Senator Mike Lee, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), attended a meeting of SASC members this morning to receive a classified briefing from senior Pentagon officials on the prisoner exchange of five high-level Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.  
 
The transfer of these detainees from Guantanamo Bay violated federal law requiring the Department of Defense to notify Congress 30 days prior to the transfer of any detainees from that facility.  Following the briefing, Senator Lee remained concerned that the administration did not fully recognize the security implications of transferring these detainees and allowing them to eventually return to Afghanistan.
 
Said Senator Lee, "These five detainees were important leaders of the former Taliban government and had previously been deemed too dangerous to transfer, as recently as 2010.  We still have serious questions about why suddenly they were no longer dangerous, and whether their return to Afghanistan could result in undermining over a decade of American work in that country that cost the lives of thousands of our service members."
 
Senator Lee will continue to push for answers to these questions and ensure that these decisions are being made more responsibly and with greater oversight.