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U.S. Army Sergeant Released by Taliban; Five Detainees to be Released from Guantanamo Bay; Qatar Government Played Role in Talks

Aired May 31, 2014 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Dana Bash in for Fredricka Whitfield. Breaking news, an American soldier who has been held in Afghanistan for nearly five years is being released. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is coming home. Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr is joining us on the phone, has been giving us the breaking details. You have more information, Barbara. What can you tell us?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We do, Dana. We now have some very dramatic details of the very moments about how this happened. We are now being told it was about 10:30 this morning, east coast time, when U.S. Special Forces recovered Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from his captors. The handover was peaceful. It happened in Eastern Afghanistan along the border. U.S. Special Forces conducted the rescue, but here's what I want to tell you, and this is just bone chilling.

We are told that once Bowe Bergdahl was on the helicopter, it was so noisy, he wrote on a paper plate, he couldn't talk because it was so noisy. He wrote on a paper plate the initials SF with a question mark. SF, meaning of course, Special Forces, the operators, the soldiers, sitting with Bergdahl on the helicopter right to freedom loudly responded saying, yes, we've been looking for you for a long time.

We are told this is what happened. We are told at that point when other Special Forces troops said we have been looking for you for a long time that Bergdahl broke down crying.

Those words coming to us from a U.S. senior official who has received the initial briefing on moments of the release. This official also reiterating that the five detainees who will be released from Guantanamo to the Qataris, that the U.S. has assurances from the Qataris, they will secure the detainees. They will be under a travel ban for a year.

Again, this transfer, the ride to freedom for Bowe Bergdahl happened peacefully we are told. There were approximately 18 Taliban on the site. The U.S. still believes, this is quite interesting, that Bergdahl was held most of the time across the border in Pakistan. Nobody is really sure yet, we're told, when he was moved to Afghanistan, how he was moved, and was that the first sign that he was about to be released.

We are told that most of all of this really is due to the efforts of the Qatari government. That serious talks for the transfer of those Gitmo detainees back to the Qataris happened a couple weeks ago really started happening -- started happening then that this all got moving. Pardon me, we're getting a lot of information as I'm talking to you, Dana.

We are also finding out that Bowe Bergdahl's parents still were in Washington, they had happened to come in for the Memorial Day holiday weekend but they were still here. We believe President Obama informed them while they were still here.

At this hour, where is Bowe Bergdahl, he is still at an undisclosed operating base at a forward location in Afghanistan. He is going to remain there we are told until the doctors feel he can travel a little bit further. He will move on to Bagram, major U.S. air base in Afghanistan, and then we will find out where he will go next, where he will be reunited with his parents. But it looks like everything we're hearing that this whole effort really started getting some traction in the last week.

We don't know how much President Obama talked about it during this trip there to Afghanistan, but this really got rolling the last several days.

DANA BASH CNN ANCHOR: Barbara, wow. That's all I have to say. And I really want to go back and repeat for our viewers the dramatic story that you just told us. I mean, I have to tell you, it sounds like an episode of "Homeland." It's hard to believe that this is something that actually happened.

If you don't mind, go back and tell the story of what your sources explained to you happened between Bowe Bergdahl and the Special Forces who rescued him.

STARR: You know what, Dana, as you can expect, it would be -- you know, I think everyone in this modern world of 13 years of war understands when there is some, you know, potentially extremely dangerous mission to conduct, it is done by U.S. commandos, it is done by U.S. Special Forces, flying in on helicopters.

So by all accounts these special forces got where they knew where to go, where to go in eastern Afghanistan which is a very dangerous area to go pick up Bowe Bergdahl. There were 18 Taliban waiting for them on the ground with Bowe Bergdahl. They got him, the transfer happened peacefully by all accounts, and they could put him, of course, on the helicopter to get him back into U.S. hands as fast as they could.

These helicopters are so noisy, we've all been on them in war zones, you can't talk. You use hand gestures. Eye signals. That's the kind of thing to communicate. Bergdahl -- he couldn't talk to these guys. He knew they were Americans obviously, but being an army soldier, he wrote on a piece of paper, a paper plate, because it was too loud to talk. He wrote the initials SF with a question mark, meaning Special Forces.

