Defiant Hagel says: I took Bowe Bergdahl security risks 'damn seriously' --- US defense secretary Chuck Hagel forcefully rejected criticism for trading five Taliban leaders for army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in a combative appearance before a congressional committee on Wednesday. -- Hagel aggressively and at times angrily defended the trade, saying he took its risks "damn seriously" and making conspicuous reference to his Vietnam combat experience. -- "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," Hagel said in front of a phalanx of uniformed officers. -- The deal ended the five-year captivity of the only US prisoner in the Afghanistan war in exchange for five senior Taliban held at Guantánamo Bay. Criticism of the deal and the lack of legally required congressional notification around it, almost all from Republicans, has sparked nearly two weeks of outrage. -- But any hope the Obama administration had of tamping down the political fire over the trade seemed to evaporate during the hearing. -- Hagel, who was at times as dismissive of his critics as they were of him, described an extraordinary process of secret back-channel negotiations brokered by Qatar, fueled by fears about risks to the life or health of the only US prisoner of war in Afghanistan after five years of captivity, culminating with a 12 May agreement with the Qataris to take custody of the Taliban detainees -- But Hagel, who said Congress now has the terms of the agreement, insisted the trade was not firm until the day the US took custody of Bergdahl. That has been the crux of the rationale the Obama administration has offered for not informing Congress about taking the five detainees out of Guantánamo, a violation of a law Congress passed to hinder the administration's ability to close the detention facility. -- "The exchange needed to take place quickly, efficiently and quietly," Hagel said, saying that the "exceptional circumstances" of the trade justified violating the notification requirement. -- "We did not know until the moment sergeant Bergdahl was handed over safely to US special operations forces that the Taliban would hold up their end of the deal. So it wasn’t until we recovered Bergdahl on May 31 that we moved ahead with the transfer of the five Guantánamo detainees." - More, Spencer Ackerman in New York, Guardian