House Intel Chair: Bergdahl Swap Empowered the Taliban

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), told ABC’s “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos that the prisoner swap for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “was a serious geopolitical mistake” that “empowered the Taliban” which gave them much desired recognition from the government. He also reported that when Bergdahl’s release was being negotiated back in 2011, the militants holding him refused conditions for an exchange such as “renouncing violence,” and “making sure that women are treated fairly in Afghanistan.”

Earlier, Rogers predicted that the former inmates will spend their required one year stay in Qatar “prepar[ing] for what’s next, and that’s to join the fight against whatever Americans are left in Afghanistan, and stated that the prisoner swap created a “huge regional and geopolitical problem” for the United States.