After five years in captivity, he's still very much understood by all accounts. It was going to be Special Forces that were the men picking him up out of captivity. We are told that the commandos sitting with him on the helicopter responded very loudly saying yes, we've been looking for you for a long time. And at that point we were told Bowe Bergdahl broke down crying.

Understandable but I do think it's quite extraordinary that even in this moment, he thought as a soldier obviously, he wanted to know who these guys were, and he clearly understood that it was U.S. Special Forces coming to take him on that ride to freedom.

BASH: Absolutely. How absolutely, as you said, bone chilling that story. And do you have a sense, again, just to update our viewers of what next for him, where he goes now?

STARR: Right. Well, there are still -- even with the drawdown of U.S. forces, there are a number of forward operating bases in eastern Afghanistan. They all have actually -- we have been to them, they have very good medical facilities so they can treat injured and wounded troops. We are told he is at this hour back at one of those, getting obviously a thorough medical check. The doctors don't want to have him go anywhere until they know he's OK.

At that point he will then be transferred to Bagram Air Base, which is where President Obama was just a few days ago. They have a complete medical hospital there. The expectation is that as soon as he is able to travel further and that will be some plane ride to be on, he will be taken to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Now that also a very competent military medical hospital, but they have an additional expertise in helping people reintegrate into society, people who have been taken hostage for either political or military reasons.

We've seen it many times over the years, if my memory serves, I believe the U.S. hostages out of Iran so many years ago made their first stop at Landstuhl there. Troops that had been taken hostage in the Gulf War made their first stop at Landstuhl. They have the teams and they can fly in teams very quickly who have that kind of expertise in helping people past this trauma.

What we don't know just yet -- what we don't know just yet is where he will reunite with his parents, whether his parents will be able to quickly get on a plane. I think it's not likely they'll go to Afghanistan, given the security situation there. It was -- it's much more likely that they will meet him at Landstuhl.

BASH: Barbara, excellent reporting. Stand by, if you will. I want to bring in our CNN analyst, Major General James "Spider" Marks who's joining us on the phone.

Spider Marks, your general reaction to this.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (via phone): Dana, isn't it wonderful, and Barbara's reporting as always is just magnificent. But it's such a magnificent story from top to bottom. It speaks about the United States' focus on never leaving a fallen comrade behind, the persistence of this incredible soldier who hung with it for five years, the tremendous training and execution of the SF soldiers to do this transaction in a peaceful, non-hostile way. I mean, that's like brain surgery on a bouncing ship. I mean, you know, this is counterintuitive and they do it magnificently. So it's such a -- it's such a wonderful story across the board. And I tell you, there will be cynics out there that say, you know, we don't negotiate with terrorists and I don't get this transfer of folks. Look, this is nothing but a wonderful news story, and as an intelligence guy, I have to tell you, these Taliban that are going to end up under certain conditions rather restrictive in Qatar, we will have a great opportunity to watch them very closely over the course of this next year to ensure that their reintegration is as perfect conditions that are laid down.

So across the board, this is a magnificent, wonderful story, and just speaks to the resilience and focus and professionalism of our military.

BASH: It certainly is.

(CROSSTALK)

MARKS: And thank goodness our administration hung tough with this.

BASH: It certainly is. Isn't it nice to report good stories in war zones for a change. And I want to just circle back to what you said, first of all, about the idea of, you know, cynics may say you don't negotiate with terrorists. Peter Bergen, our national security analyst, made a point earlier which is a good on that Israel which deals with terrorism every day on its own soil does prisoner swaps a lot. So it's certainly not unheard of for democracies to do such a thing.

But I also want to ask you about that incredible choreography that clearly went on here based on Barbara's reporting that --

MARKS: Right.

BASH: That there were five prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay, given to the Qataris who apparently, according to Barbara's reporting, they're promised that they won't be released for at least a year.

What do you make of that? Especially as you said, as an intelligence guy, peel back the curtain. How does this kind of thing happen behind the scenes?

