CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Bowe Bergdahl

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BLITZER: Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss is among the sharpest critics of the deal that freed Bowe Bergdahl.

Senator Chambliss is joining us now live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, you were just briefed, your Intelligence Committee. You asked for details on these five detainees.

Here's the question -- were any of these five involved in killing Americans?

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: Well, there is suspicion that at least two and maybe three of these individuals were at the Qala-i- Jangi Prison, where Johnny Michael Spann was killed back in 2001. They've not been charged for that, but there's been accusations to that effect. And it's now been proven one way or the other.

Here's what we do know, though, Wolf. These individuals were involved at a very high level, a planning level, in both al Qaeda, as well as the -- the Taliban. And we know that they were engaged in the planning for the implementation of IEDs that ultimately killed many Americans, wounded many Americans. We know that they were involved in the financing of operations, maybe even some of the more public terrorist attacks that -- that we know about now.

But these five guys are not low level terrorists, Wolf. They are high level individuals. Two of them had very close ties to Osama bin Laden. The other three have very close ties to Mullah Omar. And there's a lot of celebrating going on in the Mullah Omar household tonight, I assure you of that.

BLITZER: Mullah Mohammed Omar is the leader of the Taliban, who's still on the loose some place.

We know that Tony Blinken, the deputy national security adviser to the president, called the chair of your committee, Dianne Feinstein, to apologize. That's what she says.

Did he apologize?

Did anyone from the administration apologize to you, as the ranking Republican, the ranking member?

CHAMBLISS: At about the same time Dianne received her call last night, I got a call from a different very high level White House individual that I work closely with on intel matters. And they did issue an apology that they didn't let us know not 30 days in advance, but at the same time that the release was taking place. So, yes, they have apologized.

BLITZER: What was their explanation?

Why didn't -- were they afraid you were...

CHAMBLISS: Yes.

BLITZER: -- you or somebody on your staff would leak this information?

Was that their concern?

CHAMBLISS: No, the statement was that this individual said that they just were unaware, until yesterday, that I had not been called. And that's just extremely unusual. They're -- there's a list down there of very few of us that do receive these advance phone calls. And it's hard to me -- for me to believe that both Dianne and I, both of whom had objected vigorously in writing as far back as three years ago to the president, as well as to Secretary Clinton, about the release of these prisoners, that we were the two that failed to get the phone call. Kind of interesting.

BLITZER: We're being -- we're being told that for whatever reason, Sergeant Bergdahl left that base in Afghanistan five years ago on his own.

Have you been briefed on the circumstances surrounding his disappearance?

CHAMBLISS: I have. And I've actually reviewed the file and the problem with it is, Wolf, that not many people have had a lot to say about what happened, that up until the last day or two. And the information coming out of the members of his platoon is very interesting. And it's something that is not contained in any of the files relative to the disappearance of Sergeant Bergdahl.

We will have additional briefings on that issue. And I expect the DOD will interrogate Sergeant Bergdahl to the point where they think they've got sufficient information to hopefully figure out exactly what happened and they may or may not pursue it further than that.

But as of right now, I think it -- it's speculation on my part to say that he did anything other than walk off. And I don't know the circumstances under which he walked off.

BLITZER: Have you been told, Senator, that American troops were killed as a result of searching for Sergeant Bergdahl?

CHAMBLISS: Yes. Yes, that's the truly unfortunate part about it. I think that's been -- been pretty well confirmed now, that at least four or maybe six individuals were killed during the process of searching for him.

BLITZER: So if you had been making the decision, what would you have done with him? would you have just left him there or would you have made this trade?

CHAMBLISS: Well, these negotiations have been going on for a long time. And the five individuals, Wolf, that they asked for came directly from the Taliban leadership. That's who the negotiations were with up until the last -- apparently the last few weeks, when, according to the administration -- and I'm just passing on what they have said -- the negotiations were with the government of Qatar, and therefore they weren't negotiating with terrorists.

Well, I don't know how stupid this administration thinks the American people are, but we're not that stupid. They're -- these were negotiations with the Taliban. And the extent of those negotiations had been ongoing for a long time. And there were other options available to exchange for this prisoner.

I agree with the president, I am happy that he is coming home. We should have brought him home.

But there were a lot of other options at Guantanamo outside of these five individuals who the Taliban leadership has been insisting on being released for the whole time that I'm familiar with these negotiations taking place.

BLITZER: So what would you have done?

CHAMBLISS: Well, I would have offered them at least somebody at a lower level, because, Wolf, these guys are bad guys. One of them is suspected -- two of them, actually -- are suspected of being involved and maybe mass murdering thousands of individuals, maybe even some Americans included in that. We don't know for sure.

As I said earlier, two of them had direct ties with Osama bin Laden, very, very close personal ties.

These are not the type of individuals that we need to return to the battle. And I assure you, they will be Mullah Omar's board of directors to carry out additional long-term terrorist attacks against America and Americans.

Those are not the types of individuals that you ought to bargain for.

BLITZER: One final question, Senator.

Did the president break the law?

CHAMBLISS: Well, what the president did was he certainly violated the law. Now, his position is that the 30 day requirement that was contained not just in one law that we passed, but three laws that was passed, the 2012 Intelligence Authorization Bill, the 2012 Defense Authorization Bill and the 2014 Defense Authorization Bill all contained a provision that required -- and it was a very lengthy and detailed provision -- that the president must give Congress 30 days notice before transferring any prisoner. He violated that. There's no question about it.

Secretary Clinton, in her letter responding to Senator Feinstein and I, acknowledged the fact that they had to give us 30 days notice, and yet the president certainly failed to do that and, yes, he violated the law by doing that.

BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, thanks very much for joining us.

CHAMBLISS: Sure.

Glad to be with you, Wolf.

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