Chuck Hagel is Rocking The House - dignified, passionate, feisty, knocking down all the tea party

[Fred Sanders]

8. Full transcript, a thing of uninterrupted beauty:

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/06/11/transcript-hagels-opening-statement-during-testimony-bergdahl-swap

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the recovery of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, and the transfer of five detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar. And I appreciate having the Department of Defense General Counsel Stephen Preston, here with me. Mr. Preston was one of our negotiators in Qatar and signed on behalf of the U.S. the Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of Qatar and the United States. Also here representing the Joint Chiefs of Staff is Brigadier General Pat White, who is the Director of the Joint Staff's Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell and who helped coordinate the Bergdahl recovery on behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey. The Vice Chairman of the Joints Chiefs, Admiral Winnefeld, will join us for the closed portion of this hearing. As you know, General Dempsey and Admiral Winnefeld played a critical role in the meetings at the National Security Council leading up to Sergeant Bergdahl's release and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange.

In my statement today, I will address the issues Chairman McKeon raised when he asked me to testify, and explain why it was urgent to pursue Sergeant Bergdahl's release, why we decided to move forward with the detainee transfer, and why it was fully consistent with U.S. law, our nation's interests, and our military's core values.

Mr. Chairman, I want to be clear on one fundamental point - I would never sign off on any decision that I did not feel was in the best interests of this country. Nor would the President of the United States, who made the final decision with the full support of his national security team.

There are legitimate questions about this prisoner exchange, and Congress obviously has an important oversight role to play in all military and intelligence matters. As a former member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I appreciate the vital role Congress plays in our national security. And I will present to this committee - within the limits of an open, unclassified, hearing, and in more detail in the closed, classified, hearing - everything I can to assure you that this prisoner exchange was done legally, with substantial mitigation of risk, and in the national interest of our country.