MARKS: Yes -- no, it reads very much like a novel. Clearly the five were identified, the Taliban identified, this was not random, this was, you know, pick five guys off the shelf and we will return these folks. These are identified by the Taliban. We understood the level of their involvement and activities. There was a reason they were at Gitmo. These are -- these are not squeaky clean guys.

So the Taliban came forward. We agreed there was intelligence that we had already derived from these guys and we realized that we could release those folks from Gitmo without enhanced risk, based on the conditions that you and Barbara just described so adequately, and Peter addressed earlier. They will end up in Qatar and they will be watched. They will be followed, they will be watched, they'll be surveiled. We'll have an opportunity to ensure. We can trust but we will verify that everything that has been agreed to will in fact be followed.

BASH: General Marks, I just want you to hold on while we read a statement that we just got in from the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. And it reads in part, "Sergeant Bergdahl is now under the care of the U.S. military after being handed over by his captors in Afghanistan. We will give him all the support he needs to help him recover from this ordeal, and we are grateful that he will soon be reunited with his family."

And he goes on to talk about the fact that he informed Congress about the decision, and again, as we were just talking about, that the U.S. coordinated closely with Qatar to ensure that security measures are in place and that just like the president thanked the Emir of Qatar for helping do the swap.

General Marks, just again, let's just look at this from a human perspective. To be in the military, to know the incredible risks, whatever the story is, however this captivity happened, the capture happened, the idea that the U.S. went to any lengths such as we're learning about now to get a POW back after nearly five years, it just gives you the chills.

MARKS: It really does. If that doesn't take your breath away, I don't know what does. This is truly a tribute to the professionalism of our military across the board. And again, let's put a personal face on this thing. Here is a young noncommissioned officer who stayed tough and resilient for five years. You've got to be kidding me. For five years this young man was able to maintain his focus and his persistence on trying to do the right thing, and he did.

And at the end of the day, you've got a grateful nation embracing him. And clearly there'll be some tough times ahead. He's going to have to get himself medically and, you know, physically checked out, and make sure he's A-OK for return to active duty, but he is in the arms of his brothers now, and he'll be in the arms of his family here, closely and very shortly, and it will be great.

BASH: And then again, as an intelligence guy as you called yourself, what about debriefing him? I mean, you know, obviously he has been in the presence of these Taliban members for years. You know, clearly there are things that perhaps the U.S. could learn.

MARKS: Oh, a lot. You've got it, Dana. He will be put through a very, very aggressive -- it will be at his pace. He will be able to determine how much he can -- how much he can take and when he can take it, but they're going to want -- our intelligence folks are going to want to debrief this young man in great detail. And it will be very linear. It'll be very progressive. It won't be all over the map as we say.

We will be able to take it from start to finish and allow him to tell his story. And we can start filling in some gaps in terms of Taliban operating procedures, where -- you know, what his movements looked like. He will be able to describe in detail not only his captors but his circumstances, and this will come back to him over the course of time in greater and greater detail. It will be very valuable information that we'll be able to use clearly.

BASH: General Marks, thank you so much for your insight. Barbara Starr as well.

We're going to take a short break. And when we come back, just imagine being the parents of a man who has been held captive for nearly five years. What do they have to say. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BASH: Welcome back. And we are following breaking news, a good news story. And that is a now former POW, released after nearly five years after taken hostage by the Taliban.

And our Barbara Starr has been doing some excellent reporting on this, keeping us up to speed.

And, Barbara, you have even more information from his parents.

STARR: Indeed, Dana. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's parents Bob and Jani Bergdahl had just released this statement. Let me read part of it to everyone.

They say, quote, "We were so joyful and relieved when President Obama called us today to give us this news that Bowe is finally coming home. We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son."

They go on to thank everyone. They say they are ecstatic to say the least. One can only imagine they have been trying everything they can to keep this situation in the public eye while being very careful not to say anything of course, it's very delicate, they don't want -- never wanted to say anything that could lead him to be held even longer.

