Rogers: Deal for Bergdahl ‘dangerous’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said on Sunday that he was concerned the administration negotiated with terrorists for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

{mosads}Bergdahl was released by the Taliban on Saturday in exchange for the transfer of five detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Qatar.

“So many of us are concerned about what really is a break with U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists,” Rogers said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Rogers said “the No. 1 way al Qaeda raises money” is by kidnapping and ransoming.

“We have now set a price,” he said. “If you negotiate here, you’ve sent a message to every al Qaeda group in the world — by the way, some who are holding U.S. hostages today — that there is some value now in that hostage in a way that they didn’t have before. That is dangerous.”

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, national security adviser Susan Rice pushed back against GOP claims that the administration negotiated with terrorists by transferring five Taliban prisoners in Guantánamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for Bergdahl’s release.

“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Rice said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if the exchange means that U.S. officials can no longer say they don’t negotiate with terrorists.