Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is telling Congress that Qatar officials negotiating the release of captured Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told the U.S. that “time was not on our side” and a leak about the exchange would end the deal.
Hagel says the decision to transfer five Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees into Qatar´s hands in exchange for Bergdahl was a tough call for President Barack Obama.
He says the five were “enemy belligerents” but had not been implicated in any attacks against the U.S.