We are getting some additional indications, you know, we talked about the fact where is Bowe Bergdahl at this hour. He is in a medical station at a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, he will then go to Bagram, which is the major U.S. base there, onto Landstuhl hospital in Germany which has expertise in helping people who have been held hostage reintegrate into society.

A U.S. Defense official is now telling me his next stop back in the United States is expected at this point to be Brook Army Medical Center in Texas. This could all begin to happen very quickly. His parents want him home obviously, they want him to get all of the medical care, so the military will be very cautious making sure he is physically and emotionally able to travel, but everyone will tell you in the military when someone is wounded or in trouble, often the best medicine in the world is to get them back to their family, get them back home. And I think it's pretty certain that that's what the military is going to want to do as fast as they can. But his parents, absolutely ecstatic they say at getting this news today -- Dana.

BASH: Absolutely. And they -- you mentioned the fact that as any parent would, his parents have been very aggressive about keeping his captivity in the news, keeping it out there, pressing for -- to find some way to get him released. And you were mentioning before, he was -- they were even in Washington.

STARR: They were in Washington for the Memorial Day weekend. I will tell you over time they had come very quietly to the Pentagon several times to get briefings, behind-the-scenes briefings, on what was happening, what the situation was, because I can tell you, I recall one day several months ago walking down the hallway of the Pentagon outside the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and literally coming face to face with Mr. Bergdahl.

There had been no notice, no announcement that he was in town. No discussion about it. No acknowledgment by the Pentagon. But there he was just outside the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He had come for one of these regular briefings that the military was continuing to give the family behind the scenes.

And in Afghanistan, not forgotten either on a trip to Afghanistan a few years ago, I was in one of the detention facilities in Afghanistan and in one of the interrogation cells, his photo, Bowe Bergdahl's photo was taped to the wall. And I asked why do you have it taped to the wall? And the U.S. interrogators told me still to that day no matter where they picked up a prisoner in Afghanistan, everybody was showing Bowe Bergdahl's picture and asked have you seen this man, do you know where he is.

So it was -- it was that tradeoff between very aggressively trying to do what they could, not to do anything to cause further difficulties for Bowe Bergdahl, but to sort of keep it -- keep the effort really going behind the scenes, and most of the time none of it was discussed publicly, but we do know that it seemed to all really come together in the last several days, in the last week or so, and all of the transfer and the discussions about how to make it all happen really accelerated, and we expect a lot more details in the coming hours.

BASH: Well, Barbara, thank you very much. And I want you to stand by because with all of this breaking news, we want to just pause and remind our viewers of the story, what exactly happened with Bowe Bergdahl because this does culminate a saga that began in June of 2009, and our Jake Tapper has an explanation of what happened and what his loved ones were enduring after his abduction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOWE BERGDAHL, CAPTURED SOLDIER: Get me. Release me, please. I'm begging you. Bring me home, please? Bring me home.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That is Bowe Bergdahl, the only member of the U.S. military in enemy captivity. Bergdahl had just turned 27, but four years of his short life have been spent in captivity held by a group loosely affiliated with the Afghan Taliban.

The Idaho native was captured near the Afghan-Pakistan border after just two months on the battlefield. Since his capture only a few propaganda videos proving he is alive had trickled out.

BERGDAHL: Given the freedom to exercise.

TAPPER: Bergdahl's family is suffering as it waits for news. Their son's life hanging in the balance.

ROBERT BERGDAHL, FATHER OF BOWE BERGDAHL: Thanks to you our POWs and MIAs are never forgotten and they never will be forgotten.

Bowe, if you can hear me, you are not forgotten and so help me God you will come home. We will not leave you behind.

TAPPER: Bowe's father Robert even appealed directly to his son's captors in this YouTube video.

R. BERGDAHL: I personally appeal to General Kayani and General Pasha. Our family is counting on your professional integrity and honor to secure the safe return of our son.

TAPPER: In that video, Robert Bergdahl sports a long beard and had learned phrases in Pashtun and Arabic to better communicate directly.

"New York Times" reporter Elisabeth Bumiller spoke to Bergdahl's family as their patience with the government's progress on bringing him home wore thin.

