostage in Afghanistan.