ELISABETH BUMILLER, NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER: They had become frustrated by the U.S. government. They felt the government was foot dragging and decided to speak out themselves.

TAPPER: And e-mails to his family obtained by the late Michael Hastings and published by "Rolling Stone" magazine, Bergdahl made clear his disillusionment with the war before he disappeared.

"The future is too good to waste on lies," he wrote to his parents in his final e-mail home.

BUMILLER: And his first letters home, e-mails home were very positive. But then he said he became -- the e-mails became much darker. His son seemed to feel that the military was not this peace corps with guns ideal that he had held.

TAPPER: But this month his family received a different kind of letter believed to be from their son, delivered by other Red Cross.

DWIGHT MURPHY, BERGDAHL FAMILY FRIEND: That brings newfound hope. That's like sitting around the camp fire that is going out and, all of a sudden, you find that one more log.

TAPPER: So family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl wait. Word of negotiations brings renewed hope that they can trade the yellow ribbon still hanging on their trees for the son that they represent.

Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And now we know the family's hopes have been met. Again, Army sergeant POW Bowe Bergdahl has been released from his captors in Afghanistan to American custody.

And I want to go back to the White House to CNN correspondent Erin McPike.

You, Erin -- you have been talking to White House officials but you also have for our viewers who didn't hear the words of the president himself who released a statement telling the world exactly what happened.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana, just to reset a little bit, the president said in a statement, "Today the American people are pleased that we will be welcome home Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for nearly five years. On behalf of the American people, I was honored to call his parents to express our joy that they can expect his safe return, mindful of their courage and sacrifice throughout this ordeal."

Now the statement goes on to express appreciation for Qatar, as well as Afghanistan, and as you know, Dana, President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan last Sunday, and he also says in this statement while we were mindful of the challenges, it is our hope Sergeant Bergdahl's recovery could potentially open the door for broader discussion among Afghans about the future of their country by building confidence that it is possible for all sides to find common ground.

BASH: The timing of all of this, Erin, certainly interesting, and questionable I guess you would say, but for good reasons and for good things.

Thank you very much.

And stay with us on this breaking news. We have a lot more coming up right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BASH: Welcome back. And we are following breaking news here. Good news to report, and that is that Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who has been a prisoner of war in Afghanistan, taken captive by the Taliban almost five years ago, has now been released, is in U.S. custody, and this is part of what appears to be an incredible prisoner swap of sorts with five prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

We are getting incredible information and reporting from our Barbara Starr about the dramatic rescue by Special Forces of Bowe Bergdahl out of we believe Afghanistan, and I want to bring in our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who is in London now.

But, Nic, you've spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and in the region that we believe that Bowe Bergdahl was. Tell us about where that is and what the environment was potentially that he was surrounded by.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the principal things about the environment was, is that it was always going to be a difficult environment to locate him in. They are hostile to U.S. forces, hostile even to the law of Afghan government, possibly across the border inside Pakistan, held believed by the Haqqani network, which is a strong tribal network that has many places that it can hide out, villages that are sympathetic to it.

So it was always going to be tough terrain, whether it was sort of in the higher mountains or some of the sort of lower rolling hills. But a tough terrain to locate him in and to extricate him from under hostile conditions.

What does appear to have been the case here or we're beginning to certainly understand some of the parameters of how this may have happened, how his release may have happened, you mentioned an exchange for five Taliban prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, that had long been a demand of the Taliban for the release of Bowe Bergdahl. This is typical of the Taliban to hold on to anyone that they capture to try and extract a political price, in particular the exchange of prisoners.

They do it all the time with Afghan authorities, they do it with Pakistani authorities over the border, inside Pakistan. This is their normal operating procedure. Interesting that the White House thanks the Emir of Qatar for his role and for his personal support in this. Of course the Qataris allow the Taliban to open an office there about a year and a half or so back, the idea was that this would help in negotiations somehow.

That all fell through. But we can begin to see, we won't know and don't know the details at the moment, but we can begin to see some of the parameters of what may have begun to shape this. But significant for the Taliban as well, while they wanted a prisoner exchange, one of the things they wanted for the United States is a clear declaration for the United States that it will get out of Afghanistan.

This is what they've said in the past. So the fact that President Obama said just a week ago that troops by the end of 2016 will be drawn down to just staff at the embassy, perhaps for the Taliban was also a significant point in these discussions.

BASH: So you think that it was the timing of the president's announcement, never mind his trip last weekend to Afghanistan, a surprise trip, but the timing of his announcement with regard to the U.S. presence there, knowing sort of the mentality of the Taliban as you do, spending so much time over there, you think that that was a factor here, a big factor?

ROBERTSON: I think we can't overlook it for sure. And when we look at the context of the way that the Taliban has tried to extract what they want by holding on to Bowe Bergdahl, clearly with an intent for almost five years, exchange of prisoners. But all along, they've wanted very clearly from the United States to hear and understand that the United States was not going to stay, keep troops forever inside Afghanistan.

That said, the Taliban have responded to President Obama's statement just a few days ago, by saying that look, the United States has been lying, it's extending its -- it's extending the period of its troops inside Afghanistan. But I do think that that statement was significant. Perhaps we'll get more clarity on that later. But this is certainly a factor, something the Taliban have talked about wanting to hear in the past.

BASH: And, Nic, I just want to follow up on one other thing that you said, there are so many issues and so many angles here to really dig deep on because they're just fascinating, but one is the role of Emir of Qatar. You mentioned that the president thanked him in his statement, the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel did as well.

Take us into this relationship and into the influence of the Emir of Qatar, and Qatar itself in the region, and in dealing with the Taliban, and of course in this particular rescue effort and prisoner swap.

ROBERTSON: Sure. I mean, look, the Emir of Qatar, the Qataris over the last couple of years have played a huge role, tried to play a huge role in the Middle East in the Arab spring. And also in Afghanistan. It hasn't gone all the way that all the way that they wanted it to go. But one other thing they did do was open an office for the Taliban. Now that caused a real stir in Kabul, they put a big plaque outside the embassy, this office that they had inside Qatar, essentially saying that this was an embassy for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a parallel government, if you will, to what was in Kabul.

The flag there right it could be seen outside the compound. The flag staff itself had to be shortened, the flag had to be taken down. It didn't provide the political base for some continued negotiation between the Afghan government and Taliban to try to -- to try to reduce the level of Taliban violence in Afghanistan.

It was hoped that what the Emir of Qatar was doing here would bring better peace and stability to Afghanistan, that this was helping the United States effort in Afghanistan, and perhaps might also lead to the release of Bowe Bergdahl. Various parts of that just fell apart. Dealing with the Taliban is not an easy issue.

BASH: And I want to throw something else at you that we've been talking about, I talked about with Peter Bergen and General Spider Marks about just the concept of negotiating with terrorists, which is something that is anathema to many Americans, but, you know, it's one thing to not support something in theory, it's another thing to be knee deep in the realities of war. And, you know, you've been around and you've seen a lot of situations like this, maybe not with the U.S., but with other countries, other democracies doing similar things. So does this surprise you? ROBERTSON: No, it doesn't. It's a pragmatic approach, it's a realistic approach, it's what the British government did with the IRA in northern Ireland. They bought a peace agreement about, you know, a decade and a half ago. There are problems with that peace agreement, but it was only by talking with the terrorists, with the terrorist leaders themselves who have sort of shifted themselves from being -- taking up weapons to a political position.

The Taliban have maintained that they want to be a political force inside Afghanistan in the future. They continue to fight for that with fighters on the ground. The Taliban is divided. I hear from Taliban officials outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan that they believe there are many Taliban fighters who are ready to -- who are ready for some sort of peace.

So there is a political way, even while the fighting is going on, and certainly in the future of Afghanistan, this is something that the -- the future Afghan government will have to do, the Taliban were a political and military force. They have a political component. And it is up -- it will be up to the Afghan government to deal with them when U.S. troops, NATO troops pull out of Afghanistan. Otherwise the civil war there will continue.

BASH: Absolutely fascinating. Fascinating, Nic. Stand by. I want to go to our national security analyst Peter Bergen who again joins us by phone.

And, Peter, let's just pick up on that, on the whole idea of negotiations but maybe even more importantly the timing of this. We've been talking about the president's trip to Afghanistan last week, the announcement that he made with regard to, you know, sort of finalizing, formalizing the concept of bringing most U.S. troops out of the region.

What do you make of that and of the timing in general?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via phone): I think, you know, your discussion with Nic is correct. I mean I think that you can't discount the fact that the president announced effectively that there would be nothing but embassy security personnel in Afghanistan at the end of his presidency. I think there's a couple of caveats to that. I mean, whether it's President Hillary Clinton in 2016 or President Jeb Bush or somebody else, he or she can change his mind -- his or her mind about this issue.

They're not committed in a sense to what the president laid out. And we have a strategic partnership agreement, the United States, with Afghanistan that goes until 2024. So I don't think that is necessarily cast in stone that we will draw down to zero at the end of 2016. That said, it was a, you know, important public announcement and it gets to another issue, Dana, which I think from your perch in Congress I think is a very important one, which is when the last combat troops come out of Afghanistan at the end of December, 2014, will the authorization for the use of military force which was basically voted overwhelmingly a few days after 9/11, and provides legal basis for us the United States being in Afghanistan but also conducting other operations around the world, in Pakistan, and Yemen, and Somalia?

Will there be a discussion in Congress to basically wind down this authorization, repeal it, which is what the president said he wanted to happen a year ago. I haven't heard much discussion in Congress about that yet, but that would have a big effect, because not only -- that would end the war which would mean the prisoners of war, who are in Guantanamo would have to be released.

BASH: Yes.

BERGEN: So this in a sense might be the thin end of a wedge which would lead to greater prisoner releases from Guantanamo.

BASH: Yes. Well, Peter, absolutely. You raised a very good point about Congress having to authorize troops in Afghanistan in the first place, way back after 9/11, and I can tell you, you mentioned my perch, my usual perch in Congress that it is hard to get anything through these days, and when it comes at least now to matters of war and authorizing or changing the terms of war and how U.S. troops should be used, it is going to be very difficult to see Congress wanting to touch that in the near future. But we'll see.

Peter, thank you very much. I want to thank Nic Robertson as well and I thank our viewers for watching in the U.S. and around the world. Stay with us for more breaking news. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Mortgage rates dipped this week. Have a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BASH: Welcome back. And I want to bring you up to date on our breaking news here. American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl has been released in an apparent exchange for five Guantanamo detainees. He has been held by the Taliban for almost five years.

Now I want to bring in our Ed Lavandera to talk about what this has meant to the community where Bowe Bergdahl is from.

You've been reporting on there. Tell us what the sense is there.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): It's an overwhelming sense of relief, that the town of Hailey, Idaho, which is just south of Ketchum in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. It's a small community that has rallied around Bowe Bergdahl's parents for almost five years that they've gone through this ordeal. I've been up there many times since this all started almost five years ago.

Have been in touch with Bowe's parents for many years as they've gone through this. And I can really speak to the intensity with which his parents fought for this day and prayed for this day so much. You know, his father started growing a beard out as his way of showing solidarity with his son. He would teach himself the languages of the region, on his own, would try to communicate with his son's captors to try to negotiate his release, send some sort of signals to them.

It really is an overwhelming -- you know, the length to which his parents went to during the last five years to secure their -- or try to secure their son's release.

BASH: And Ed, tell us about --

LAVANDERA: And -- yes, go ahead.

BASH: Tell us about that. Tell us about that, the lengths that they've gone. I mean, Barbara was just recalling a moment when she was just walking the halls of the Pentagon and she bumped into Bowe Bergdahl's father there for a briefing. They have been relentless.

LAVANDERA: They have. And there has been so -- you know to what extent they'll share these stories in the months ahead, you know, we'll have to wait and see, but there has been a great deal of movement behind the scenes which, you know, the majority of this country has never even heard about and perhaps they will share it one day, but there has been a great deal of work that they have kind of tried to spearhead behind the scenes to make sure that this day would come.

Think about this, Bowe Bergdahl is a young man who has spent the majority of his 20s in captivity, and you know, his parents -- I was struck by one thing that his father said once that he kept his -- the clocks and his watch on Afghan time, that he would -- you know.

BASH: Wow.

LAVANDERA: The clocks and the watches in the house were not kept on Idaho time, they were kept in Afghan time so that, you know, he could answer the phone any time of day. This is a man who taught himself the languages, immersed himself in the culture to try to connect with his son's captors in hopes that that makes some sort of difference, and I know many of his friends in the community there truly believe that had it not been for those efforts on his parents' behalf that perhaps this day would not have come.

So I know this is a situation that has weighed on them, more than words can describe at this point, what the Bergdahl family has been through, and trying to finally see this day, so I can -- you know, I can only imagine what their reaction must have been like. But I know I have had a chance to speak briefly with a few people there in the town of Hailey, Idaho. And as much as they kind of felt in their heart of hearts that this day would one day come, the fact that it's finally here, I still think it's hard for many of those folks in Bowe Bergdahl's hometown to -- you know, to finally be able to say those words, this day has finally come.

I think it is incredibly emotional for all of them. And I know, you know, I'm struck every time I go back to the town of Hailey, Idaho, the yellow ribbons are still standing there. The coffee shop where he once worked at, that five years ago they put up a sign of, you know, "Bring Bowe Bergdahl Home," and that sign still sits there at that coffee shop. Last time I was in town I was struck by the toll the weather had taken on the sign, but it has never come down in almost five years.

Every time I'd see that sign it would become more weathered, torn apart by the weather there in Idaho, and I think that spoke volumes for just how long this ordeal has lasted for the Bergdahl family.

BASH: Absolutely. And look, when your son becomes a -- a member of the army, a sergeant in the army, as he is, you obviously know the risks. You know that he could pay the ultimate price, but this limbo, knowing or believing that he is alive, in captivity, and not knowing much more is absolutely unimaginable, and you talked to them so much about it.

I mean, do they have words to describe what it was like?

LAVANDERA: Reporter: This is also a family that -- they really are, you know, they're such interesting people as I've gotten to know a little bit about them, you know, and they live in the small town of Hailey, Idaho. They live in a very remote -- even for a small town, they live on the outskirts of the town in a very remote kind of way. A very simplistic kind of way, and that's the kind of life that they've always wanted to live.

So all of a sudden this family is thrust into the middle of this international saga, if you will. It's, you know, nothing that this -- you know, this family ever imagined or would ever have wanted, but there they are, and I just always remember, you know, the messages and -- that Bob Bergdahl would try to send to his son in hopes that somehow through a radio transmission or maybe his captors would play the video for him, you know, he would always end everything that he said, you know, Bowe, if you can hear this, you are not forgotten. Your father will not leave you on the battlefield. I mean, it's incredibly emotional.

BASH: And all that work, all that effort, all that passion, not in vain. It's pretty remarkable.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so, so much for telling us that perspective, important perspective.

We're going to be right back with the breaking news. Stay with us.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BASH: And our breaking news is an American soldier held by the Taliban for nearly five years was freed by the Taliban today. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was the only American military prisoner of war from our long, more than 12 years' war in Afghanistan. He was freed after long running behind the scenes negotiations with the Taliban and after the U.S. agreed to transfer five detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Qatar.

The president said he was honored to call Bergdahl's parents and in his words expressed our joy at his safe return. And Bowe's mom and dad released this statement saying, "We were so joyful and relieved when President Obama called us today to give us the news that Bowe is finally coming home. We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son. We want to thank Bowe's many supporters in Idaho, around the nation and around the world. We want the Amir of Qatar for his efforts and of course we want to take this opportunity to thank all those in the many U.S. government agencies who never gave up. Today we are ecstatic."

Bergdahl is now in the hands of the U.S. military and his health is said to have -- be very, very good. And we're going to get more than that. "YOUR MONEY" is after the break.

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